Top 10 Nutritionist Tips To Avoid Holiday Weight Gain
Thanksgiving arrives next week. This means that you’re about to be besieged by all your favorite dishes and holiday treats. This smorgasbord leads most of us to overeat and end up feeling terrible afterwards.
According to a 2016 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the average person gains about 1-2 pounds over the holiday season. That isn’t so much an issue as the fact that most people are unlikely to lose the extra weight after the holidays are over. This means that year after year, the pounds will continue to pack on if you don’t get ahead of it.
So how do you enjoy this gluttonous holiday while keeping yourself from overindulging the many goodies that don't exactly fall into the "good-for-you" category, gaining a few unwanted inches around the middle, and subsequently succumbing to the post-binge guilt and shame?
Here are my Top Ten Tips:
1. Start your day with a protein filled breakfast to keep blood sugar stable throughout the day.
2. Go to the gym in the morning and do a little extra cardio or take a fast-paced walk before dinner. Working off some extra calories will justify a little overindulgence later on.
3. Drink 2 glasses of water before dinner to help you feel full faster. Don't forget to drink plenty of water throughout the day to avoid confusing thirst for hunger. Bonus points if you’re ionized, hydrogen- and antioxidant-rich water, because not all water is created equal!
4. Don't park yourself by the goodies. No one has that much willpower and there is absolutely no reason to put yourself in a position to test yours. The farther you stand from the food table, the less likely you are to overindulge.
5. Don't feel pressured to eat anything that you don't want to eat. Not by your friends! Not by your boss’s wife! And not by your mother!
6. Begin with a spoonful of your favorite dishes and eat slowly and mindfully, taking a breath and putting your fork down between bites. Eating slowly will allow your brain to catch up with your stomach so that it is clued in when your stomach is full (there can be up to a 20 minute delay, during which time you can eat 3 plate-fulls!). Once you finish your first plate, check in with yourself to make sure that you are really hungry for seconds. Stop eating when you are full. Should you decide that the more food is a good idea, drink another glass of water and wait at least 10 minutes. During that time, you may decide that you’ve had enough.
7. Relax and enjoy the day. Try not to get so wrapped up in what you're eating that you miss out on what the holiday is really about: time with your loved ones and gratitude!
8. Channel love and good energy to all, including yourself. Focus on the people you love, the things you appreciate, and work on accepting everything and everyone instead of wishing it were different. This is what you got, so you have two options: love it or leave it. Complaining about it, muttering under your breath, wishing it were different, and stressing out about it are not options if you want to live a happy life!
9. Don’t beat yourself up! So you overindulged and you feel awful. Take a a long walk after dinner. In fact, make that walk part of your Thanksgiving family tradition. Adding healthy traditions to your holidays are a good way to balance out the not so healthy ones.
10. Get back on track the VERY NEXT DAY, which is THE most important part of all this advice. Did you know that Americans gain most of their weight in the six weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s? The worst part is that they never take it off, which contributes to their lifetime weight gain.
For many of us, it is the getting back on track that poses a challenge, and I am no stranger to this issue.
As someone who has suffered from binge eating disorder (BED) for years, it is particularly difficult for me to reset. Once I overindulge, I become a runaway train of gluttony and self-loathing until at least January first. So how do I circumvent this?
Below are a few tools I’ve used to get back on track. I usually:
Plan out my meals and exercise for the days following the holiday
Intermittently Fast, committing to only eat between 11am and 7pm for a week or two following Thanksgiving. I may also eat just one meal a day (OMAD) once or twice a week.
Fast for a few days, which is the most effective reset of all. If you are not into fasting, you can try the next best thing, which is the five-day ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet, which will not only help you shed 5 pounds in 5 days and make you feel absolutely amazing (a Godsend after the gluttony of Thanksgiving!), but it also happens to be incredibly beneficial for your your overall health! Read my blog, “Diary of a Girl Who Ate While Fasting” to learn more.
Remember, what matters most is NOT what you eat some of the time. It's about what you eat MOST of the time!
The 80/20 rule is where you want to be in order to maintain your health and weight (the ratio changes if your goal is to lose weight), so the most important thing is to mind your day-to-day lifestyle, not so much a once-in-a-while, occasional overindulgence.
If you are the type of person who can get your diet and exercise back on track the day after Thanksgiving (not two days, or one week, or after Christmas), then perhaps you have earned the right to feast. However, if you know that this will throw you off for a while, try to follow the guidelines above as closely as possible.
If you got any value out of this article, please share it with your friends and let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
And if you feel like you need a little support during or after the holiday season, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I have a customized program just for you.
Wishing you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Victoria Gregory is an Integrative Nutritionist and founder of NEWTRITION NEWYOU. Her focus—whether with private clients, readers of her blog, or her followers on social media— is whole body wellness, incorporating whole-food nutrition, supplementation, exercise, toxin-free living, and mindset coaching. Victoria’s personal mission is to help make the world a healthier place, one person at a time, and she has helped thousands of people find joy and self-love through better eating habits and mindfulness. Learn more about Victoria.