While the holidays are a wonderful time of year they can often find us neglecting our nutrition and workout regime and then beating ourselves up about it. What if I told you you could have your cake and eat it too…
Life is about balance. If we live in the extremes life tends to become unmanageable and down right frustrating. We also then tend to feel like we’re never making any progress or that we’re never really enjoying life.
Some common habits during the holidays are:
- We binge eat ALL the tasty food: turkey, mashed potatoes, pie, etc.
- We don’t workout for a week OR
- We workout way too hard to “offset” all the eating
Trust me I enjoy all the trimmings of a good Thanksgiving feast as much as the next person but I also still have fitness goals. So how to you have both of these things? You enjoy all your favorite foods for one day and you stop eating before you need to go put on the elastic waist pants. You can still enjoy all the good food without eating so much of it that you fall into a food coma.
A few ways to help you avoid the food coma:
- Smaller portions of each food
- Before you go back for seconds drink some water and chill for a couple of minutes. Give that food time to actually hit your stomach before you shovel more in.
Having family in town can make getting to the gym a little more difficult but that doesn’t mean we have to cut it out completely. If 2020 has taught us anything it’s that we can all definitely find ways to get a workout in at home! Take 20-30 minutes out of your day, maybe in the morning before the day gets too ramped up, and move. You can get a good workout in with just bodyweight movements: air squats, push ups, burpees, running, lunges, sit ups, etc. We even have specific programming for just that with our CFK Go programming!
- Set a time for 30 minutes and just move!
Let’s also not take things too far in the other direction by telling ourselves well I ate so much Thanksgiving food that now I have to workout extra hard or I have to do more than one workout to make up for it. I’m going to stop you right there because
- Working out is not a punishment for what we ate.
- Mentally and physically it’s good for our bodies to take a break for a day. Also one day will not set us back an eternity.
- The following day just fall right back into your normal routine and all will be well!
If you are looking for some guidance and accountability this holiday season CFK is doing the Healthier Holiday Challenge and it is FREE!!
- Starts November 23rd (or whenever you sign up!)
- Ends January 3rd
- Eat 800g of fruits/veggies each day (It’s not as daunting as it sounds! Grab an apple, some carrots, some potatoes, peppers, mangos and you’ll hit that number before you know it!)
- Eat a palm sized portion of protein with each meal (ideally 4-6 times a day)
- Exercise/be active 5 days a week (CrossFit, home workout, hike, jog with the dog)
BOUNUS POINTS if you…
- Drink 1/2 your bodyweight in ounces of water daily
- Sleep 7+ hours a night
Sign up here! https://app.wodifyrise.com/Event/Event.aspx?u=healthierholiday
Cheers,
Coach Alex