“Eat before you go to the Christmas party so you won’t be hungry and gorge yourself during the holidays.”
“When doing your holiday shopping, park your car far away from the mall and get some exercise walking to the entrance.”
“Insert cliched holiday fitness tip here.”
Holiday’s Fitness Article
It’s that time of year again. And not only do you have to worry about every jack ass with a cell phone posting pics of your holiday office party antics on Twitter and Facebook, you have visions of sugar plums (and cookies and mashed potatoes and booze) dancing in your head.
So what do you do?
Try to follow some cliched Holiday Fit Tip checklist from one of the glossy fitness mags?
Hell no. I say eat, drink, and be merry if you want to. Just recognize that every action has a corresponding consequence.
Yes, hovering around the Christmas cookie and dessert table will stuff more than your stocking. Yes, drinking like a fish on New Year’s Eve will leave you heaving in the toilet instead of heaving a barbell the next day. Before you engage in such holiday debauchery, simply take a moment to consciously ask yourself if the action you are going to take is worth the price you will surely pay. And then make a decision. Don’t hem and haw and sit on the damned fence.
Make a bold claim such as, “Screw New Year’s Eve. While everyone else is destroying their brain cells I’m going to do 2010 seconds of burpees.” Or perhaps, “I only see my family and friends once per year. I’m going to enjoy the decadent food and drink to its fullest and I accept that it will stall my goal of getting six pack abs by as much as two weeks.” Take responsibility for your actions, the good and the bad. Weighing the pros and cons and then making a firm decision should eliminate post-holiday guilt.
So if ringing in the New Year with a brutal workout is your thing, go for it. If Mom’s pumpkin pie is the most incredible thing you’ve ever tasted and she only makes it for Christmas, go for it. Just recognize that in both actions sacrifices will be made, consequences will be rendered, and holiday indulgences do not come with gift receipts – you can’t take them back.
So what will you do during the holidays? Eat, drink, and be merry? Train harder than ever? Let me know in the comments below.
– Vic
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Use it to my advantage. i will be workin out and eat normally and go on a little deplete before this. but on the day it will be time to pig out!! no coutning, no guilt just eat like everything is healthy. i heard that eating like this increases leptin level, stop metabolism crash and keep it high. and that doing this every 2-3 weeks is good to keep the metabolism soaring. After this i will go back to hardcore workouts and even stricter nutrition as the body will be primed for fat loss now ( or so im told)
Im gonna give this a try, tell yah how it goes!
wicked post mate – couldn’t have said it better myself.
Personally, ive been on track all year so can afford to have a little fun (read: booze)this holiday season without getting too far off course.
Holidays are a day to enjoy the gym while everyone else is promising “This is the year I am going to make a change. Right after I eat this . . .”
Every day of the year receives the same treatment – get up, hit the iron, and remain on schedule, keeping the dedication and commitment strong. Lifting the heavy weights, the ab work, the jump rope sessions are far easier than carrying the guilt and extra waistline from the excuse of “It’s the holidays, I have to eat!! And besides, everyone else is doing it!!”
Really?
Amen to that, Vic. If you’ve been good, there’s no reason you can’t indulge a little. We’re in this fitness thing to ENHANCE our lives, not be slaves to our programs.
I know I’ll tip a few back and eat some stuff that I normally wouldn’t. But hey, I’m pretty good the rest of the time.
I’m going to eat like a big fat pig because I’ve already planned to cut my calories accordingly before and after the onslaught. Happy Holidays everyone!
I’ve set a Jan 1 target body fat – the plan is to be lower than that before the day. This is keeping me focused when the holiday sweets are in the office, but won’t stop me enjoying myself for a couple of days – the danger is that the whole month turns into a pig-out!
Life is short. Continue working out as you normally would and eat reasonable portions. After almost a year of losing my very close uncle, my family and friends are at the top of my priority list.
– Look back at all the most amazing moments of your life, were you alone?
Hey Vic,
One thing I’m doing (and did for Thanksgiving) was to carb deplete and lower my calories 5 days prior to the BIG DAY so that I can eat as much as I want and it will kick-start the metabolism. As for training, I pretend it’s business as usual. I’m a Christian, so Christmas is daily at our house (amen).
Blessings,
Jesus
Thanks Vic-
I will workout extra hard but I will also indulge just a little bit 🙂
Vic,
Thanks for inspiring us as usual! Holiday eating in France can be brutal… So I will train even harder to compensate, as much as I believe in being in shape, life is too short to skip all that holiday food.
Jean-Maurice
Of course it is not another “cliche” holiday fitness article! I knew that before reading it! I have been practising what you say in this article for a while. Either eat it and then make up (fasting/extra work out) or don’t eat it BUT don’t whine about it!
But I want some Baskin Robbins for new year – been craving it for a while now.
Well, I can say this. I am definitely going to train hard but I will also eat, drink and be merry. I like to have my cake and eat it too; so that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Christmas/New Years only comes once per year; life is too short to pass up a great meal and to indulge a little.
Well, I came back yesterday from our Christmas do after consuming a bit too much alcohol in the closing hour (Brit = binge-drinking). In a good way, that’s me done for the year – I won’t be drinking a lot over Christmas, and will be training where possible, as I was this morning. As for over-indulgence, that’s why I train – so I can eat loads 😉 As for the usual new year resolutions, I have only one: pass my 2nd dan in March, which has been on hold for over two years after I blew my ankle out on the last exam, and then followed that up with a car crash – fun and games. Anyway, I digress: a Merry Christmas to you all, training or not 🙂