Jenn Zerling
We’re coming up on one of the toughest times of the year to eat clean.
Thanksgiving (in Canada) is less than a week away. Followed closely by Halloween. Then comes the stressful dash to Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Yikes.
Fortunately, Jenn Zerling, fitness expert and author of Breaking the Chains of Obesity, 107 Tools, offers fitness-conscious readers of this blog the following tips to survive the calorie-laden coming weeks with your figure — and sanity — intact:
1) There are three main holidays (four if you count Halloween) that people fear: Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve. Those four days are usually the times when everyone parties like rock stars. I say, just do it — binge if you must! Don’t hold back, BUT read tip #2
2) Around those holidays, you better be on track. You might suffer cravings for those foods the very next day. Deal with it. Go to the gym. Drink lots of water. Use self talk to walk your way through it. It is healthier to not be the only person at the holidays who is chained to a diet when everyone else is partying and living it up
3) This entire holiday season, cut out ALL high glycemic carbs except for those particular days mentioned in tip #1.
4) Avoid office cakes and cookies. If you eat one of those, perhaps you can arrange a fun activity where everyone has to perform 25 pushups to earn one piece of cake the size of your palm. If you can’t control yourself, then simply don’t do it!
5) Bring healthy foods to the office every day so that when people are eating the junk food, you are eating the healthy food. Try to integrate your healthy behaviours into your office setting. Be the leader (tool #100 in my book, Breaking the Chains of Obesity, 107 Tools.
6) Get that exercise in every week. Workout a minimum of 30 minutes a day or 150 minutes a week. Make it happen. Hire a trainer. Do a class. Do something that will truly regulate your blood sugars this holiday season.
