Fit-Bullets Friday: December 16th, 2022
Fit-Bullets: Sticking With A Plan, Avoiding Holiday Weight Gain, and Accepting Maintenance
Happy Fit-Bullets Friday!
Here are 4 things I wanted to share with you this week...
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Sticking With a Plan
There are 6 reasons why you might not be able to stick with a particular weight loss plan:
1. It's too low in calories.
2. It's too restrictive, eliminating entire food groups or making certain foods "forbidden".
3. It calls for too many workouts.
4. It's too low in protein.
5. You're not sleeping enough.
6. You're not managing stress.
Check out this video I made for more information on each.
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Avoiding Holiday Weight Gain
A lot of people reading this are currently concerned about holiday weight gain.
You might be one of them.
So the first thing to remind yourself of is this: while there are 15 days left in 2022, not every day is going to be a special occasion.
For most people Christmas Day and perhaps 1-2 other days will be actual "special" days.
On those special days, forget about the "rules" - just enjoy the day, which includes the food.
But there are plenty of days in between the special days where, even though you might have an event, they're not really "special" per se.
And these are the days that actually matter.
Because nobody ever gained a ton of weight from overeating on one day.
It's when one day of overeating turns into several consecutive days of overeating that the weight gain happens.
So here are a few tips to minimize your chances of weight gain over the next couple of weeks:
- Continue to get your steps. This might mean scheduling going for walks.
- Focus on the days you do have control over. Stay on track, and eat your regular meals.
- Go to the grocery store and make sure you have all your regular food so that you can follow the previous tip.
- On non-special days where you have an event, plan ahead. Eat you regular meals when you're not at the event. At the event, decide how many drinks you'll have, and stick to it. If you're going to a restaurant, look up the menu in advance and decide what you'll have. If you're eating at a friend's home, eat slowly, focus on protein and veggies, and stop eating when you're 80% full.
- The day after a special day, have a plan in place for getting back on track. This might involve meal-prepping or pre-tracking the day's meals in MyFitnessPal.
Enjoy the special days, and (mostly) stick with your regular habits on the non-special days :)
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Accepting Maintenance
If you're stuck in the all-or-nothing mindset of "I'm either losing or I'm gaining and I'm scared of the next two weeks" - I want to remind you that there exists a middle ground of maintenance.
And this is your reminder that it's OK if you don't lose weight over the next couple of weeks.
It's also OK if you don't do as many workouts as usual.
The next couple of weeks is about spending time with people you love. If that means maintaining your progress and not seeing any more weight loss, that's 100% OK.
Maintenance should actually be viewed as a form of progress if the holiday season usually leads to weight gain for you.
Use the tips in the previous section to maximize your chance of success.
And even if things do go "wrong" and you end up gaining one or two pounds, it's nothing to beat yourself up over. Just get back to it on January 1st.
You've got this.
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See you next time,
Daniel