Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
#85 - Fit Through the Holidays: How to Prevent Weight Gain and Stay on Track
27 Plays3 months ago
The holidays are a time for celebration, not stress! In this episode, I’ll share practical tips to help you prevent weight gain and stay on track with your fitness goals without sacrificing fun during the holidays.
Learn how to avoid the all-or-nothing mindset, find balance between indulgence and healthy habits, and remember that a few festive meals won’t derail your progress.
With the right approach, you can enjoy the holidays guilt-free while staying aligned with your goals. Tune in to discover how to stay fit through the holidays without missing the fun!
1-on-1 Coaching: Interest Form Here
Fit(ish) Project Newsletter: Sign Up
IG: Bassbuiltfitness
Facebook: bassbuiltfitness
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Fitness Project
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome back to the fitness project with your host as always, Latham Bass, where we make fitness and health simple for regular people like you and I.
Preventing Holiday Weight Gain
00:00:12
Speaker
We had another weekly episode coming at you and I thought we would do an episode this week about the holidays coming up. And I know that people get kind of stressed about holidays and gaining weight and like wondering what they can do to make sure they're not one of those people who puts on a bunch of weight over the holidays or loses all their progress that they've been working so hard to get throughout the year, maybe with losing weight or building muscle or building better habits and all those different things. So I thought it'd be a good time to do a podcast about that, basically how to prevent
00:00:43
Speaker
falling off track, gaining weight during the holidays, all those particular
Enjoying Holidays Healthily
00:00:46
Speaker
type of things. So we'll get into how you can stay on track, some practical tips to help you do that, and then some things that you should avoid during the holidays so that you can go into the holidays feeling good and not worrying about screwing up all your progress. Because I think it's very important to me just with in regards to overall health that you're able to enjoy Not just like being fit and healthy and all those things. I think that's very important. But I also think it's super important to enjoy all the other parts of life as well. So holidays and spending time with friends and family and enjoying some good food and those things. All that stuff is part of being a good healthy individual as well. Because if you're super stressed about this stuff, if you're creating a crappy relationship with food because you're scared to eat during the holidays or, you know, you're just overwhelmed or anxious about any kind of holidays and you can't really enjoy them because you're worried about ruining all your progress. Well, that's not healthy either. So I think it's really important to find that balance. And so we're going to talk about how you can go about doing that and then give you a couple of practical tips that you can take into this holiday season so you can feel good about things, but also stay right in line with your goals. So
00:01:52
Speaker
Before getting into the main part of it, if you can leave a review, if you have not done that, I appreciate those of you who have done that. Continue to get this out to the people who need it. But without any further ado, let's get into this episode.
Debunking Holiday Weight Gain Myths
00:02:04
Speaker
So there's this idea that a lot of people will put on weight over the holidays. But when you look at the actual research, it's really not a substantial amount for most people. So people do put on a little bit of weight on average throughout the holidays. And ah the research shows it's really only like one to two pounds.
00:02:22
Speaker
throughout the holidays so that's really not that much to be worried about it's not a huge deal and it makes sense right you know there's more parties going on there's more social gatherings there's you have your holidays obviously your get-togethers all those things and typically at those get-togethers you have more food you have more drinks more alcohol bigger portion sizes you have calorie dense food, all those tasty desserts and things like that, that will cause you to eat a little bit more, consume more calories. And we know that when you're consuming more calories, you are more likely to put on weight. And so again, one to two pounds on average, isn't that big of a deal for people who are overweight or obese. They typically will gain a little bit more. So closer to like five pounds. And that's just because they're eating more. But even then five pounds really isn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.
00:03:12
Speaker
The only reason that it becomes a problem is for people who don't really exercise regularly, who don't normally watch what they eat and don't really know how to live a healthy lifestyle, because the idea is that they put on this one to two pounds. But if you do that year after year, after year, after year, well, 10 years down the road, now you've put on 20 pounds.
00:03:31
Speaker
And if you're put on 20 pounds, you don't exercise regularly. You don't watch your diet. You're pretty sedentary.
Balanced Holiday Approach
00:03:37
Speaker
Well, that extra 20 pounds of fat is not going to do you any favors when it comes to your health markers, when it comes to how you look, when it comes to how you feel. And so that's the issue when it comes to this holiday weight gain. But for the average person who's pretty healthy, who exercises regularly, who stays pretty active, who watches what they eat most of the time, you really don't have to worry that much. And so I think just understanding that and going into the holidays, that right there is enough to be like, okay, I can just relax a little bit, I can really enjoy myself, I don't have to worry about putting on a bunch of pounds or, you know, ruining all my progress or falling off track or anything like that. So knowing that I think is important. The other thing that I would mention is that
00:04:16
Speaker
just understand that like when you're going into the holidays, I think we kind of blow it up and we make all these issues and think about it and make it a bigger deal than it really is. But like when you think about the holiday season, it's really only like you have like four days of holidays in there. It's not like every single day from now until the new year is a holiday. Like you have Thanksgiving in there, you have Christmas and Christmas Eve and you have new years in there.
00:04:41
Speaker
And if you celebrate any other holidays within there, you might have a couple other days. But just understanding that's four days out of the entire you know next two months. And so thinking that you're going to ruin all your progress in four days or four meals is just not really realistic and it's not really logical. And so understand like going into it, they're called holidays, not necessarily holiday weeks or, you know, entire months or anything like that. So just because it's holiday season, that doesn't mean that you have to go crazy every single day or at every single gathering or at every single party. Like there's plenty of ways where you can enjoy yourself.
00:05:16
Speaker
eat things in moderation, stay on track with your fitness goals, with your workout routines, with your normal habits, and be able to kind of have some damage control as you're going through the holiday season and not worry about messing up all the things that you've spent so long to build over the past months and past
Mindset on Holiday Meals
00:05:31
Speaker
years. So just another thing to kind of realize. And I think with that being said, probably the biggest issue that I see around just holidays and the holiday season in general It's not actually the holidays because as I said, that's only a few days out of the year. It's not like that you're going to gain all this weight, but it's the fact that people go into it with this all or nothing mindset. And it's the same mindset that causes so many people to struggle with weight loss. They think that if they can't be 100% perfect or if they're having some extra desserts or some extra food or they're not hitting every single workout that they should just do nothing. So like since I can't be perfect, I'm not going to work out at all. I'm not going to keep getting my steps in. I'm not going to focus on.
00:06:11
Speaker
Any quality meals, I'm just gonna say, screw it, and I'm just gonna go crazy for the next month.
Caloric Insights on Weight Gain
00:06:15
Speaker
And that his can be problematic, obviously. If you're doing that every single day, if you're not staying active, like that kind of stuff can add up and that can cause you to regress a little bit and maybe gain some extra unwanted pounds. But when you step back and look at it more logically, like if you go into it with this not all or nothing mindset, but instead just thinking about always something mindset, so just because I'm not Nailing every single nutrition goal or hitting every single workout if I can still get some things in and still control the things that I control I'm still gonna be able to stay on track for the most part and not hurt myself and continue to push forward with those good healthy habits because when you look at it just logically like to gain one single pound of
00:06:58
Speaker
weight, you need to eat 3,500 calories extra on top of what your body already needs. So let's say for example, you need about 2,500 calories in your normal day and that is what your body needs to just function regularly. So if you're eating 2,500 calories on a regular basis, you are neither going to lose weight nor gain weight. Let's say that is you.
00:07:20
Speaker
So to gain one single pound in a day, you would need to eat 6000 calories in that single day to gain just one single pound of body fat. Is it possible to eat 6000 calories in a day? I know I've had some days where I've ate 6000 calories. And I'm sure you've probably had days where you've just gorgeous the entire day, you're snacking, you're having those high calorie desserts, you're having big meals, all that different kind of stuff. And so thinking about that, though, it's not something that you do on a regular basis. It's not something that like your every single meal you're just picking out, you're overeating, you're completely stuffed like every single day for the rest of the month, you're not eating that way.
00:07:57
Speaker
And so just stepping back and realizing, okay, even if I do have one of those days where I just go absolutely nuts and I eat like a ton of food, like that's one single pound. And to be honest with you, you're not even going to put on a entire pound of body fat because some of that excess calories is going to go to different things. so For example, when you eat that much food, it's going to take your body more calories to actually burn and digest that food. So some of the calories that you're eating in excess are actually being used to just burn that food off. On top of that, a lot of times when we eat more food, when we eat more calories, your body will naturally bump up your activity levels a little bit.
00:08:36
Speaker
And so like through through things like meat, which is non-exercise activity, thermogenesis, like fidgeting, moving around, different things like that, your body will start to up that a little bit when you are in taking excess calories. And the opposite goes for when you're eating less calories. Like if you've ever been in a diet, you'll probably notice that you just don't have as much energy and you're maybe not moving quite as much. And that's because your body is trying to conserve energy. So it does the opposite when you have excess energy, it tries to boost that up a little bit. So you burn a few more extra calories.
00:09:06
Speaker
And then lastly, like when you're eating these excess
Balancing Fitness and Holiday Joy
00:09:09
Speaker
calories, some of those calories will go to restoring your glycogen storages. And I don't need to get into that too much, but basically when you have some room within your glycogen stores, some of those carbs and sugars and things that you're eating will be replenished. So that is not being stored as adipose tissue or fat tissue as well. So even if you are eating 3,500 excess calories on top of your normal maintenance calories, not all of that is being stored directly to that It's not all just gonna go like straight to your belly or straight to your butt or anything like that. So you don't need to worry too much about that because again, it's it's just one singular day. And let's say worst case scenario, like Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year's, you just pick up, you just go crazy. You eat 6,000 calories on all those days. Even then, that's like four to five pounds. That's not 20 pounds. That's not 30 pounds. That's not ruining all your progress that you that you've spent months trying to
00:10:03
Speaker
get to because we know like it takes longer than a few days to gain weight. And it also takes longer than a few days to lose weight. So to think that you're going to ruin it just with a couple of days or a couple of meals just isn't really logical. And I think when you can just step back a little bit, not be so emotional about it, not go in with it, not go into it with the all or nothing mindset of just a screw up mindset, I'm just going to eat everything in sight.
00:10:25
Speaker
that can ease your mind a little bit and that can help you to just kind of stay on track a little bit and also just help you just allow your allow you to actually enjoy those meals, allow you to enjoy those times with family and allow you to just enjoy the experience of the holidays, which I think is important. And so talking about some actual practical things that you can do, I think the first thing is just understanding that you can find that balance. So as I said, you don't want to be all or nothing. That is not the goal here.
00:10:52
Speaker
And that is again, that's why I call this the fit ish project, because I think it's very important to be able to find that balance to not only prioritize fitness, prioritize health, prioritize being active and working out and all those different things, but also prioritize the things that are important in life, like enjoying those meals with your family, enjoying those those holiday tradition, enjoying all those different things that come along with the holidays. Because if you're stressing over every single calorie or you're stressing over every single workout or you're just like not able to just be in the moment and just enjoy yourself, that's not healthy either. And so I think it's important to find that balance where you can go into the holiday season where you're like, yeah, I'm probably going to eat some extra calories. I'm probably going to do a little bit more than I normally would, or maybe miss a workout here or there.
00:11:38
Speaker
But just understanding that that's not gonna ruin all your progress and understanding that these other things are just as important as prioritizing your health when it comes to just being an overall healthy person. Like relationships and connection is extremely important when it comes to your health. And so making sure that you don't forget that in the mix of all this, because I know that a lot of people can get a little bit neurotic and maybe get a little bit obsessive over these type of things. And so just, again, going into this, just understanding that it's okay to find that balance, it doesn't ever have to be all or nothing. ah The second thing I would say is like, if you're somebody who's maybe been working on some weight loss goals, and that is still a goal for you, even through the holiday season, on those particular holidays, like don't focus on just trying to be in a calorie deficit or restricting too much. Like with the clients that I work with, I always tell them like when they're going on like if they have a birthday or if they have like holidays or even sometimes like if they're going on vacations and things like that, like they should fully enjoy themselves when they're doing those things because
00:12:35
Speaker
Weight loss goals aren't going anywhere. Like you're going to have your whole life to continue to work on being more fit and healthy and losing weight and all those certain things. And again, a couple of days is not going to set you back, but like, are you going to look back when you're 90 years old and be like, man, I'm really glad that I stuck to my diet on Christmas day versus just indulging a little bit and having fun with your family and enjoying those memories and those sorts of things. So that's the way that I look at it. It's like you have plenty of time where you can.
00:13:00
Speaker
focus on these goals and make those things a priority. so like For these certain, these small scenarios, like these these situations where like they are a little bit you know special and and you want to really enjoy those things, like don't necessarily focus on those goals for those days. so Enjoy yourself and then you just get back on track as soon as you can. Third thing I would say is like this could also be a really good time to just take a diet break. like if you're somebody who has been dieting for a really long time, like maybe months at a time and you've seen some good progress, you've lost some weight, like the holidays can be a solid time to take a little bit of a diet break where you aren't necessarily focused on eating less all the time. You aren't necessarily focused on tracking your calories. Maybe you just want to take a little bit of break, give yourself that mental break, give yourself a little bit of a physical break. And then after the holidays, maybe two weeks, four weeks, something like that, you want to get back into it and continue focusing on your weight loss goals. This can also be a good time for that.
00:13:52
Speaker
doesn't necessarily have to be that way. Like maybe you're somebody who's doing really well and you want to keep the momentum rolling and just keep things going and you feel really good about
Practical Tips for Holiday Management
00:14:00
Speaker
where you're at. Maybe you just take a day or two off for you know those special holidays like Christmas and Christmas Eve and Thanksgiving.
00:14:06
Speaker
You know, you take a day off for those things and then you just hop back on track. But it is an option. And I think it's just important to realize that you do have some different options when it comes to pursuing those goals. But again, just to reiterate, those goals aren't going anywhere. You're going to have time to achieve those goals. So if you do want to take a break, you don't need to feel bad about it. And that's always an option. Fourth thing I would say is continue to stay active. Like, yes, there might be some extra things going on. You might have some more social gatherings. You might have more parties. You might have Just things going on throughout the holiday season, maybe you're traveling a little bit, but try to stay active. Like get your steps in, make sure that you're walking daily, like getting up, moving around, getting your workouts in when you can, making it a priority to still get those workouts in. Because for one thing, it's easier if you can keep that momentum rolling versus like, if you can completely take the next month off and you're just like, I'm not really doing anything because of the holidays, I have all these things going on.
00:14:59
Speaker
It's harder to kickstart that back up and get that momentum going and get back into those habits once you're back into it. And so I think it's always easier just to stay with it and keep that momentum rolling than to just completely fall off and just say, screw it. I'm going to be like completely done with this for a few days or a few months.
00:15:17
Speaker
And this may look like maybe you reduce the amount of workouts that you're getting in per week. So maybe like you're somebody who gets like four to five workouts in on average. Like, so maybe you're going to scale it back to like two or three per week because you're traveling or you're doing different things. Like there's nothing wrong with that, but being able to keep that momentum rolling and especially that mental.
00:15:34
Speaker
momentum where you're like, okay, I'm still prioritizing my workouts. I'm still getting in the things that I need to do while also still being able to fully enjoy the holidays can be a really good way to continue to just stay active and stay on track with your goals and stay consistent.
00:15:48
Speaker
So again, it doesn't have to be all or nothing, like stay active, get your steps in, take walks, like do different things throughout the holidays where you can just stay on track with your goals, with your workouts, and you'll feel better about this next month and this next holiday season if you can continue to kind of keep that momentum rolling. And then the last thing that I would say you could do if you really wanted to is like, I've talked about many cuts on here before, and that's basically like a two to four week, sometimes a little bit longer type of diet, where like, you just eat a little bit less, you want to lose maybe like,
00:16:17
Speaker
two to five pounds or something and you know two to four weeks that can be an option as well so maybe between like Thanksgiving and Christmas you want to do a little bit of a minicut and lose like five pounds or so and that that way it kind of gives you a little bit of leeway and kind of gives you that extra flexibility when it comes into the holidays. So for example, let's say I know that like for a couple days around Christmas, like I'm going to go hang out with family and I'm going to eat more and I'm not going to be working out as much and things like that. Maybe I just kind of want to set myself up to like be able to eat more and not really worry about a bunch of fat gain or anything like that. So maybe for two weeks leading up to that, I'm going to go into a calorie deficit. I'm going to lose two, three, four pounds and then going into
00:16:59
Speaker
Christmas, I just enjoy myself. I'm eating more like I'm having more calories. I'm not in a calorie deficit anymore. I'm actually in a calorie surplus, but because I've spent that time to lose a couple pounds, I'm going to be kind of evened out there.
00:17:12
Speaker
you could also do this after the whole holiday season. So maybe you do end up going through and you are you know you're like that average person, you gain a couple pounds here or there, you gain two or three pounds, whatever, and you want to just kind of dial it back in. Well,
Using Minicuts for Weight Control
00:17:24
Speaker
once the new year comes around, you just go into a minicut for two to four weeks and you can burn off that weight pretty easily. And if you've been listening to this podcast for any length of time, you kind of know the steps that you need to take in order to get into a fat loss phase in order to do this the right way and all those certain things. So once you know how to do this and once you have the tools to lose weight, it doesn't really become a stressor anymore. It's not like one of those things where you're like, oh my gosh, I gained two or three pounds. Like how am I ever going to get this off? It's like, no, you have that tool in your tool belt. Now you know exactly how to lose a few pounds if you need to. And so
00:17:57
Speaker
after the season is over, you want to lose some weight, you go into a fat loss phase for a little bit, you drop that weight, and then you just get back to your normal schedule. You get back to eating and maintenance, and you get back to your normal routine, you get back to focusing all on all the healthy habits that we like to do, like walking and exercising regularly, eating a lot of protein, a lot of whole foods, those sorts of things. So doing a minicut in between holidays or even at the end of holidays is also a really easy option that you can do.
00:18:24
Speaker
and plan for it that way, again, you're not stressing about this stuff. and So all that to say, you know, like going into the holidays, it really shouldn't be that stressful. Like you should absolutely enjoy yourself, but it also does not have to be all or nothing. Like you don't want to just like give up on all your workouts, give up on all your routines, give up on all your healthy habits. Like keep doing the things that you can do and make those things a priority, but at the same time, don't stress over those things. And when you can find that balance, I think that's important because as I said before, I think it's really important to be an overall healthy person.
00:18:56
Speaker
to find that balance and to enjoy those that time with friends, that time with family, those holidays, those traditions and not be stressed over every single calorie or every single workout or you know missing a few things here or falling off track slightly or maybe regressing just a little bit because I think it's important to have that balance in order to live a healthy life.
00:19:17
Speaker
and so With that being said, the third and final thing that I would say about all this is like enjoy yourself. But one thing that will really help you is if you can close down that gap, it takes you to get back on track in between holidays or in between like your time of enjoying yourself and maybe going off track a little bit. like Closing that gap down is something that will help you tremendously. Because as I said, like even if you're going you know, going in a little bit crazy on some of those holidays and you end up eating a bunch more or maybe missing a few workouts. Like if you can close that down and like that one day doesn't turn into an entire week or entire couple of weeks or an entire month, like you're going to have no
Maintaining Fitness Momentum
00:19:55
Speaker
issues at all. But the problems start to come in when people let that one meal, they let that one day, or even let those couple of days turn into a couple of weeks, a couple of months. And now you look up and you're like, Oh, dang, like I've gained
00:20:06
Speaker
10, 15 pounds. Like I really fell off track with my exercise routine. I'm having trouble getting started again. My healthy habits aren't there. And so now I have to focus on rebuilding those back up. That becomes a much bigger challenge than if you just enjoy yourself for a few days, have some extra food on those meals, maybe miss a workout or two, but then you get back to it and get back into your routine.
Stress-Free Holiday Mindset
00:20:27
Speaker
gonna find it much easier if you can just keep that momentum rolling and cut down on that time in between when you do kind of go off track a little bit and indulge a little bit. So all that to say again do not stress too much hopefully this was helpful gave you some practical tips and also just allowed you to step back a little bit so you can think about this logically so that you're not stressed going into the holiday season whether you have weight loss goals or you don't have weight loss goals and you just want to continue on with your routine that you've built over the last months and not ruin all your progress. Now you have a better idea of how to go about doing that and also how to not stress so much going into the holiday season. So if you're somebody who is looking for a little bit of extra guidance, a little bit of extra coaching, you can always apply this time of year. I know that.
00:21:12
Speaker
things are going to start to get a little bit more busy as we get into the new year. And so if you want to take advantage of grabbing a spot right now, because I know those are going to start to kind of fill up as the new year starts to roll around with everybody having their fitness goals and wanting to lose weight, that's just kind of how it goes in the fitness industry. So if you want to make sure that you are Ready to go into the next year and get started a little bit early with your fitness goals weight loss goals That sort of thing then you can always check out the link in the show notes apply and see if you're a good fit for coaching Otherwise with that being said, I appreciate you listening and we will see you next week