Christmas is fast approaching, and our minds are racing trying to figure out how to complete our shopping, wrapping, decorating, organizing, and anything and everything when it comes to the holiday season.

Then, throw on top the Christmas parties, dinners, lunches, get-togethers, and anything that involves indulging in food and drink.

How are you supposed to stay on track with eating healthy and getting to the gym to see progress?

By merely cutting things in half. The worst advice out there is to deprive yourself entirely of the experience and taste of Christmas. The idea of denying yourself in general leads to horrible eating behaviors that will wreak havoc on your progress.

Here’s an example, you’re at a party with your friends, you have all the right intentions to stay on your diet and not cheat. You sit down and notice there is a tray of junk food and you see a bowl of chips. As the night progresses, all you can think about is those chips. You begin to have a battle with yourself in your head saying:
  • “Just have some; it’ll be fine.”
  • “No, you can’t you promised yourself!”
  • “I’ll just have a handful.”
  • “No, everything you worked for will be lost!”
After this internal struggle, you end up leaving the party angry and begin to feel deprived. On the way home, you start to think about those chips, the idea of eating them takes over, and the only thing you can focus on is getting some chips. After a few minutes of driving, you end up at the local grocery store on the way home in the chip aisle and purchase a bag of your favorite chips. You get home, start chowing down and before you knew it, you ended up eating the entire bag.

You denied yourself a small taste and ended up on the other side of the spectrum where you lost all control. You’re better off having a little just to satisfy your craving than depriving yourself until the point where you turn into this blood-hungry monster looking for some snacks.

During this holiday season, you should go by this logic. Don’t deprive yourself and in the long run, you won’t go overboard. When you’re invited out to your next Christmas party, you don’t need to snack on twelve cookies, four glasses of wine and a slice of pie. You can quickly cut down in half or even a third and still enjoy the festivities.
The next time you sit down for a Christmas dinner you don’t need to load your plate twice, have three eggnogs and crush half of the box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates.

Just cut the portion by half, and you won’t feel like you missed out.

Christmas and social outings are inevitable and will never go away. Unless you decide never to go out and enjoy yourself, there’s no way around it. The way to not damage the progress you made all year round is to have the mindset of enjoying the festivities without going overboard and being emotionally okay with it.

Remembering this approach will help you succeed long-term which has been proven time after time again.

Merry Christmas!