First,
Keep Things In Perspective
We're only talking
about 9 days here, max. So even thought I hate
doing thermodynamic "worst case" hypotheticals,
remember that if you ate 3500 calories in excess
of your metabolic requirements each of those 9
days, you'd only gain 9 pounds.
Now, I gotcha- no
one wants to gain 9 pounds over the holidays,
but look how much work it'd take to do that: if
your daily caloric requirement is 2500 calories,
you'd have to eat 6000 calories a day, every day
for the entire 9 days to gain 9 pounds of fat!
Using a less extreme and slightly more likely
scenario, gaining 5 pounds over the holidays would
require eating about 4500 calories a day for 9
days. That's a lot, don't you agree?
Having Your Cake And Eating It Too
Most people have
time off from work over the holidays, which theoretically
should open up some time and energy to get in
some extra-productive training- that's for starters.
Yeah, you'll have family in town, you'll have
parties to attend, but the point remains. So there
shouldn't really be any reason to become totally
sedentary for 9 days.
Given that, why
not plan a handful of strategic eating opportunities,
enjoy the experience, and leave the guilt-trip
for your in-laws? For example, why not completely
gorge yourself on Christmas Eve and Christmas
day, and likewise on New Year's Eve and New Year's
Day? That's 4 days total.
If you ate an additional
3500 calories on each of those 4 days, you might
potentially gain 4 pounds. But- and this is a
significant point- that's a lot of extra eating.
Even if you ate yourself silly on those 4 days,
you're unlikely to reach the 14,000-calorie surplus
necessary to gain 4 pounds.
Draw A Line In The Sand...Somewhere.
Now in case you're
thinking I live in a cave somewhere and don't
really understand that the average American starts
the "holidays" a few days before Thanksgiving
and ends them in mid-January, believe me, I get
it. So if you're one of those people, let me suggest
a neat little self-help tactic that I really like.
It's called "setting boundaries." When
it comes to your food, training, and general lifestyle
habits, you should have a certain line you won't
cross. Ever.
The list can be
as big or as small as you need to suit your own
needs, but thing of these boundaries as the cornerstones
of your personal philosophy of living. Make these
boundaries personal- they don't have to make sense
to anyone else but you.
For example, one
of the "lines I won't cross" is eating
in bed. It's just something I don't do. Eating
and sleeping are separate activities in my mind,
and I just personally find it slovenly to eat
in bed. Now that might not have any meaning for
you, so come up with your own boundaries- basically,
your own personal "rules" of behavior.
Then, Have Fun!
One nice aspect
of having your boundaries is that you know when
you're inside of them, and also when you're outside
of them. For me, I eat whatever I want on Christmas
day and also on New Year's day. On those 2 days,
I can totally enjoy myself food-wise because on
all the other days, I followed the rules. If you
don't have this type of structure, you're always
living in a guilt-laden "no man's land."
Letting loose is
just as important as discipline by the way- without
one side of the coin, you can't have the other.
Having a day where you eat whatever you want helps
you to relax and recharge. So go eat a doughnut-
right now. I'll take it as a sign that you understood
the message I'm trying to get across in this article.
About
The Author
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His colleagues
call him an iconoclast, a visionary, a rule-breaker.
His clients call him “The Secret Weapon”
for his ability to see what other coaches
miss. Charles calls himself a “geek”
who struggled in Phys Ed throughout school.
Whatever you call him, Charles’ methods
are ahead of their time and quickly produce
serious results. His counter-intuitive approach
and self-effacing demeanor have lead to
appearances on NBC’s The TODAY Show
and The CBS Early Show.
Currently,
Charles competes in Olympic-style weightlifting
on the master’s circuit, with a 3-year
goal of qualifying for the 2009 Master’s
World Championships.
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then you've got time to get GREAT
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