Holiday Calories are Impossible to Earn or Burn off–what to do Instead

Thanksgiving weekend I’ll pay a visit to the workout studio but not for the reason you may be thinking.

I’m not going there to repent for any so-called foodie sins committed. I’m not interested in some futile effort to “burn off” calories I ate. I’m going because I missed a day and I’ll make it up so that the next workout won’t be too grueling. You see, I’m more concerned with minor de-conditioning than I am about some damn turkey calories. But I don’t feel obligated. It’s just what I do, I’ve committed to make interval workouts a permanent part of my lifestyle over a year ago and I’m super pleased with my results.

I learned that what really counts when it comes to staying healthy and maintaining a healthy weight is not what I do for one or two days of the year. It’s the ongoing habits that count. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not obsessive about workouts. I just made it an ordinary feature of healthy living, like vegetables and sleep.

Even though you might eat double the calories on a couple of the 365 days a year, your body is not so fickle that it will fold and blow up, there’s a sort of grace period, for lack of a better term before all hell breaks loose. And that grace period is more robust the healthier your overall lifestyle is on the regular, I promise.

But when days of feasting stretch into weeks and months of overindulgence, that’s when problems set in, like increased risk of insulin resistance, a condition that occurs when your body can’t readily absorb blood sugar, raising your levels and upping your chances of prediabetes or diabetes… “We aren’t advocating that regular binge eating is okay,” said Glenn Wadley, Ph.D., in the School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences at Deakin University. “But from a health perspective, short-term overeating, like during festivals and holidays, can be withstood by the body without long-term effects.”

Elizabeth Mallard, Runner’s World

So please, this year stop the nonsense, ignore all those corny-ass tips in articles and videos designed to stress you out about gaining holiday flab. I have some more reasonable tips you can follow if you are vulnerable to the hype:

• If you travel somewhere to celebrate the holidays limit your indulging to that time don’t bring it home. And if you are hosting try not to have more food than can be consumed that day and maybe for leftovers the next day. If you do end up having too much, divide it into portions and freeze it for some other time. Return to your normal way of eating.

• Don’t ruin your holiday with ineffective over-exercising out of obligation and stress. But try to keep up your normal level of activity by participating in a Turkey Trot walk or run that are often fun for the whole family. Or, I highly recommend GirlTrek, they have a black Friday 5k family walk in many cities.

• Don’t eat food you really don’t like or get real pleasure from just for the sake of eating. (This is the most effective tip, and how I manage to actually lose weight during the holidays) You know how your coworkers may bring some substandard store-bought baked treats that are usually way too sweet and generally devoid of any meaningful flavor? Skip that. Save yourself for something delicious that really makes your soul sing.

• Eat a little something before you head to a party. Not so you can stand around with a glass of seltzer water with lime, like the diet-girl mags will tell you. No, do this so that you’re not desperate to eat those disgusting grape jelly meatballs or dry overcooked chicken you really don’t even want.

• Take measures to cope with stress with self care, whatever that means to you. This could be something as simple as timing events so that you have enough down time to relax in between.

This holiday season, just relax and enjoy yourself and be pleasantly surprised when you really don’t gain weight and the world doesn’t come to a blubbery end.