How to Stay on Track with your Good Eating Habits During the Holidays

The stress and chaos of the holidays can really get us off our daily routines and bring with it bad habits.  With Christmas, work parties, holiday events, cocktails parties, family dinners, and  New Year’s Eve how can you not over indulge?   It is hard to imagine not gaining weight with all of these opportunities to over eat.  We’re going to talk about ways you can hold steady with your eating right through the holidays if you have a plan of attack.  Instead of gaining over the holidays you can maintain your weight and your sanity.  I’m no expert on weight loss, but I have maintained my current weight for 2 years and made it through two holiday seasons at this weight.  For more on how I lost 35 pounds after 40 you can check that post out here.

It does take work, some will power, and a whole lot of organization on your part.  Here are my tips to maintaining your weight through the holidays.

Only over indulge on that special meal you’ve planned for (your party/Christmas).  Don’t eat leftovers the next day.  Get right back on track with your healthy eating and exercise plan.   This is a big one.  Eating at that one meal won’t kill you, but extending it for several days gets you off your schedule and makes it easier to not get back to exercising and on eating your healthy food again.   I notice when I get off my plan for even one cheat meal it makes it so hard to get back on track.  Unfortunately, I am an all or nothing kind of girl.  I go at it hard whatever I do.  It’s easier for me just to skip the dessert.  I can’t just have one bite or it’s all over.  I may eat half the pie ya’ll.

Change up your workouts or extend the time that you spend at the gym.   Sometimes we get on this schedule and we do what we think is working.  We do exactly the same things over and over again.  I’m guilty of that too.  But changing up your workouts can jump start your weight loss again.  Change from the bike to playing tennis for an hour.  Just get out and do something new.  Your body will respond in a great way to the change.

Plan ahead for traveling.  Sometimes traveling can throw you off.  Pack water and healthy snacks so you’re not doing fast food on your road trip.  You don’t want to waste your calories on the “pre-Christmas” food. Planning ahead here is the key.  We as parents always pack stuff for our kids to be taken care of,  but we neglect ourselves.  Make yourself a priority.

Track what you eat on Fitness Pal or another app like it.  Keeping track of your food is a major player in this journey.  First you need to know what amount of food you can eat to maintain your weight and how much you can eat to lose weight.  This app will help you with that.  Then you can track that amount of food in a day by using Fitness Pal to subtract your food during the day. It really is the key to seeing how much you had been eating and how to get you on track. It is eye opening.

Just move more during your day.  We’ve heard this before, but it’s true.  Along with your exercise you need to try to move more.  Take the stairs, park further away, and  jump up during the commercials to get extra steps.   This adds up and they do make a difference.

Sometimes at parties and events you will just have to have a little will power.   I don’t bake a lot or have desserts at the house because it’s hard to have things at your house that you can’t resist.  It’s easier to control the things that go on at your house.  But when you’re at a party or event you are going to have to have a little will power to control what you eat and don’t eat.  I find it easier to eat before I go and mingle away from the food table.

Start a challenge the month you know you have a bunch of tough “eating events” to get through.  There are so many fitness influencers these days.  They are always offering challenges on their Youtube or Instagram.   Join one of them so it gives you incentive and accountability to stick with a program during these hard times.  It might give you just what you need to get through it.

I hope these tips were helpful.  If you have some that would help us, please leave a comment as I’m sure everyone is dealing with the same issues this time of year.