How was your Thanksgiving?
In this article
There’s a good chance you had a great time, but for most people, thanksgiving is the beginning of the end.
Sure, you get to spend time with family you haven’t seen for most of the year, but the feast that feeds you all is also usually the first step towards all that extra weight you’ll be dying to lose come New Year’s.
If you can already see yourself going down this desperate path, I want to help you out a bit. What you may not have considered is that it’s entirely possible to enjoy many of the tasty treats the rest of the holidays will bring your way without gaining 15 pounds by January.
These are three quick strategies to help you keep those holiday pounds off, even if you had an extra-stuffed Thanksgiving.
They actually come right out of my book, The All-Day Fat-Burning Diet. I’ve poured everything I know about weight loss into this book, and it can help you reset your metabolism in a healthy way to lose up to five pounds per week.
3 Weight Loss Tips for Any Holiday
1. Cutting Back, The Right Way
The first thing I want you to understand is that your body has more than enough energy and nutrients right now to function.
With that in mind, what I want to suggest to you is this: you need to work a low-carb day into your week. Despite all the flak that carbs get, I’m actually a huge fan of the right ones.
That said, I’m also a huge fan of cycling your carbs and calories because it’s a much more natural way of eating. You don’t need three massive square meals a day to properly function. Our paleolithic ancestors certainly didn’t, and they stuck around long enough to evolve into us!
Societal norms have made us think that we need to be eating all of the time, but your body could benefit from a bit of rest from digestion here and there. Although some fitness advocates preach that we should be eating five or six times a day, science has proven that this isn’t the slightest bit necessary.
Unless you have blood sugar issues, all you’re doing is increasing your insulin, which in turn increases inflammation and cortisol in your body, which in turn puts your body into stressed-out, fat-storing mode. It’s simply the way our bodies are programmed.
By allowing your diet to accommodate one low-carb day a week, you will essentially be triggering your body to burn more of the stored carbohydrates in your muscles, liver, and fat. Without excess sugar in your body, it will turn to existing fat as its main fuel source.
Simply put, if you had way too much stuffing and pecan pie on Thanksgiving day, your new low-carb day is going to put it to work to get you slim again!
Instead of starchy carbs and fruit, you’re going to focus on eating lots of fibrous veggies, healthy fats and clean proteins. Within that selection, there are unlimited numbers of meals and ideas so you won’t feel deprived.
In The All-Day Fat-Burning Diet I share a number of these recipes, everything from chicken lettuce wraps to creamy avocado smoothies. There are an unbelievable number of ways to eat well on a low-carb day.
If that seems hard, don’t worry, as it’s only one day. Anything more than that will actually defeat the purpose.
If you go low-carb for too long, you start to suppress thyroid function, and that’s harmful because your thyroid controls your metabolism and you want to keep it elevated. One low-carb day won’t hurt, however; it will only help.
This first technique will turn your body into a fat burner instead of a sugar burner!
2. The Power of Fasting
There’s another challenge I have for you, one that’s slightly more difficult but also very powerful: I’m going to challenge you to do a 1-day fast.
Fasting is one of the world’s oldest traditions; it’s been practiced by people of all races and religions for centuries. It makes a lot of sense, as there are so many benefits to fasting, one of the most important being that it will really jump start your fat-loss process.
As with the low-carb approach, we’re limiting this to one day, and while that might sound scary, it really is easier than you think. Here’s how you do it:
The day before your fast, have dinner on the earlier side. Your fast will start one hour after that. For example, let’s say you finish dinner at 7 pm; your fast begins at 8 pm. Try to turn in by 10pm.
If you wake up the next morning at 8 am, you’ve already done 12 hours of your fast! You’re halfway done!
From there, it’s simply a matter of going without food until 3 in the afternoon. If you can do that, you’re golden. You will have ushered your body into a very beneficial state for fat burning and hormone regulation.
Although you can’t eat, I encourage you to drink as much water and herbal teas as your heart desires. Stay away from everything else, including coffee and supplements; you simply want to give your body a day of rest.
Just like on your low-carb day, this practice is going to force your body to tap into its fat stores for fuel, and though it may take you doing this once or twice to get comfortable with it, you’ll start to feel amazing every time you do it.
I personally love fasting because it allows me really clear my head and focus. It’s amazing what a distraction food can be sometimes.
[Related: How to Do Intermittent Fasting: 19 Questions Answered]
3. Easy Exercise
The third thing I’d like you to do is really very simple: I want you to move your body more.
This applies to both days, but I’m not suggesting you perform a heavy duty workout. Instead, I want you to do something light, like walking. You won’t have enough energy in your reserves to carry out any Rambo-style exercise, so you’re going to avoid it altogether.
Your exercise on your low-carb and fasting days could be anything really easy and enjoyable like walking the dogs or taking a bike ride. It’s really that easy.
The whole idea is just to stay active. When you do that in conjunction with a fasting or low-carb day, you allow your body to tap even further into its existing energy and fat stores. The result? You burn fat faster, especially if you have a little more of it sitting on your waistline thanks to Thanksgiving dinner.
I guarantee you that these simple techniques will make a significant difference in your weight loss efforts.
Enjoy This Article?
Did you enjoy these holiday weight loss tips? If so, you might also like my new book – The All-Day Fat Burning Diet. In it, I show you exactly how to reset your metabolism so you can lose up to 5 pounds per week. Click here to learn more.
