How to enjoy your Thanksgiving (without ruining your diet)

The holiday season is upon us and there will be food aplenty, tempting you from all corners of the kitchen to undo all of your hard won fitness progress. But don’t fret. Eat. That’s right, I said eat. And I’m not going to hit you with some lame-ass portion control strategy. Instead follow these 3 tips for enjoying your holiday feast without feeling like a fitness failure.

1. Plan a big workout

• And I mean BIG! Challenging should be an understatement. As you look at what you’ve got planned for the holiday work out, you should feel a little nervous about what’s on the exercise menu. Earn that holiday meal! And better yet, make it a family affair.
• Start a new tradition where every year a different family member plans the pre-feast workout. Make the rule that everyone must complete the workout (scaling appropriately) before they sit down to eat. Showering between the workout and asking your little brother to pass the potatoes is encouraged.

2. Occupy your time

• Plan activities for your holiday that do not place you in proximity to food. Make that long drive to Grandma’s house you’d rather skip, volunteer at your local animal shelter, or rake that yard full of leaves that you’ve neglected all autumn. What ever you do, select activities that take a few hours and that do not involve food or the television.

3. Leave the meal at the table

• Make a commitment to yourself that once you get up from the table, the meal is over. Period. No sneaking into the kitchen for another sliver of pie. No cracking the refrigerator door to steal one last spoonful of mashed potatoes. And this means leave the left overs at mom’s house, too. Don’t turn a holiday meal into holiday feast-week.

What else can you do? Well, you’ll find tons of other lists that tell you to not go to the holiday meal on an empty stomach, cut all of your portions in half, and skip the gravy, dessert, and alcohol. That doesn’t sound like much of a “holiday” to me. Instead crank up your metabolism with a killer holiday workout, plan activities for the day that do not revolve around food, and leave the left overs with mom.

Hope your Thanksgiving is a blast

Train hard!

-Vic