Who doesn’t love Holidays! Golden streets outside, and you enjoying warm hot chocolate and pumpkin pie inside. It may sound cliche, but this season is about enjoying pumpkin spice lattes, pies, gathering with your family and friends on Thanksgiving dinner, and just a few weeks later on Christmas, not to mention all the corporate events and parties with friends. That sounds great, doesn’t it? Yet, for someone trying to pursue her fitness goals or who doesn’t wait for a New Year to start fresh, this season might be a pure disaster filled with stress.

In this article, I give you a few tips on how to enjoy the holidays without breaking your diet and healthy lifestyle.

Holidays vs. Diet: Why might that be a problem at all?

Food is a part of our culture, and whenever we celebrate something or meet with our friends and family members, there is always something to eat. With such a long holiday season, you are exposed to the delicious food you can’t or don’t want to resist for weeks. Since it’s not just one day of overeating, your body simply cannot process all the food and put it into expended energy. Instead, your body saves this energy for later use, as fat.

If you were dieting up to holidays, this might have even more significant consequences due to a slower or less efficient metabolic rate, a natural physiological adaptation that occurs after a few weeks of being in a caloric deficit. That means that your body can process even less food without storing it as the fat depot.

How to still enjoy the holidays without breaking your diet:

As you see, holidays may be a great obstacle to your fitness goals, especially if your goal is physique-oriented. However, it doesn’t mean that you have to distance yourself from social life. You can still enjoy the holidays with your family and friends while pursuing your fitness and health goals.

Below are a few tips that can help you navigate through this season.

Planning is everything – If you are prepared and planning ahead of time, you will most likely succeed and stick to your goals. If you have a festive dinner on the weekend, plan it as your high-calorie days and consume fewer daily calories until the weekend.

For your goals, a weekly calorie average matters. Similarly, if you know you are going out in the evening, consume foods high in protein and low in fats and carbs until then.

You can also prepare some of the food and take it with you wherever you go. For example, you can prepare extra meat lower in fats or steamed veggies instead of high-carb foods that might be only offered at dinner. It might be intimidating doing it at first, but trust me, it isn’t such a big deal. Just do what you have to.

Portion your meals according to your goal – There are different tools available that can help you to measure and track your foods. For example, you can take your food scales with you. While you will have to guess and estimate a lot of food, it’s still much better than eyeballing your portions.

If you don’t want to take food scales with you, you can also use your hands to portion your meals.
• The size of your palm is to measure protein-rich foods like meats,
• a cupped hand is for measuring carb-rich foods like potatoes or grains,
• The size of your thumb is equivalent to one portion of fats,
• And finally, the size of your fist is a portion of your vegetables.

Alcohol is very calorie-dense, so it might be a good idea to eliminate it or drink less if you can. However, if you drink alcohol, try not to choose super sweet cocktails. You could dilute neutral spirits with zero soda instead.

Don’t stress – Finally, don’t stress too much and try to enjoy this time still. Everyone reacts differently to stress: some lose appetite, and others start feeling hungry and snacking all the time. This can cause unintentional overeating too. Being prepared ahead and honest with yourself is essential, whereas getting anxious and overly stressed won’t help you.

Try to relax and enjoy the time with your friends or family. Focus on the event itself and the people around you, not the food. And if you eat, don’t rush it. Feel the texture and enjoy every bite.

It’s okay…

• If you don’t try all the food that is offered to you.

• To say No if you are full or for any other reason. It’s really okay.

• To stop eating when you are full.