Day #2 – A Pound of Flesh: 5 Strategies for Keeping Off the Holiday Weight

According to a study quoted in the NY Times, the average weight adult gains just one pound over the holidays, but an overweight adult will gain five pounds because life is unfair.

Gaining just 1-5 pounds doesn’t seem so bad does it?  The real problem is that once you gain it, it tends to stay on all year, which is why so many middle aged people look at their stomachs in confusion wondering how so much weight accumulated over time without seemingly eating more.

But not this year!  This year let’s vow to fight the pound of flesh!  Here are 5 strategies to do just that:

1.  Eat Clean between holiday parties and Thanksgiving dinner.   Unless you have a truly fabulous social calendar you’re not going to be at a party for every single meal, so eat super healthy for breakfast, lunch and snacks and adjust your calories before the big party.

2.  Outsource Your Willpower.  Make a pack with your friend to hold each other accountable to sticking to your diet.  Text her before you are about eat something truly horrible and ask if it’s ok.  She will then text back, “no,” and you will need to walk away from it.  This only works if your friend is a hard ass.  Don’t outsource willpower to someone who let’s you have “just one cookie…”  If you would like to see how this works, read this post of a sample text conversation I have with my hard ass trainer, Daniel: (Can I Have Pancakes?)

3.  Avoid Salty Foods.  Water goes to salt, so if you eat a lot of salty chips this holiday season you will get a ton of water weight.  Plus, when you eat salty things you tend to get thirsty, which leads us to…

4.  Avoid Alcohol.  Fruity drinks with sugar around the rim is just asking for trouble.  The calories in alcohol really build up fast without you even noticing.  If you must drink, clear alcohols, like vodka, have fewer calories than dark liquors like rum.  You could always pretend you are pregnant and avoid it all together.  Or do the party trick my mom told me about, which is to just hold a glass of tomato juice so it looks like you’re drinking alcohol; that way you still feel like a cool kid but you’re not consuming the calories.

5.  Cardio on an Empty Stomach.  According to a recent study if you exercise vigorously on an empty stomach it will counter some of the negative effects of holiday eating.  I tried this out on my binge weekend in NJ and it works!  Here is the link to the post I wrote about it, which includes the link to the study it was based on:  (Cardio on Empty Stomach)

How about you?  What are your strategies to avoiding the pound of holiday flesh?

Lisa

P.S. – Great job on all your November goals from the Day 1 Challenge fellow bloggers!!!

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