It’s that time of year again! Christmas music everywhere, holiday and family parties every weekend, chocolates and baked good left in all corners of the house… I love December! I love Christmas with my family BUT what you do during the last 2 weeks of December and the first 2 weeks on January can wreck havoc on everything you’ve been trying to accomplish all year long and what you want to accomplish come 2020!
So how do you survive? I always here that Defence wins championships but I don’t know any championship teams that don’t have a star offence(Mike Shaye don’t email me your top 10 championship teams that had only a defence) so we need to attack the holidays with some good offence and then play some good defence once we’re in the thick of things.
OFFENCE- We have 3 weeks of hard work before that BIG week of family get togethers and parties. We need to be hitting the gym hard right now making sure we stay in shape both strength and conditioning wise, the more your training hard the higher your metabolism will be going into the Holiday season. If you can hitting the gym at least 3 times a week is minimum, every day from there just adds to your momentum.
Adding Interval Cardio at the end of your training sessions will also help you add to the fire that is your metabolism something like 5 rounds of 10 calories as hard as you can on the assault bike followed by 10 calories at 50% effort x 5 rounds will have you burning extra calories for hours.
Nutrition wise you want to make sure you’re in a calorie deficit while keeping your protein intake to 1 gram of protein per pound of lean bodyweight over the day. So for me I’m 205 pounds at 7% bodyfat so thats my lean bodyweight, I always eat 205g. of protein per day. Fill out the rest of your meals with veggies and fruit and keep your calories around 2200 for MOST guys and 1600 for MOST ladies.
The BIG thing here is your going into the holidays with your body burning fat as fuel, priming it to take on some BIG meals.
DEFENCE- Once your in the thick of it it’s time to play some defence! During these holiday parties and get togethers you need to make sure you don’t take in 5000 calories in one sit down. So here’s what I do.
Plate 1 is Salad and veggies, if you start with some low cal fibrous veggies you start to signal to your brain and stomach you’re eating which means you’ll get fuller sooner.
Plate 2 is the Protein (turkey, beef, fish) and 1 Carb source (potato, buns, stuffing) and more veggies.
Plate 3 is one piece of dessert.
I only drink sparkling water but I never drink alcohol so if I was you I would limit myself to one (bigger) drink that you sip on and enjoy.
I was always make sure I have a good breakfast that morning filled with protein so I don’t go into dinner starving.
Going for a nice walk after dinner can also help you digest and burn some calories while getting away from the booze and food. I always enjoy that.
You could always go into the New Year 20 pounds heavier and sign up for a 6 week challenge and we could get rid of it or you could hit 2020 better than 2019 and still do a 6 week challenge and be 10-15 pounds smaller than ever!
It’s up to you.
Coach Dan