How To Stop Holiday Weight Gain

*Early on in my blog, I posted “How To Lose Fat Fast!” If you like additional information as to what I’m about to go over, click on that title link to head straight over to that piece.*

For most of us, the prospect of gaining unwanted weight over the holiday season is a real concern. An after work get together here, a party there, Thanksgiving with family & friends–the list goes on and on. And as you know, food is always involved. It’s all too easy to overindulge on calorie rich holiday favorites such as cake, cookies, pies, and ice cream.

As I sit, it is two days before Thanksgiving day here in the United States. Now even I must make an exception on that day of all days. For almost every other day of the year, I will implore you to watch what you eat and make the best/healthiest choices you can choose for yourself. But when it comes to Thanksgiving with the family….

BRING ME THE CAKE!

I don’t mean like a slice. I mean–the cake. All of it:) I’m going to eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and snack on it in-between those times. When I was a kid, I was more diverse at the Thanksgiving table. I wanted turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, macaroni & cheese, etc… Now on my Thanksgiving, I just eat sugary dessert aisle carbs like they’re going out of style.

Alright so admittedly, up to now, I haven’t told you a single way as to how to stop weight gain. If you’re anything like me, you’re salivating over the food that has yet to come!

Ok! Enough of that. I’m backing away from the proverbial dessert aisle starting now. You understand I’m going to “pig-out” on Thanksgiving. Now what am I going to do about it? I’ll tell you now as follows. And here’s the deal–this is the same exact plan I have followed for years now and the best part is, it works year-round and you don’t have to be an expert for it to work and work brilliantly.

There are many keys but the one I want to share with you now revolves around your fat burning furnace known as your metabolism. I want you to set it on fire! I want to set you up, so that whether you workout every day of the year, or you haven’t been inside a gym since high school, you will have your body primed in a position where there’s NO way you will put on unwanted pounds. Remember, your metabolism is your built-in fat burning furnace. Time to put it into gear because your time is NOW!

Just do some cardio. That’s it! That’s my secret. Do not let the simplicity of this belie you. I want to keep this simple but effective as I do not care to bog you down with ALL the unnecessary details (Don’t worry! I have a lot of posts for that minutiae).

Spend 30-45 minutes walking/jogging/running.

That is the plan. If you are lucky enough to do so, do it outdoors as the power of the Sun will only enhance you and your mood. If the weather where you live does not permit that, if you can access a gym, either on, or around the holiday, perfect! Obviously, if you already have a treadmill or exercise bike at home or access to one at a hotel you may be staying in–that works too. You get the idea. The key is to get your body moving. The only thing as important than the cardio itself is when you actually do it.

When I know I’m going to eat a mega-ton of food I have no business eating, I always plan a workout either before or after my feast. I can easily go back and forth telling you why it’s best to workout before or after but I’m not going to do that here. The most important thing for you is to do it precisely when you can fit it in your schedule. However, you must do it on the day of your mega feast.

DO NOT eat a ton of calories and fat and let those calories sit on you. You have to burn that excess energy because that’s all a calorie is–a unit of energy. I look at it like this: When I see an overweight person, I don’t see a fat person. I see a person with excess energy, or fuel, that has yet to be burned/utilized. You know how you go to a gas pump to fill up your car? Well, when it stops, and the car is full of fuel, if like most, you like to “top off,” just to make sure it’s really full–that’s a person who is overweight. Excess fat is the result of always “topping off” at the dinner table.

Your body, much like your car, is made for running. Your body is an engine. You can be the most uncoordinated unathletic person on the globe–your body is still an engine and food is your fuel.

Before I leave this post, I want to share with you exactly what I’ll be doing on this Thanksgiving to mitigate unwanted fat gain. Being that I am not traveling this year, (undoubtedly due to precautions related to Covid-19 exposure), I am able to train at my neighborhood gym which will for sure be dead empty on the holiday. Due to the copious amounts of calories and sugar I am about to take into my body, I will have a compound movement/bodybuilding based weightlifting workout for an hour, and then, I’ll “top off” (See how I did that?) with one hour of cardio on the treadmill. The treadmill is not as strenuous for me as one might think. Even though I will be on it for an hour, I’m going to cap the speed at 3.3-3.5 miles per hour with a 0% incline. So, it’s basic walking. I put on my headphones and prop my phone up on the treadmill and head over to YouTube watching all my favorite channels. I literally get to multitask in that I’m burning fat/calories and watching my favorite channels. The pace is “easy” enough, where if I wanted to, I could grab one of my books and read while I do my cardio.

If you are like me and you find cardio monotonous and boring (at times), get on your phone and crank up the music, social media, YouTube, etc. Before you realize it your time on the treadmill or stair stepper will be up and you can head back to the dinner table guilt free knowing you just killed your workout!

One more tip: The reason I lift first and do cardio last is very simple. I need all the strength and energy I can gather to lift the weights I “throw around.” If I do my cardio first, I will be drained, so that by the time I get to weightlifting, I will look and be flat and deflated. So my priority is to go in there and work on training/building the muscle first. Then, I focus on fat incineration via cardio on the treadmill. You do not have to limit yourself on the treadmill as I do–I’ve used every piece of cardio equipment in the gym. Out of them all, I prefer the treadmill. As with anything else, you have to do what works for you. Go out and explore what works for you! There is no one-size fits all.

Ok! I’ll be quiet now (don’t want to overwhelm you too much). Take it from someone who knows and who struggled with being overweight for many years. I do not look like it now but I was overweight at one time, so if you’re struggling with weight gain over the holidays, please use this advice because I’m proof that it works. Not only will your weight gain be kept at a minimum (if you gain any at all), but you may have found a new hobby (working out) that you can use year-round.

If the guy that was always picked last in gym class can do it, so can you:)

Last but not least, Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours and Happy Holidays! Let’s finish 2020 strong:)

–Daniel Cousin

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