170: 5 Ways to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain | Nutrition and Weight Loss

The Power Foods Lifestyle Podcast | Nutrition | Fitness | Mindset

5 Ways to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain-

Have you been hi-jacking the Halloween candy by the handful, loving on the sugar high and convincing yourself that you don’t need to be disciplined just yet?

Chances are you have been eating some of the sugar that comes on the scene of every grocery store every October 1st. Whether you’ve been wise in your portion sizes or you have already thrown the white flag of surrender and are hoarding candy, I want you to think about this:

Studies show that there is no answer to just how much weight gain an individual will experience during the Holidays.

They do show, however, that if you are already overweight or have formerly been overweight, the struggle will be “more real” for you.

In a 2000 study, 20% of obese subjects and 10% of overweight subjects accumulated greater than 5 pounds during the holidays.

But even if it’s not about the scale number, I’d like to suggest that this effort to avoid holiday weight gain should be more of preventing disease (or not accelerating the conditions you’re already experiencing). This includes:

• Type 1 or Type 2 Diabetes
• High Cholesterol
• High Blood Pressure
• PCOS
• Acne Flare-ups
• IBS and Crohn’s Disease
• Arthritis
• Adrenal Fatigue

When you don’t stop the sugar cycle, you can get very irritated with yourself.

This frustration zaps you of motivation to keep trying, so it is very easy to “give up” until you can “re-start” on January 1st.

I’m not asking you to totally cut out sugar. Never! But I am asking you to work on a few strategies that will help

The following 5 tips are strategies that may help you to keep your health at the forefront of your mind this Holiday Season.They will help you wake up January 1, 2018 with confidence and happiness in where you’re at in your health journey:

1.Have a Daily Accountability Process

Whether you use my 8-week Workbook, a sticker chart, or a whiteboard to mark off your daily goals, this strategy will keep your mind focused on the actions needed today.

When you live in the present, you don’t put off ’til tomorrow what you can today.

2. Commit to your Carbohydrate Portions

In the Power Foods Lifestyle, a “C” is 20-30 grams of total carbs. There are not good or bad carbs, instead, we use the words strategic or non-strategic carbs. This refers to complex carbs that are natural and from the earth vs. simple carbs that have a lot of sugar, break down quickly in your body.

Never eat carbs by themselves.

Your blood sugar will be unregulated. Be sure to eat a stabilizer with it (protein) and throw in a veggie as well (PVC meal) as your body will be in absorption state, so what better components

Enjoy your non-strategic carbs, but fuel yourself with PVF (protein-veggie-fat) meals as your baseline first.

Keep your total indulgence carbs to no more than 1 per day (for moderators), or no more than 2x/week (100 g carbs for Abstainers).

3. Choose 5 “Better” Recipes Ahead of Time

If you don’t plan ahead, you’ll default to your typical recipes that are full of sugar, margarine, white flour, and other inflammatory foods.

In Volume 3 of The Power Foods Lifestyle Recipe Books, you will enjoy Body Buddies Fudge Cups, Pumpkin Pie Pudding, Peanut Butter Kisses, and many more desserts!

4. Plan your Workouts (Even When Your Nutrition Isn’t Perfect!)

A huge mistake people make is missing workouts. Whether it’s out of lack of time, or shame for overeating, this will only exacerbate the lack of motivation you’re already experiencing.

Out of time? No problem! Use my #KJoFit Workouts located here.

They’re only 10 minutes long and offer Upper, Lower, Stretch, and Abs Workouts that you can do at home with no equipment (and they’re 100% free!).

Establish what the minimum will be when everything is going chaotically in your life. This needs to be established or you will find yourself playing the all-or-nothing game.

Schedule your gym workouts in your calendar like an appointment. Do not move them.

5. Have a Community of Supportive People Around You

Having people around you who are also working on similar goals, who inspire, support, and cheer you on is priceless! Most people do not have a supportive circle around them as their family, friends, and co-workers aren’t on the same level of wanting to improve their health. (Nothing wrong with that–we all have our different spurts of motivation hit at different times!).

So… here is what I’m doing to HELP YOU!

From October 30, 2017 – December 31, 2017, I will be hosting a 9-week Holiday Support Group for females. In this private Facebook group, I will be doing a LIVE Video training for 15 minutes every single day.

Learn more and sign up here.

The holidays can be a time of sadness and loneliness–they’re not always a joyful time for everyone. If you find yourself turning to food with your emotions, please consider that getting under my wing will help you find confidence in yourself to navigate the complexities each day.

Click here to learn more about my 12-week Binge Bye Bye program that really helps you through the holidays (30% off through November 15, 2017!)

Click here to join Body Buddies World where you get weekly meal plans and monthly workout plans.

Who is #CoachKristyJo?

I am a Mind and Body Strategist and author of The Power Foods Lifestyle.

I help women bridge the gap between the optimality of nutrition and fitness science and the reality of applying it on a day-to-day basis.

After 15 years of disordered eating, I found a way to strategically eat and meet the needs of both body composition manipulation and inner health for proper digestion, gut integrity, and longevity.