Here is the plan:
Thanksgiving Day: Eat whatever you want, as much as you want
Black Friday: Eat leftovers, and eat slowly
Monday: Eat leftovers, make sure you eat 3-4 meals, without snacking
Tuesday: Any leftovers left? Eat them, and eat slowly
Friday: Back to your normal eating, and make sure you eat 3-4 meals, without snacking
Here’s the basic idea: What you eat and how you eat on Thanksgiving makes no difference. There’s no amount of food you can eat in one day that will have any impact on your weight, a week later, as long as you return to normal healthy eating.
The mistake most people make, is that they turn Thanksgiving into a six week free-for-all between now and New Years. Six weeks of little extra snacks, bigger portion sizes, and eating past full, will absolutely have an impact on the scale.
The trick is, simply, to use food skills that will keep you eating the right amount of food. Here, we’re taking a look at four of them, and rotating through them twice.
Eating slowly, we covered two days ago in this post.
Eating normal portion sizes is simple: Half your plate vegetables, 1/4 of your plate protein, 1/4 of your plate carbohydrates. 1 plate per meal =)
Eating just enough is just paying attention throughout the meal, maybe stopping for a second halfway through (aka “halftime”) or checking in with your belly periodically throughout the meal, to speculate on how much will have you feel satisfied, but not too full/stuffed.
Lastly, 3-4 meals is about having 3-4 meals throughout the day, but without grazing or snacking between those meals.
You’ll notice that the first four or five days after Thanksgiving, you can even eat leftovers, for as long as you still have them. But you’re going to eat those leftovers using the same food skills you normally use to maintain a lean fit body. Thanksgiving food, but you’ll focus either on portion size, eating slowly, eating just enough, or not snacking between meals.
The next four days, you’ll return to your normal (aka not holiday) eating patterns, but you’ll apply those same four food skills: portion size, eating slowly, eating just enough, or not snacking between meals
Are Food Skills Really Enough?
Of course they are.
Look, I’m sure you know people who always grab properly portioned meals, they eat slowly, they eat just enough (aka stop before they get too full), and they eat 3-4 meals per day, with no snacks in between. The people who have built those skills into their lives are the same people who never have to worry about gaining weight. It doesn’t matter if it’s the holidays or not — they always maintain that level of leanness that they have.
They’re the ones who never do stupid diets. And, when they have tried diets, they’ve been really successful. In fact, it almost doesn’t matter what they do or what the circumstances are, because they have the skills that allow them to self-regulate the right amount of food for them.
They’re also the same ones who never feel guilty after meals, even if they eat way too much at Thanksgiving. They know that they’ll go back to eating healthy amounts of food that next week, and feel better and the scale will go back to normal (it was probably mostly just bloating anyway).
Lastly, they’re never the ones who feel like they need to lock it down and work on their weight on New Years, because it never went up in the first place. Even with all of the holiday parties and even after thanksgiving, the food skills regulated them within a pretty small range all through November and December and into the new year.
You can be that person. It just takes practicing the food skills long enough to get better at them.
If You Need Some Coaching
Most people have a really rough time sticking to new food skills all by themselves. They may need a coach, either by email or phone. Or maybe they just need a little guidance and a proper plan. We offer coaching at multiple levels, depending on your needs. It’s ok if you aren’t consistent enough, by yourself, and need some accountability. That’s why people hire coaches. If you think a coach might help you navigate the holidays, check us out.
Black Friday Sale DOUBLE thee Phone Coaching for Free!
Phone coaching is our highest level, most impactful, most effective coaching service. To get twice as much is a pretty big deal!
better accountability + more coaching
= better weight loss results
It’s pretty simple!
We’re having a huge Black Friday Sale going through the weekend and Monday: http://onebyonenutrition.com/black-friday-dragon-sale/
By Josh Hillis
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