Written by: Mackennon Klink, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Today is December 6th and you know what that means?! It’s only 19 days until Christmas and 25 days until 2021 is officially over! As 2022 approaches, this is when everyone starts their “New Year, New Me” revolutions and start scrambling to get their physiques “summer-ready”
Ironically, this is also the time that a lot of people say fuck it and give into that “inevitable holiday weight gain.” This is the absolute worst thing you can do as this will only continue the cycle of “starting over” every January.
The honest truth is there will always be another reason to procrastinate (or a never ending pandemic) from taking the necessary action to building a better version of yourself. Until you learn the necessary skills to manage your nutrition over the holidays, you’ll only continue the vicious cycle of “starting over.”
If you are someone who decided to “wait until COVID is over” to take control of your body… Well, you’re already aware of the flaw in “waiting until after _____ “ to get started.
Today, I want to give you the exact strategies I use with my online clients to help them enjoy the holidays while continuing to build a stronger, leaner physique.
1. Understand “the Holidays” are 2 of the Next 25 days
Let’s put the holiday into perspective. Over the next few weeks, we’re celebrating 2 days:
Christmas (the best holiday and it’s not even close)
New Year’s eve
That’s 2/25 days.
It’s literally impossible to gain that much body fat in 2 days. Even if you ate yourself to the point of being completely stuffed, you’ll only gain 1-2 pounds of body fat and I’ll show you why.
Science has repeatedly proven that one pound of body fat is roughly 3,500 calories. That means, your body needs to eat 3,500 calories above your maintenance. The average person maintains between 1,800-2,800 calories.
Therefore to gain a single pound of body fat, you’d need to eat 5,300-6,300 calories. This is EXTREMELY difficult to achieve.
With that being said, there’s actually two ways that cause people to gain body fat during the holidays.
1. Seeing the scale spike up 3-5 pounds and adopting the “fu*k it” mindset.
Yes the scale weight did bump up. However, this is primarily just water weight from the extra food, drinks, and sodium. I promise you, the scale weight will return to normal in the next few days.
2. Eating like it’s the holidays consistency for the next 25 days.
Remember, it’s just 2/25 days. Not every day needs to be a celebration. 🙃
The best thing you can do after.
2. Focus on your Environment
To quote Joh Berardi, former owner of Precision Nutrition
“If a food is in your house or possession, either you, someone you love, or someone you marginally tolerate, will eventually eat it.”
This means if you’re constantly putting yourself into situations that force you to purely rely on willpower, eventually you will cave in and lose.
Let me be clear here: this doesn’t make you weak or a bad person, just someone who needs to focus on improving your environment.
My most successful online clients aren’t the ones with the strongest willpower. Rather, they’re the ones that learned to put themselves into situations that don’t require willpower to succeed. They’re putting themselves into situations that makes failure much less likely.
3. Go into the Celebrations with a Gameplan
To quote Benjamin Franklin,
“Those who fail to plan, plan on failing.”
Before going to that holiday party and/or dinner, you need to understand how you want to approach that situation. This is highly individualized as I want you to feel fulfilled and guilty-free about your decision.
For some clients, this means enjoying the holidays as they please and enjoying family time. These clients simply get back on track the following day.
For some clients, this means working together to apply strategies to stay on track (i.e. one plate of food, 4 drinks at the party, no snacking beforehand, etc.)
and for others, they simply stay on point with their training and nutrition straight through the holidays.
There are no right or wrong answers here, so it’s absolutely critical to know how you want to handle those days. As your coach, I want to make sure you are setting yourself up for success and take pride in your decision.
4. Making Training a priority
I’m not talking about just on a specific day, yet throughout the entire 25 days stretch as a whole.
Let’s be honest here, the holidays are when most people deemphasize their training to “start again” once the new year starts. As previously mentioned, this is the absolute last thing you want to do as it only continues the cycle of “starting over.”
Even if you don’t have the time to do a full 60 minute workout, then do a 30 minute workout. If you cannot do 30 minutes, do 15 minutes. Something is always better than nothing and will help you breakaway from waiting for things to be perfect.
Life always gets busy and there’s never going to be a perfect, magical moment when things get easier. Just as you cannot escape work, your personal life,and/or family responsibilities, you cannot escape your need for health and fitness within your life. You need to find a balance so you can live your life while adequately taking care of yourself.
If you have struggled with your training over the holidays in the past, I would 100% push you to invest in a coach by clicking here. These next 25 days don’t have to be a time where you put your health on the backburner. You’re fully capable of using this time as a launchpad for your 2022.
These are the strategies my online clients use to enjoy the holidays while also making sure they aren’t disappointed in their choices once the fun is over.
If you need help losing body fat and making 2022 your best year, click here to apply for coaching.
Mackennon Klink, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Mackennon Klink is a certified strength coach and nutritional coach with a simple message: lose weight and add muscle to become your leanest and strongest version of yourself. After a devastating snowboarding injury that forced him to undergo duel knee surgeries, Mackennon found his passion by helping others unlock their potential. Mackennon has a decade of coaching experience from helping elite professional athletes to busy professionals to weekend warriors achieve their fitness goals. My mission is to give you the necessary knowledge and confidence to sustainably incorporate the best program into your lifestyle so that you can lose that unwanted body fat while building real strength.
