Consistency in your training program is your “best friend forever” when it comes to maintaining during this holiday season. Plenty of excuses will present themselves as opportunities to skip your workouts. You’re out of town, you have company staying the night, you drank too much the night before, and you just have too much to do before Christmas and New Years. Blah, blah, blah. Those are excuses, continue to develop your discipline to just punch the clock on your workouts and get them in. 

As I’m writing this, I know once I walk into the kitchen, there are 3 plates full of Christmas delicacies. Traditional frosted Christmas cookies, gingerbread men cookies, chocolate covered Oreo balls, and whatever else they call all the treats. Those are the only 3 that I know. This is actually a great lesson in discipline, to not eat all of them. Limit yourself to maybe 2 or 3/day right now. Account for them if you track your food and just see how it impacts your day. Don’t stress about it, just enjoy them, don’t binge on them. That ain’t helping anybody, and you know that. 

Eat, drink, and be merry right? Sure, eat sensibly, drink sensibly, and be merry! As someone who used to be a lot like guy in the picture earlier in his life, I can say first hand, that it’s a pretty immature thing to get slamming drunk at holiday gatherings. Sure, the in-laws are difficult sometimes and sure you probably have time off of work so you can nurse a hangover. But I don’t know about you, but drinking excessively never helped my life get better, it was just a way to escape for a little bit that generally had some poor consequences attached from the “escape.” 

I’m not advocating a specific “eating window” here or fasting at all, but what I am suggesting is that after dinner and some nights you’ll have desert I’m sure, simply shut it down. Don’t take in any more calories after that time frame. You may have even ate to a surplus in your calories for that day, and guess what? It’s ok! Limit the surplus by shutting it down after dinner. Don’t continue to graze on every tasty morsel that still sits around, because if you do, your 500 calorie surplus can quickly become 1500 calorie surplus. This could be summarized as a season of “everything in moderation.”

Generally speaking, people have a bit more time on their hands during the holiday season. Sure you might be traveling and shuffling around a bit, but for the most part, you’ve got a little time off of work, so make the most of it and move your body a bit more. Go for a walk with your wife or husband, help your elderly neighbor shovel their driveway, go hunting, go fishing, play some backyard football with your kids, etc….Whatever it is, just don’t be the average American couch potato. You’re not reading this because you want to be average, otherwise you wouldn’t have made it this far. Survive the holiday bulge with these 5 strategies and then get ready to attack 2021!