Ok, every year I get innundated with blogs and emails about how to not overeat at Thanksgiving. THUMBS DOWN.
Talk about stupid advice.
All the posts that talk about not over-eating or what workout you should do or how to starve yourself the day after Thanksgiving CAN SUCK IT!
Thanksgiving is an over eating holiday. I'm a big fan of having free days or free meals built in to your weekly plan. It just makes sense in terms of having a plan be able to work in reality.
Obviously, Thanksgiving is a free day.
It's often been said that it's not how much you eat at Thanksgiving that determines your weight, it's how much you eat the other 364 days out of the year. This is true.
Lets talk about what this should actually look like in real life:
Monday, 25th: No free meals
Tuesday, 26th: No free meals
Wednesday, 27th: No free meals
THANKSGIVING: Free day
Friday, 29th: Two free meals (leftovers)
Saturday, 30th: One free meal (leftovers)
Sunday, 1st: One free meal (leftovers)
Monday, 2nd: No free meals
Tuesday, 3rd: No free meals
Wednesday, 4rt: No free meals
Thursday, 5th: No free meals
Friday, 6th: No free meals
Saturday, 7th: Free day
Sunday, 1st: No free meals
If you look at the above plan, you'll notice something really interesting: Sanity.
As in, you can actually follow that plan. And enjoy yourself.
You don't need to do anything crazy before or after Thanksgiving. You can even have leftovers for a few days. The important thing, is that whatever diet or nutrition plan you follow, you go back to it.
This is what it looks like when people follow a plan in real life.
But that assumes you have a plan.
During the holidays, you need to plan. And the meals you need to plan are the meals that aren't free. I'd start planning what you are going to eat on Monday, December 2nd, right now. And then plan your on-plan meals for Saturday the 30th and Sunday the 1st.
Where most people fail during the holidays isn't going off their plan and having a free day. People fail by either having completely unrealistic plans, or by not having a plan.
by Josh Hillis
author of Fat Loss Happens on Monday: Habit Based Diet and Workout Hacks, with Dan John.
being released November 28th
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