Thanksgiving the Leanness Lifestyle Way Part 2 of 2

Thanksgiving The Leanness Lifestyle Way Part 2 of 2

As far as portions go? There is no reason to get completely bloated. Full? Sure. Otherwise, again, the pity-party switch may be thrown. Eat until YOU are satisfied, not until your relatives are satisfied you’ve eaten as much as they have.

This is a time of year when many magazines and Internet sites are offering “clean-eating tips” for Thanksgiving. I’m not against eating clean as long as it’s how you are REALLY hard-wired and it won’t cause a pity-party switch to be thrown. The overwhelming majority of us are hard-wired to indulge at least some on Thanksgiving and to a lessor extent the next day too. For these reasons I don’t spend much time writing about holiday eating. Remember, the 10-12 meals are one-half of one percent of all your meals for the year and if I really stretch it I said those meals might have a full one percent impact on your weight for the year. It’s inconsequential–if you STOP.

Here are my guidelines for Lifestyle Thanksgiving eating.

1. INCREASE EXERCISE -- I would suggest you increase exercise in the seven days prior to Thanksgiving by a total of 90 to 180 minutes

2. INDULGE FOUR TIMES IN TWO DAYS -- Don't invert my splurge-meal rule! A splurge meal is anyTHING you want as long as you know what it is for calories, carbohydrate grams, fat grams and protein grams. One additional caveat for your splurge is it cannot be a trigger food. That is it cannot be a food that you cannot stop eating once you start or that TRIGGERS you to want other junk food later in the day or even days later.

Lifestylers typically eat one splurge meal per week when losing weight. They eat 2-4 splurge meals per week when in maintenance.

If you typically eat four times per day that means you eat 28 times per week (4 X 7). If you have four splurge meals in a week because you are in maintenance then you have 24 quality Lifestyle-friendly meals. INVERTING the splurge rule would mean that you have 24 splurge meals and four Lifestyle-friendly meals. Let's try another example for someone who eats six times per day.

Six meals per day in seven days is 42 feedings in a week. If you normally get four splurge meals because you are in maintenance that leaves 38 feedings that are Lifestyle-friendly. If you INVERT the splurge rule then you'll have 38 splurge meals and four Lifestyle-friendly meals. Don't do that! And believe it or not -- this is how many Americans eat every week.

Pay close attention and do your Thanksgiving splurges this way. I hereby grant every reader to have two moderate splurge meals on Thanksgiving AND two moderate splurge meals the day after. That’s a total of four splurges over two days. Don’t gorge. Eat till you’re satisfied--not until your relatives are satisfied. That will take care of your splurges for the next seven days.

3. WEIGH YOURSELF EVERY DAY -- Yes, the weight is going to go up. So what? The scale spike is at least 90 percent water. You need to know what you are doing while you are doing it. Do NOT wait to weigh yourself until after you have had too many splurges. That is a recipe for failure. Stay awake. Stay in the present. Don’t drift off into a Thanksgiving coma and wake up 5-7 days later beating yourself senseless with verbal abuse as you stand on the scale for the first time in a week. Weigh every single day. Stay in the present. Stay awake!

4. DRINK MORE WATER -- Flush, flush, flush. You might think it’s dumb to drink a lot of water since you will be holding more of it. Wrong. Water is the medium that your body uses to perform every chemical reaction that occurs. It can speed up metabolism if consumed adequately and slow metabolism if not enough. And drinking too little of it sends additional signals to the brain that cause the release of hormones telling your body to hold on to the water you do consume.

5. AFTER THE 2ND DAY, THROW IT AWAY -- Make a commitment that what you don’t eat by the 2nd day (the day after Thanksgiving) you will throw or give away. By then you HAVE had enough. If you need to reset your pity-party switch now that tells you that two days of extra splurges is enough then begin good self-talk to accomplish this so you don’t feel you’ve been too good by stopping after the 2nd day.

6. ENJOY YOUR TIME WITH FAMILY -- Enjoy the time with family. Give thanks for all you have in your life. Be safe.

7. EXERCISE MORE INTENSELY AFTER -- The good thing about filling up on carb-rich foods is you will likely feel very strong and energetic for your workouts a day or two after Thanksgiving. The reason for this is muscle glycogen stores fill up or are "topped off" and it's very common for those lifting weights to feel stronger and it's very common for cardiobuffs to feel like they can perform at a higher intensity for a longer duration. So, use this to your advantage. Hit the exercise with a little more intensity, burn more calories, and do what you did in the week prior to Thanksgiving--exercise for 90 to 180 minutes more in the seven days following Thanksgiving.

Well, that about wraps up my Leanness Lifestyle Thanksgiving tips. You can bet I'll be indulging and performing just as I've suggested for you here. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!