Manders tips for navigating the holidays
With Christmas approaching quickly, we know you’ll be attending a lot of parties, get-togethers, dinners, and more. Coach Manders has put together her best tips and advice for navigating the holiday parties. Because the last thing we want is for you to be nervous or anxious at this time of year. Hopefully, these tips will help you relax so you can truly enjoy yourself.
It’s Christmas! Not every week has to be 100% perfect, and it's not realistic to think that you will be bringing your scale or your pre-packaged meals to a Christmas dinner. By all means, if you truly want to do that for whatever reason, you do you. BUT - DO NOT FEEL BAD/GUILTY FOR ENJOYING TIME AND GOOD FOOD WITH LOVED ONES! It's literally the most wonderful time of the year. And holiday cookies are the bomb. Let's be real.
If you want to go into the holiday party/dinner prepared, I HIGHLY SUGGEST NOT STARVING YOURSELF THROUGHOUT THE DAY. Some people take it too literally when I say "save macros" (I'll talk about that next) and don't eat ANYTHING all day leading up to the get-together. In my personal opinion and experience, this is a recipe for disaster as you go into it WAY hungrier than you would have been, and then you end up eating more than you expected or just eating a bunch of crap because it's there and you're so hungry. I've spent many-a Thanksgiving dinners in the bathroom because of that. LOL. Just keepin’ it real.
Get a workout in if you want to that day! If you want to chill out and just take the entire day off, by all means, do that too - but since Christmas is in the middle of the week and I'm sure some of you guys who do Crossfit will have some CrossFit-insane Christmas WOD.. you might feel more energized and better if you start your day off with some movement. Even if you just go for a walk or something to start your day. I find that personally if I lay around like a sloth all day and then eat a bunch of really carb+fat heavy foods, I feel horrible!
I tell my clients to approach these days by EATING YOUR NORMAL FOODS THROUGHOUT THE DAY! Like I said, please don't starve yourselves. We’re not about that life over here at BIN. But what you COULD do is have a super high protein + lower carb, lower fat breakfast with some veggies (to keep you full), and do the same for lunch. Maybe an egg-white veggie scramble, protein milk, whatever your little hearts desire. Just try to get a lot of nutrient-dense foods in BEFOREHAND. Then you can leave a big chunk of macros for the rest of the day, NOT WORRY ABOUT TRACKING, and just enjoy yourself.
Lastly, please don't try to do something crazy to compensate for the “holidays”. Don't do detoxes. Don't do skinny-wrap teas. Is that a thing? I just made it up, idk. Don't go run 20k the morning after to "burn it off" - that's not how it works. Just go back to normal the following day.
Written By: Manders, Nutrition Coach