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Unless you have a superhuman ability to always stick to a routine or schedule, you can probably relate to the struggle of getting fit, falling out of your shiny new healthy habits, then re-learning them again ad nauseum. It sucks. A lot.
I’ve personally spent a good chunk of my late teens getting fit and losing my “baby fat” (read: I was overweight) after a health scare. This meant figuring out what exercise I enjoyed the best, what eating habits worked for me, and actually sticking to that. After a few years of maintaining an average BMI and enjoying the fact that I’m now fit enough to hike, one of my big worries is that I’ll fall off the wagon as I age and end up with health complications.
Some studies have shown that dieters tend to regain the weight they lost around 2 to 5 years after their big lifestyle change. While some of that is due to physiological reasons, a big part of it is not being able to keep up the conscious choices needed to stay healthy.
And there’s no bigger destroyer of the will to stick to conscious choices than the holidays. Christmas, Yule, Hanukkah, etc., no matter what you call it, some part of your old self just reawakens to jump on this opportunity to fall back into old habits. “This isn’t a big deal. Besides, it’s Christmas.” and more lies we can keep telling ourselves.
So, before you end up wanting to give in like you’re Jim Carrey in The Mask (1994), here are some tips from fitness experts on how to minimize those December setbacks and still have fun. Because let’s be real, we’re having that Yule log cake anyway.
Stick to Your Workout Schedule
It’s super tempting to just handwave your workouts because you’ve been running around all month while shopping for gifts or because you’re too busy to exercise because you need to fly home for the holidays. We get it. It’s exhausting and takes up more time.
Fitness trainer David Walsh says you can still maintain a basic fitness routine by setting aside at least 20 minutes per day just for working out, “Consider scheduling your workouts in advance to ensure that you’ll be able to fit them into your schedule. Aim for consistency, and if needed, break up a longer session into several shorter ones throughout the day.”
Walsh recommends consistency, not intensity, so you can still have fun while doing your holiday workouts, “Incorporate activities that you enjoy – whether it’s dancing, running, or a HIIT workout – as this will make it easier to maintain a routine and stick with it.”
If that’s still too much time, you could also try increasing the intensity of your workouts but shortening their duration so you can better fit your holiday exercise routine into your schedule. It doesn’t even have to be capital E exercise either. Just staying active counts.
Dietician Katie Tomaschko Tout recommends stretching your legs after meals, “A post-meal walk is always a great idea! This helps promote energy levels, blood pressure, blood sugar, digestion, a healthy metabolism, and mood.”
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Stay Stuffed the Right Way
More often than not, it’s less about how much you eat and more about what you eat. A simple change in your food choices can halve or double the amount of calories you’re eating. Even the slightest recipe change can have a big impact on your overall holiday health.
Professional chef and fitness blogger Brandon Fyall thinks you can still eat your favorite food without compromising flavor or gaining a lot of holiday weight.
“You need to be selective with your food choices. Swap side dishes such as mashed potatoes for roasted potatoes or yams,” He says, “The roasted potatoes are likely tossed with oil and seasoning while the mashed potatoes have lots of butter and cream.”
If you’re the type to still end up overeating at holiday dinners no matter what’s in front of you, you could switch up your strategy by pre-eating high fiber and high protein foods that will keep you full for longer and make you less inclined to overeat.
Plus, you’re dining with company. Slowing down your meals can happen naturally if you relax and share a conversation with friends and family. Slower eating means less eating since you’re giving your body time to realize that you’re starting to feel a little full.
Mindful Choices, Not Calorie Counting
Okay, maybe that makes staying healthy during the holidays sound unfun and a vibe kill for what is supposed to be the best time of the year. However, there are options aside from calorie counting and eating high volumes of healthy foods.
“The holidays used to scare me. I struggled with disordered eating when I first started my fitness journey, so any event that was surrounded with a lot of food filled me with anxiety.” Kylie Sarratt, a Certified Nutrition Coach, shared with us, “Fast forward to the present, and now I have learned how to eat all the things I love, in moderation, all while still reaching my fitness goals.”
Her top tip? Don’t starve yourself in “preparation” for the big holiday meal.
“People want to be hungry for dinner, so they eat very little during the day. As a result, the amount of food consumed at the holiday dinner is excessive.” Sarratt says, “Instead of doing this, eat normal throughout the day, so when dinner comes, you are still able to eat the foods you want, but there is better control.”
If you don’t want to spend your holidays stressing out about what you’re eating, Sarratt recommends applying the 80/20 principle.
“Basically, 80% of your food for the day should come from nutritiously dense foods. The other 20% can come from whatever you want!” She explained, “The easiest way to do this on the holidays is to plan your holiday plate around protein. Fill your plate with good protein sources (turkey, chicken, ham, etc.). Pick a veggie and then some carbs. That is a well-rounded dinner plate with every necessary macro-nutrient. Your 20% is whatever you choose for dessert.”
Genius, right?
It gets even better. You can further maximize that 20% of wiggle room you have by grabbing a big plate and filling it with a little bit of everything. That way, you avoid overeating while keeping a healthy balance between fun and fitness.
Lastly, Sweat Out the Weight But Don’t Sweat the Weight
Sarratt doesn’t want you to think of weight gain as something bad. It’s just a normal part of the holidays and, on a larger scale, a normal part of life.
“Falling off the wagon is a term I like to stay away from because it teaches my clients that what they did was wrong, and that’s not the case here.” She points out, “I refer to them as ‘days off’ or ‘untracked days’. When these happen, you simply restart the next day. Get back on track.”
Instead of thinking of weight gain as a personal failure, Sarratt says you should think of it as time well-spent with family. You had fun and enjoyed good food. The days after the holiday weight gain are a time to make healthier choices again, not “punish” yourself.
