Good morning Ladies and Gents! It’s hump day and the day before Thanksgiving. In celebration for these next couple of days, I will be sharing some worthwhile tips to avoid getting the Thanksgiving blues. Specifically, I will be sharing with you all, How to Avoid the Scale Fail. Put simply, how to avoid putting on too much weight in the next couple of days. We all know even though we celebrate Thanksgiving on a Thursday, this holiday, much like Christmas, can turn into a multi day escape. Especially for all of those who go out for Black Friday, join the parades and watch football.
How to Avoid the Scale Fail!
I will say, much of the weight gained shouldn’t be too alarming. Of course, most of it can be attributed to water. Unless you’re like me who managed to gain 20 lbs. in two weeks. Honestly, that was one of the best two weeks of my life haha. Imagine for a second, you finally get to return home for the first time since you joined the Marine Corps. You’ve been away from home for nearly a year. Well long story short, from sunrise to sunrise, it was nonstop drinks, food, and parties. It was the classic homesickness turned into home recklessness. It was a sad day having to return for duty. On that fateful Wednesday afternoon, I was 20 pounds. heavier, stubble on my face, and hardly any sleep. Yet somehow, I felt quite rested.
Needless to say, my superiors were not happy when they saw I could no longer fit into my daily uniforms.
They were even angrier when they saw I could still keep up in our early morning runs. Hahaha good times. Luckily, once I returned to my regular diet and two weeks of being consistent, those 20 pounds turned into a solid 8 of ACTUAL weight gained. Trust me when I say, if there was ever a time like I felt like a Black Sheep, this would be one of those times, having endured a lot of hazing haha.
Luckily, I knew all too well what it was and how to remedy it.
So let me clue you in to what I learned. As you already know, most of the weight gained in this short period is nothing more than our old pal H2O. But don’t be too hard on yourself. Hopefully, with this in hand you can be fully prepared. Now, as for the actual weight you put on, I’m going to give you some tips so that you minimize the total weight gained.
So how do you avoid a scale fail?! How do you avoid losing to the roulette of pounds gained?
Well it’s simple, for those of you who have little to no understanding on nutrition please read my previous articles here and here. For the rest of you, I will give you three easy tips that anyone can do. First, increasing your physical activity for the rest of the week is the most straightforward way to minimize collateral damage from a Thanksgiving dinner. Let me be clear, even if you don’t like doing any type of physical activity, I implore you to buckle down just for the next week. It will make all the difference.
By doing this, you will increase calorie expenditure thus decreasing the overabundance of energy eaten during the holidays. Remember, at times like these, look at food as energy. Next, for my second tip, decrease your caloric intake on the days of no celebration. To put it simply, if you celebrate Thursday, then you should try and eat less every day after to minimize the “damage.” You can also eat less the day before.
Let’s not forget we have other tools to help us along the way.
Along with these very simple methods, let me include my basic go to, to curb my appetite or help before a large feast. One, caffeine is your friend. Caffeine, including caffeine from tea, can help curb the hunger and help the digestive process. Two, intake more water throughout the day, again helps in digestion, but more importantly will help you feel fuller when enjoying the feast.
Three, more protein. What many of you may or may not know, protein has a neat trick of helping you feel fuller. Personally, I like to visit my local shake shop for a cold protein shake. Thanks to cold, icy protein shake, I can easily last five to six hours without the hunger pains. In conjunction with tip two, take soup before solids. Again, logically speaking, soup, speaking from the perspective of volume, will help fill you up before taking in anything else.
Lastly, and most obvious, be proactive in your choices. When serving yourself remember balance is the key to success.
Let me hear what the rest of you have to say or if you’d like to share any more tips that’ll hep the rest of us. Don’t forget to follow our social media (here and here) and check out our store here. Lastly, we appreciate all of your support, so again, thank you all for everything. Happy Holidays!