The One With the Holiday Celebration

Holidays and Special occasions don't have to be an excuse to binge and throw yourself off track!

Independence Day is one of my Favorite Holidays!

I Have "X" Event

I can think of around 10 holidays that are typically centered around food for me. Super Bowl Sunday (yes in my world this is a holiday), St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. This doesn't include family's birthdays, special events like Weddings, Anniversaries, Vacations or other parties. In our family (remember I have 25 nieces and nephews) I usually have 2 birthday parties a month on top of the holidays. So for me, that's a minimum of 35 special events a year. More than a month of my year I could easily "justify" that it's ok to eat in mass quantities.

I don't know about y'all but I've always used holidays or special occasions as reasons to go crazy in the past. The mentality of "but it's a special day". But for me, if I have 1 or two days where I just eat all the things, then it's hard for me to get back on track. I fall hard off the wagon if you will. Then one or two days quickly turns into one or two weeks, one or two months, one or two years even.

It's easy to get in the mind set that you have to have not only lots of food but lots of high calorie food at special events and holidays. It's Independence Day so I HAVE to have a burger, potato salad, baked beans, chips, dip, corn on the cob, watermelon, cake. It's my sister's wedding so I HAVE to have the pasta at dinner, a side salad, bread, and part of the fried appetizer we are sharing her rehearsal dinner. Then the next day at her wedding I HAVE to have the big dinner cake etc. (If you are a drinker than you are adding even more calories into these events too).

You don't have to eat broccoli and dry chicken at special occasions in order to stay on track and keep making progress. You don't have to go to the other extreme and throw your hands up saying "oh well, Screw it" and over indulge. It doesn't have to be so extreme. It's not one or the other.

Options

Penguin in the TV Show "Gotham"

There's several ways to approach a holiday or special occasion. Just because you choose one approach for your birthday in January doesn't mean you have to use the same approach for Easter in the Spring or your family vacation in the summer. The great thing about flexible dieting is that it's FLEXIBLE.

Option 1: Stay on Track

One of the options you have to approach the holiday, event or occasion to stay on track like it was any normal day. You'd hit your macros. You do your workouts. It's literally just any other day.

Option 2: Controlled Surplus

Another way to approach this event is to do it in a controlled surplus. When I've used this method I've set a specific amount I'm willing to go over that day and I stick to it. For example and extra 50g Carbs. If it was a work out day, then I'd still work out. I'd just hit my numbers plus that specific amount I previously decided on.

Option 3: Hit Your Protein Stay Under Calories

In this method you focus on hitting your protein numbers and then staying under your calories. You let your fat and carbs fall where they may but don't go over calories. It gives you a little more flexibility without feeling like you are going completely off track. Again, if it was my normal work out day, I'd still do my best to get my work out in.

Option 4: Memories Over Macros

This is often best for me when I'm traveling or on vacation where it's much harder to track. I've been most successful using this option when I still make healthier choices. I try to front load my day with as much protein as possible so that I have more room for "treats" later in the day. I still do my best to move my body, but often it's not a normal workout. If I don't still try to make better decisions and load more protein in my morning, then I tend to spiral out of control really quickly.

Option 5: Marco Weekly Budgeting

This isn't my favorite approach but definitely works for some! The idea is that you eat the same amount of calories for a week but divide it up differently. So if your daily calories are 1800 your weekly calories are 12600. So instead of eating 1800 every day, you can eat some lower calorie days to have more available for one or two days.

Consistency over Perfection

In my opinion, the best thing to do is to realize that I'm not going to be perfect everyday. Somedays, 80%, heck 20% is better than 0%. It's still something I struggle with. Not to just give up because I didn't do everything 100%. It can't be an all or nothing mentality. It can't be a "Well I missed my workout this morning so I can have donuts for breakfast. Oh since I had donuts for breakfast AND missed my workout then I can just do whatever for the rest of the day". Sometimes taking a break from counting is what feels best. Sometimes that mental break is needed. Just be careful not to move in to the mental break forever - like I have in the past.

Most importantly, if you go off track one day, or fifty six days, that's ok. Pick yourself up and start again fresh tomorrow. Remember it takes 3500 calories OVER your maintenance to gain a pound. Most people's maintenance is around 1800-2200 calories. So many factors are involved, but for the sake of easy math, let's say it's 2000 calories. Do you really think you ate 4500 calories yesterday? Most likely not. So when that scale goes up realize there are several other factors in play. Even if you DID eat 4500 calories it's ok. Today is a new day.

Enjoy your holiday, enjoy your event, enjoy your vacation - your health journey is a marathon not a sprint!