3 Tips to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain
Have you ever thought this… “There’s so many events during the holiday season so there’s no point in trying to diet during them…I”ll just enjoy myself now and get back on track after the new year”.
I think we do this to ourselves because we know how HARD it is to start a diet, we know how HARD it is to stay on the diet, and we know how HARD it is to get back on once we fall off. It’s emotionally stressful to know we’ll have to deal with all of that guilt, too. It feels way too daunting to even attempt a diet before the holidays, so maybe we just want to make the decision now of, “I know how hard the next few months are going to be so I’m not going to stress out and I’m just going to enjoy them”. But, you and I both know this is really just an excuse to avoid the stress and self-accountability of the situation, no? We don’t HAVE to believe these thoughts and we can certainly do whatever we want! I want you to consider my persuasion points before you lose your shit all together…
SELF TALK: I want a diet that fits my lifestyle, long term, so I can stop yo-yo dieting. But I’ll start after the holidays because now is too hard.
DIETITIAN’S ANSWER: Then you need to commit to the diet you choose and not make excuses about why you can’t follow it. That is the work involved in living a lifestyle of your choosing! It’s not just a cute idea, you have to do the mental work involved in sticking to it. The lifestyle doesn’t just happen on its own, it involves making good decisions when it’s difficult to do so.
SELF TALK: There’s a holiday or party every other week, staying on my diet is too hard, I’ll start after the New Year.
DIETITIAN’S ANSWER: How many holiday’s you really observe, and how many days do they need to last? Typical holiday’s are the following:
Halloween
Thanksgiving
Hanukkah
Christmas Eve/Day
Kwanzaa
At the most, it’s like 4 days you have an excuse to eat outside of your “lifestyle diet”, right? Do you need to eat bad in the days before the holiday? Or after them? No, of course not! So do you really have to stop your goal of weight loss from October to January for just a few days of eating outside of your plan? I’m not even going to answer that 🤌🏼.
