The holidays are edging ever so closely upon us, and just like every year around this time, our fat loss efforts fall drastically by the wayside in favor of get togethers, family outings, parties, and holiday shopping. The excuse that exercise and eating healthy takes too much time or ‘I’ll get back on track after the holidays because its too hard now’ surface more than usual. And then like clockwork, every year in January, we clean the slate and start over.
Now I struggle just as much as the next person when it comes to remaining consistent during the holiday season but what I have learned is that even though time gets shorter and social and seasonal commitments get more frequent, we don’t have to completely ignore our fat loss efforts, we just need to modify them a little bit. There are several ways we can do that but I’ve narrowed it down to the three most important and most effective ways that you can start right now and have them as habit before the holiday rush begins.
First, since you will be even shorter on time, it is necessary to change up your workouts to maximize your time in a short period. Best way to do that is the Tabata protocol. Tabata maximizes your efforts in a short amount of time while actually increasing your fat loss results. Typical Tabata protocol is 20 seconds of exercise time followed by ten seconds of rest and is repeated 8 times. Exercises such as your bodyweight are ideal for this. Push ups, squats, stair sprints, burpees are all good examples of exercises with no equipment that you can use. For even more variety, pair up exercises and alternate back and forth between two so that you end up performing four sets of each exercise. Each eight set station lasts 4 minutes so you can add as many stations as you like depending on how much time you have. In 20 minutes you can complete a full workout without sacrificing results, actually enhancing results.
Now that you have your workout plan set, now let’s move on to a plan with your nutrition. The holidays are brutal on your nutrition, so we must have a strategy in place to minimize, not eliminate the damage. Realistically this is the best approach as we all know very well being inundated with sweets and dinners, parties, and other social events are going to happen and happen a lot.
So one thing we can do is be very selective. We don’t have to eat junk every single time we go to a social event. We can pick and choose the events we want to indulge in. The events we do not we can eat before we go, take a snack with you, or be very selective of what you eat at the event. It is unrealistic to avoid all the treats the holidays bring out, so be very selective and pick your moments.
When you pick your moments also try to be reasonable with your portions. There is no need to go overboard with the amount that you have, be selective of what you indulge in and be reasonable with your portions so that you are satisfied but don’t overstuff yourself.
Lastly, set a goal for yourself. The holidays are the most difficult time of year on your nutrition and consistent exercise program, so setting a compliance goal is a great way to push yourself through the difficult time of year. To achieve fat loss results you must be 90% compliant with your nutrition habits and exercise efforts. So through the holidays a good goal is to maintain the results you have already achieved, so set a goal of 70% compliance minimum. If you maintain 70% compliance through the holidays you will avoid the average 8 pound weight gain most experience, your habits will be better solidified and you will start off the new year ahead of everyone else without the feeling of being restricted.
