The holiday season is a time for happiness and spending quality time with the people you love. In American culture, it has traditionally been about gluttony and unhealthy behaviors. Most people are spending majority of their time overindulging in fatty foods or doing some intense shopping.
Studies tell us that, in the last 40 years, the average American has gained between 8-20 pounds from the end of October (Halloween) to New Years Eve. That is only 2 months! This is a problem that needs to be fixed, and can be resolved with these 5 simple tricks that'll help you avoid that holiday 20 pound gain.
# 1 - BRING A HEALTHY DISH YOU ENJOY TO THANKSGIVING DINNER
Let's say you've been trying pretty hard to stay within certain boundaries with your diet but thanksgiving dinner with your family is making you nervous. You dont want to starve but know for sure they won't have any healthy options for you to eat. In this case, bring enough of your favorite healthy dish to share so you can have an option to eat something and won't have to fall off the wagon.
# 2 - FASTING
This may seem like taboo for most people in American culture but if you are nervous about gaining fat and you know you typically overeat during thanksgiving dinner, you should try fasting. Fast from dinner the night before all the way until thanksgiving dinner, and then fast after that until the next day. This will not do some sort of magic that will somehow speed up your metabolism and turn you into a fat burning machine overnight. But what this will do however, it will help you focus of other things throughout the day like spending time with people and engaging in conversations as you separate yourself from food. Working on building a better relationship with food and the binge eating mentality. This also prevents you from intaking any extra calories outside of the thanksgiving dinner until the next day.
# 3 - STARTING THE DAY WITH A WORKOUT
This one is the most common, especially amongst those who are actively working towards a health and fitness goal, which is to start your thanksgiving morning with a good workout. Try not to overdo it and simulate this as a punishment for what you're about to do later at dinner to "even it out". This is great because typically people who start their day with a workout make healthier decisions throughout the day.
# 4 - SEPERATE MEAL
Separating your meal might be the most creative and effective way to be successful without pigging out thanksgiving dinner. Separating your meal refers to actively splitting your meals up by proteins, veggies, and then other carbs. So the game plan is to first get your first plate with only proteins on it, turkey, chicken, beef, etc. Then if you're still hungry then get a plate of veggies. Then if you are still hungry then take your plate and go get some other carbs, At this point you most likely aren't hungry anymore. This helps you prioritize your meal with starting with what's most important as far as retaining muscle as well as lowers the chances of you pigging out on desserts.
# 5 - NO LEFTOVERS
This may be the most difficult for most Americans because that's usually the best part about the overeating during thanksgiving dinner and that is to prevent bringing home leftovers. The main reason why people gain so much weight during the holidays is not because of the one thanksgiving dinner, but its because of the bad habits that accelerate the weight gain after that thanksgiving dinner starting with the leftovers. No matter how greedy you get on thanksgiving day, you DO NOT want that to carry over into you weekly routine. NO LEFTOVERS!
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