Dealing with Holiday Food Temptation and Guilt: Personal Training Vancouver

This is a perennial question: How do you deal with Holiday Season food temptations?

Starting at American Thanksgiving, I get this question on a daily basis multiple times.

My take on this is rather simple and to the point: F@#K it! Carb up as much as you want, on whatever you want!

This is some strategies my colleagues recommend: assertiveness coaching,get a script for Metformin, glycemic controlling herbal infusions, guilt driven diatribe on sticking your goal, bringing your own food in Tupperware, etc…

F@#K that shit! All what those strategies do is reinforce that you are a social misfit at the dinner table.

This is what I do: I give clients on average 20 days off of any dietary restrictions; So for most Westerners, it looks like this:

a) December 24 to January 1

b) Ten days during the yearly holidays. For some it is Spring Break with their kids, or summer holidays.

Food Nazis can f@#k themselves.

From experience, this is why I endorse a guilt free eating policy during the Holiday season:

1) The Holiday season food experience goes beyond nutrients. Festive eating brings in all sorts of happy neurotransmitters and brings down cortisol (if you really enjoy guilt free).

2) The body composition does not suffer that much, and in fact, actually improves in some individuals because their carb intake has been too low for too long.

3) Blood values such as Hb1Ac, don’t worsen so much that the damage cannot be offset with two weeks on going back on the healthy lifestyle.

4) the reality is that you will have 5 to 8 of those meals : office party, Christmas eve, Christmas lunch and dinner, New Year’s Eve, and Jan 1 meal(s). Compared the 1,800 meals a year you are having…. ?

Yes, for example, if you are French-Canadian, yes, you can have as much Bûche de Noël, tourtière, sucre à la crème as you want. This way your Aunt Jeannette will be happy that you enjoyed her cooking, and she won’t have to pray for your mental health because you showed up with your f@#king cooler and assorted Tupperwares. And no, your arteries will not harden overnight.

The same goes for alcohol. My British, Aussie, and Irish will like like I have to say : As long as don’t drink and drive, drink me a river, don’t cry me a river.

Here are the three rules regarding this refuel break

1) Enjoy every bite. Guilt is NOT on the menu.

2) No pissing, no moaning. If you are bloated, farting a hurricane, having headaches, joint pain has gone up, you cannot complain. It is a reminder why eating clean 50 weeks a year works for you.

Consider it a short-term study on the effect of inflammatory foods on your health.

3) GO TO TOWN. Go for it, eat as much as you want. Guilt is the killer.

4) Celebrate NOT being a wanker by buying a badge of honor from Donuts and Deadlifts

What is the reality here? You are to going to go off the wagon the 24, 25 and 31 st of December, and January 1 st. And maybe the office party. You are telling that those 4 /5 days are going to ruin a year of effort? If you said yes, you train like a dweeb, and eat like a guilt ridden dork the rest of the year.

See it as a refuel break. Not a cheat week. (Cheat involves guilt)

Have fun with your loved ones. Savor every bite. Be merry. January 2 is around the corner.

Coach Charles R. Poliquin

P.S. This year my refuel primary choice are my sisters’s Choux à la crème and their bûche de Noël. What is are your guilt free refuel dishes.

P.P.S. On your death bed you won’t regret those two servings of Strüdel.

*** There you go.. Some good information on how to approach your regular diet and some holiday eating. If you regular diet is good… Enjoy!!!

Here is some more information on our website: Ultimate Personal Training Vancouver