 |
|
 |
Home | |
Contact | |
FAQs | |
Testimonials | |
Order |  |
|
 |
TOM VENUTO'S BURN THE FAT
REPRINTABLE ARTICLES How to Stay on Your Diet and Stay in Shape Over the Holidays Without Turning into a Miserable Scrooge! (A Holiday Survival Guide) Affiliate instructions: You have permission to publish this article in your e-zine, on your website, on your blog or on your forum, provided the entire column is unaltered and the bio/about the author box is included in its entirety. All you need to do is copy and paste. You may of course, replace all www.burnthefat.com links with your affiliate hoplink. It's also great idea to include a clickable book cover graphic and or an author photo with each Q & A column you print. Please note: you do NOT have permission to submit this article to any article directories. This article is syndicated for reprint on your own website, blog, forum or ezine only. The copyright is still held by the author, Tom Venuto, and Burn The Fat Dot Com, A Division of Fitness Renaissance, LLC Title: How to Stay on Your Diet and
Stay in Shape Over the Holidays How to Stay on Your Diet and Stay in
Shape
Over the Holidays Without Turning into a Miserable Scrooge! By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS My mom makes the most amazing Christmas cake in the world; it’s been a tradition in our family for as long as I can remember. First, she mixes up a light, fluffy, vanilla cake mix, pours it into the pans and then pops it in the oven. After it’s been baked, she stacks the cake in two layers with whipped cream spread generously between each layer. She then pours on red and green Jell-O, which gets soaked up inside the cake. Next, whipped cream is smothered all the way around for frosting. And finally, she garnishes it with red and green sprinkles. A few red and green-striped candy canes are stuck in the top as the finishing touch, and off it goes to the refrigerator so it can be served chilled later.
Now let me tell you, as a bodybuilder, I have a lot of discipline. But when that moist, delicious, red and green, Jell-O-filled, whipped-cream covered cake is sitting on the table in front of me on December 25th, it takes every ounce of my willpower to keep from calling it a “VERY high carb day” and devouring numerous very large slices. Despite the
temptation, I don’t “pig out”
nor do I deprive myself. Instead, I’m content with eating my
single piece, savoring every mouthwatering bite, all the while
repeating my mantra, “Nothing tastes as good as being lean
feels.”
The next day,
on December 26th, I’m on the bike or
Stairmaster at the crack of dawn, followed by six perfect meals of lean
protein and complex carbohydrate - just like every other day of the
year.
A week later,
on December 31st, I usually go out for a nice dinner
(very naughty food, I must admit), and then we toast champagne to the
New Year at midnight. I’m in bed at a reasonable hour shortly
thereafter.
Unless
it’s a scheduled day of rest on New Years day,
I’m not groggy and hung over like many of my friends are.
I’m in the gym squatting, bench pressing, curling, or
“stairmastering” just like I usually am.
And
here’s the point: You can and should enjoy the holidays.
You can enjoy being with family and going out with friends. You can go
to holiday parties and have fun. You can enjoy a few
“naughty” meals. You can have a piece of cake and a
glass or two of champagne. There’s no reason why you
can’t enjoy yourself AND stay healthy, lean and fit through
the holidays. All it takes is some planning, some goal-setting and
little dose of old-fashioned discipline.
I’d
like to share with you 10 ways that you can follow your
diet and stay in great shape over the holidays without turning into a
“miserable Scrooge.” If you follow this advice,
then you’ll be one of the proud few with a New
Year’s resolution to be the best you’ve ever been
in the new year to come - instead of one of the guilt-ridden many who
must resolve to reclaim what they lost over the year that’s
just passed them by.
1. Expect to stay on your program over the holidays “Fail
to plan and you plan to fail” is a time worn
and cliché statement, but it’s still some of the
best
success advice you will ever hear.
Not only do
most people fail to plan, they consciously plan to fail
over the holidays. Most people expect to “blow”
their diet and skip workouts over the holidays. They expect to eat
more, to exercise less and to gain weight. As a result, they
don’t even make the effort.
Instead of
taking control, they resign themselves to maintenance at
best, or back-sliding at worst. This negative expectancy leads to a
self-fulfilling prophecy. By the first week of January,
they’re in the worst shape they’ve been in for a
year and they frantically make New Year’s resolutions to shed
the excess fat they’ve gained.
You can avoid
this trap by planning to succeed during the holidays. Set
up a positive expectation. Resolve now that you will not tolerate
slipping backwards. Keep your standards up and don’t settle!
Not only can you plan to “stay in shape” over the
holidays, you can plan to improve! All you have to do is make the
decision and expect success.
2. Plan all your workouts in advance You know your
schedule is going to get hectic over the holidays.
You’ll be cooking, shopping, wrapping gifts, sending cards,
going to parties, traveling, visiting family, and so on. To stay on
your training and nutrition regimen is definitely going to take some
sound time management skills.
Plan your
schedule in advance. Anticipate what’s coming up.
Write it down. Put it on your calendar. By doing so, you
won’t be caught unprepared.
Use a schedule
book or monthly calendar and “make
appointments” for ALL your workouts for the entire holiday
season. Then, post a copy where you will be forced to look at it every
day. This is a powerful exercise that will keep you focused and force
you to think about and prepare for each upcoming workout.
If you try to
“wing it” and squeeze in your
workouts and meals whenever you have time left over, you’ll
find that there never is any time left over! Somehow your daily
activities always seem to “expand” to fill the
hours in every day. So schedule your workouts and meal times in your
calendar just like you would any other appointment or event. Once
you’ve done that, stick to your schedule religiously.
3. Set some compelling training and fitness goals over the holiday period Don’t
wait until January 1st to set your goals just because
you think it will be harder to achieve them over the holidays. On the
contrary, studies on personal achievement have shown that
you’ll usually reach 80% of the goals you put onto paper. The
problem is that few people set any goals at all, and fewer still set
them during the holidays.
Why wait? Why
not do it now? Set some big goals that you can start
working on during the holidays:
Set a goal to
lose the 25 lbs you’ve always wanted to lose
NOW
Set the goal to gain 10 lbs of solid muscle NOW
Been contemplating a competition in bodybuilding, fitness or the new
ladies figure division? Pick an early spring show and GO FOR IT - START
TRAINING NOW!
Goal setting
should not be a once a year affair, it should be a
continuous process. You should always have your goals in writing and
your list should be regularly updated and rewritten. If you only set
goals once a year, you’re not going to accomplish much in
your life.
4. Give yourself permission to have “free meals” - and schedule them in A planned
“free meal” or “re-feeding
day” helps you to stay on your program better in the long
run. If you’re too strict all the time, you’re
setting yourself up for cravings and binge eating.
A few free
meals per week will have very little effect on your
physique. Also, if you’ve been on a strict, low carb and/or
low calorie regimen for a long time, a full day of maintenance level
calories might actually be good for you! It will boost your metabolic
rate and give your body the signal that you’re not starving
and that it’s ok to keep burning a lot of calories.
Over the
holidays, schedule your dinners and parties so they become
your “free meals.” Then, for the rest of your
meals, be steadfast! Just the fact that you know you have free meals
coming up will relieve the pressure of staying on a strict diet for a
long time.
Also, when you
do have your free meal – ENJOY IT! If
you’re going to eat it and feel guilty, then don’t
have it at all. If you’ve stayed with the program all week
long, then when your free meal rolls around, you deserve it!
5. If you fall off the wagon, get right back on it So you had
about a dozen too many of those Christmas cookies did you?
Don’t worry; because you have free meals built into your
plan, you shouldn’t let guilt immobilize you. Even if you
fall completely off the wagon, don’t beat yourself up. All
you have to do is get right back on your program without missing
another beat.
Too many people
mess up once and then think their entire diet is
ruined. They feel as if everything they’ve done prior to that
day was wasted and there’s no sense going on. Or even worse,
they rationalize to themselves, “Well, I already cheated, so
it doesn’t matter now, I might as well keep pigging
out.”
That’s
nonsense. If you threw in the towel every time you
didn’t score 100% on your diet, most people would never get
through more than a few days on any structured program. Just because
you slip up once doesn’t mean you should quit!
You’re only human. Don’t let one small slip keep
you derailed. Firmly plant your wheels back on the tracks and start
rolling again.
6. Maintain your consistent eating schedule If
there’s one thing that all people who successfully get
lean and stay lean have in common, it’s consistency. Without
it, you never get any momentum going. It’s like taking two
steps forward, only to take three steps back.
Many people
allow the busy holidays to throw them off their regular
eating schedule. They completely veer off their usual meal frequency,
or they start eating foods they would normally never eat (because
“it’s there”).
Once you have a
habit or pattern going, it’s fairly easy to keep
it going. But once you lose momentum, it’s very difficult to
get it going again because you must overcome inertia all over again.
(An object at rest tends to stay at rest!)
On the major
holidays, when there’s a big dinner scheduled,
many people think that skipping their morning and afternoon meals to
“save room” for the big one later is a good idea.
It’s not. This is actually a good way to invite a binge that
could set your back for days.
Don’t
lose your consistency or your momentum. Continue with
your pattern of eating small, frequent meals all year round. All you
have to do is count your holiday dinners as one of your regular meals
and keep them small.
7. Control your portion sizes You can have
your cake and eat it too – you just
can’t eat the whole thing! One of the most important rules to
remember this holiday season is the law of energy balance, which
states: To lose body fat, you must consume fewer calories than you burn
up each day.
There are two
corollaries to the law of energy balance:
1. A caloric
surplus gets stored as fat – even healthy food.
2. Small amounts of anything – even junk food – will NOT get stored as fat if you stay in a calorie deficit. There’s
no reason to deprive yourself of things you enjoy.
Just make sure you don’t overindulge. As long as you enjoy
your favorite foods in moderation, and you keep working out, it
won’t end up around your waistline.
8. Don’t buy into the low standards and expectations of others Keep your
standards high, but don’t expect other
people’s standards to be as high as yours. Remember that most
people have already planned in advance to fail at fitness over the
holidays. You’ve decided to stay strong (haven’t
you?) Don’t let their negative influence drag you down.
When
you’ve reached your pre-ordained drink limit, say
“When” and switch to water or a non alcoholic, non
caloric beverage. When they offer you seconds on dessert, politely say,
“No thank you, it was absolutely delicious, but I’m
full, I can’t eat another bite.” And when the wee
hours of the morning start to roll around, and your friends are egging
you on to keep partying, politely tell them you need your sleep.
Tomorrow is a work out day. If they’re really your friends,
they’ll understand.
9. Make the best choices possible in every situation. You know those
tables you see at holiday parties that are covered with
yards of chips, dips, pretzels, cookies, salami, candies, punch,
liquor, and a seemingly endless assortment of other goodies? Well, did
you also notice that there is usually a tray full of carrot sticks,
cauliflower, celery and other healthy snacks too?
No matter where
you are, you always have choices. Sometimes you have to
choose between bad and worse. Other times you can choose between good
and better. But always make the best choice possible based on whatever
your options are. If nothing else, you can choose to eat a small
portion of something “bad” rather than a huge
portion, thereby obeying the law of calorie balance.
Chances are
good that there’s probably something healthy on
the menu at every holiday gathering. As you know, lean proteins and
fibrous carbs are a great for getting lean, so fill up on the turkey
breast, try to get a vegetable in there, and go easy on the desserts.
10. If you drink, enjoy alcohol in moderation If you enjoy
having a few drinks on special occasions, then go ahead
and have a drink or two. But if you’re serious about your
fitness goals, then drink infrequently and in moderation. Alcohol puts
fat oxidation on hold while providing a large amount of calories. When
there’s alcohol in your bloodstream, you’re not in
fat burning mode.
I’ve
never met anyone who was truly serious about fat loss or
bodybuilding who was a heavy drinker. Alcohol and muscles just
don’t mix. The impact goes beyond added body fat; your energy
levels and workouts can be affected for days after a night of heavy
drinking. A glass of wine may have health benefits, but
there’s never any reason or excuse for binge drinking
or getting drunk.
So go ahead and
toast to the New Year, but know when to say when.
In conclusion,
there’s no reason to let your exercise and
nutrition program spoil your holidays, but there’s also no
reason to let your holidays spoil your exercise and nutrition program!
Put these 10 holiday tips into practice and you can start losing fat
today, not next year.
Train hard and
expect success,
Tom Venuto,
NSCA-CPT, CSCS About the Author: Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) and a certified personal trainer (CPT). Tom is the author of "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using methods of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Home | |
Contact | |
FREE Report | |
FAQs | |
Testimonials | |
Affiliates | |
Order | |
Links | |
Customer Service |
A Division of Fitness Renaissance, LLC
PO Box 5097
Hoboken, NJ 07030
| Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Disclaimer | Contact Us |
