Today is Halloween, besides being my favorite event of the year it’s also marks the beginning of the season of overeating for most people in north america. Over the next two months most of us will be invited to multiple christmas parties, thanksgiving dinners, news years parties and other end-of-year events. This is the time of year when many of us can easily undo the previous 10 months of being pretty solid with our diet and fitness regimen.
It all starts tonight with excessive amounts of chocolate and other treats! Man I love Halloween!
Then for our American friends there isn’t much time until the thanksgiving calorie bomb hits! After that christmas season is in full swing with all of the accompanying parties and feasts. It’s a great time of year for eating and celebrating that’s for sure, and our collective waistlines will take a beating.
So what can you do? Do you fight it? Do you avoid parties? Do you opt for salad and no dessert?
HECK NO!
I say you go to as many events as you can. And you partake in the eating of whatever is offered just like everyone else.
BUT unlike most people I say you do some ‘dieting’ work in between these events to compensate for the inevitable overeating that will happen at halloween, and thanksgiving, and christmas, and your christmas party, and your year end party, and new years eve.
It’s likely that for the next 6-8 weeks you’ll have anywhere from 6-8 big eating events you could/will be invited to. This means for each one of those weeks you will need to put in a standard mon-fri of being on point with your diet and creating a calorie deficit so you can show up to each feast prepared to enjoy yourself without it all going to your waistline.
The coming holiday season doesn’t have to be an automatic 10-pound jump in bodyweight if you do a little bit of prep and planning before each eating event. And the key here is preparing BEFORE the event, not after. It’s a losing battle to tell yourself you’ll be ‘good’ and diet off the weight once you’ve put it on after each feast. Much better chance of heading into 2013 in as good or better shape than you are right now if you take it light and cut calories during the weekdays leading into thanksgiving, christmas and any other big eating party you end up attending.
Psychologically it’s a much better and positive place to be showing up to each event with the ‘diet work’ already done. This is the only way to enjoy each feast without associated guilt and weight gain.
Happy Halloween…let the feast begin!
John
