What if we told you that chronic dieting and calorie restricting leading up to the holidays can cause unwanted holiday weight gain? In this episode, Couture Coaches Allison and Lauren explain how undereating (in all its forms ) leading up to the holidays -- can be the perfect recipe for packing on the pounds.
Listen up to learn:
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What if we told you that chronic dieting and calorie restricting leading up to the holidays can cause unwanted holiday weight gain? In this episode, Couture Coaches Allison and Lauren explain how undereating (in all its forms ) leading up to the holidays -- can be the perfect recipe for packing on the pounds.
Listen up to learn:
Thanks for listening, we hope you enjoyed it. Follow us for more tips, tricks, and support in our private Facebook Group, Boost Your Metabolism After Age 30.
Take our FREE quiz: What's Sabotaging Your Metabolism?
Follow us on Instagram @couture_fitness_coaching
Check at our website and blog.
Grab our free mini course - The REAL Reason you can't lose weight
Want to start boosting your metabolism today? Buy our $79 DIY, self-paced "Master Your Metabolism" course.
Want customized plan for boosting your metabolism? Learn more about our 1:1 coaching
Reserve your spot with a Couture Coach: Buy a 1:1 coaching package
Welcome everyone. Today you have me Allison, and I have coach Lauren with me. Lauren has been on our podcast a few times before, so you can remember her. She was actually one of our very first fitness and nutrition coaches when we started the business and now she has joined us to help out more on the business side and she will probably be a frequent host on the podcast in the coming as well. So, lauren, do you want to give a short intro about you?
Speaker 2:Sure. Hi everyone. So this is not my first podcast I've been on. I think I've been. This is probably my fourth for Couture, my second since I've been back. I did the Barbie podcast a few weeks ago. But for those of you who don't know me, I'm Lauren and I, like Allison said, I was one of their first clients and then one of their first coaches. I am, you know, like a lot of people. I'm a very busy working mom. I have two kids. They are five and eight. I have a husband who also has a very busy job. So, you know, just a very busy life. So, yeah, that's just a little bit about me, but you're still making it all happen. It's still making it all happen and that is the key is how do you fit it all in right? How do we fit it all in? It's? That's what this is all about.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we are going to talk today about how being an under your can make you gain weight. So, similar to Joe and I, lauren also has a history of under eating at some point in her past, and so I think both her and I can speak from our own perspectives on this topic. But also we can talk from research. We have read what we have seen from our clients and just our followers in this space. So, lauren, maybe why don't you start out by telling everybody what do we exactly mean by under eating?
Speaker 2:Sure, so under eating.
Speaker 2:So what's so funny is, when I was actually working on this outline, I was, you know, typing in Microsoft Word some notes to myself and when I wrote the word overeater it was fine, but when I wrote the word under eater it was misspelled. So like there is no definition, or like even like Microsoft doesn't recognize that there's such thing as an under eater, but it does recognize there's such thing as an overeater. So that is how you know novel of a concept this is, I think, to the world. Yeah, isn't that funny. It's too early, yeah, so let's start by just like what is under eating, under eating even mean. So, like most women, most people, but especially women, don't even know what an adequate amount of calories is, because we've been told our whole lives to eat 1200 calories, 1500 calories. And I feel like you know, when I think of like 2000 calories, not now, but when I thought of my previous life, like 2000 calories, I was like, oh, that's so many calories. But really in reality, a healthy caloric intake is much closer to 2000 calories for basically any adult, no matter really what your size or if you're male or female. So ideal is much closer to 2000,. Then 1200 or 1400,. You know that we've been told our whole lives as women.
Speaker 2:We actually did an entire podcast on this in May, so it's episode 51. It was called might be a chronic under eater. If and this is where for previous clients, including myself we talked with the different types of under eating and how to overcome it, I will briefly go through the different types of under eaters, but I seriously suggest, like if this is something that you're interested in or something that you think you can relate to, to go listen. It was like an hour and a half long and it was just very, very informative. So, yes, what? What does you know? What types? What does under eating look like in the real world? So it really we kind of categorize it or bucket into like four different types.
Speaker 2:So the first type is you have the yo yo diet or this is someone who you know always does like the latest and greatest bad diet keto. You know eating cabbage, like you know taking the pills, you know whatever is. You know we'll get the weight off, supposedly within you know, two weeks and you'll look fabulous. This is what the yo yo diet or is attracted to. So, basically, you're swinging from one fan diet to the next. But when you're not on a fan diet, you're probably eating whatever and kind of this like yo, like give me at all, because I'm not on a diet kind of mentality. So that's the yo yo diet. Or the second type is chronic diet, or so this is what we like to call like weight watchers for life. And so this is someone who just kind of has like a low calorie way of life when they diet, or will always go back to the same type of low calorie diet when when they are on a diet per se. But again, this is where you're going from low, low calories and then all of a sudden you're swinging to very high calories and there's not a lot of in between and you're doing this over and over and over again for, you know, decades.
Speaker 2:And then the third type is an intermittent faster. So this is like a newer type. This is you know we've all seen the. You know we've all seen the ads for intermittent fasting and how great it is and how healthy it is, and do it for eight hours, 12 hours, 14 hours, 16 hours, you know whatever. But in reality when someone fast for those long amounts of time, eventually your body just adapts to that, and then you just keep needing to prolong those hours of not eating, which obviously constricts the amount you can eat, which constricts your calories, just naturally. But again, your body adapts to that, so not ideal. And then the last type of under eater, which this is what I am, so it's my favorite.
Speaker 2:We call it the scavenger.
Speaker 2:So this is someone and I can, like I said this is me, so I can speak to it very well.
Speaker 2:This is someone who not necessarily is always on diets, but they just don't eat a lot like they don't. It's not always intentional, but it's a lot of times. You know, life gets busy, not planning out meals, not having a lot of healthy food in the house, just to pick from, and so what happens is you don't eat because it's just easier to not eat, or it's easier to not eat than think about something healthy to eat. But eventually you get really hungry and then you just eat whatever. And so it literally looks like a scavenger, where you know you are grabbing something from the vending machine at work for lunch or picking off your kids plates for dinner, or you know, getting into the cheese it's at night for whatever. You're always in because you're you're hungry, because you have not really eaten all day, so it's very scavenger like and, like I said, this is me, so it's pretty funny and I'll we'll talk more about my personal experiences, but those are basically like the four types of under eaters and kind of what it looks like in real life.
Speaker 1:So if you really go listen to that old podcast, if you, if you want to, really you know figure out what type you might be. You can probably tell just from Lauren's description now, but that podcast is very interesting. It will definitely give you a lot more detail on those four different types. So if you have listened to our podcast for any length of time, you probably understand by now why this under eating might be a problem.
Speaker 1:I've been doing this for long periods of time and when I say long periods of time I don't mean like a few days, I mean months or even years, or we have seen people do some of these things for decades. You've had had clients. I remember one client who basically said I've been I can't remember if they were an under eater or a yo yo diet or what but I've been doing this for 50 years. So people do this for very long periods of time and when you do this, even for a few months, your body adapts by burning fewer calories. With everything you do whether that's doing cardio, just sitting at your desk, everything it is probably the main way you can down regulate your metabolic burn rate.
Speaker 2:And really this is just a function of survival for our bodies, right? So if you are, you know, if you're thinking in a very primitive way, the less you eat, the less your body, the more your body will hold on to and the less it will expend, because your body's ultimate goal is to keep you alive. So this is why it happens, because you I mean your survival mechanism is going to kick in before anything else. Your metabolism doesn't care if you want to look good or lose 10 pounds. Your metabolism cares that you don't die. So that's what that's about.
Speaker 2:And it's a very easy trap to fall into because, if you think about it, when most people start out dieting, you know they're usually are in a, usually they're overeating at first. Usually you're not eating the right things, you're eating too many calories, you're not working out, and so when you initially cut your calories, you obviously lose weight and that feels good and it works. But then eventually your body and this takes different periods of time for different people and it kind of depends where you start but eventually your body is going to stall out and it's going to get used to whatever that calorie level is that you've cut to. And so you don't know that and you don't know what to do. So you just keep cutting your calories, so you just keep going lower and lower and lower, to eventually you're just kind of in this state of under eating because your body is not responding, you know, to what it was responding to before. And so this is really where the problem begins is because you're almost trying to like outrun your body.
Speaker 1:You can't do that. I fell into this exact trap. I was in my late teens. I will say I'm extremely type A, extremely disciplined, and so I can basically make myself do anything. And when I said, okay, I want to lose a few pounds, I started tracking my calories when I was 15 or 16 and eating like 1600 calories a day and running. Thankfully I was also lifting weights. Thank you, thank you. I'm so glad I at least was doing that.
Speaker 1:But after I lost some weight very, very quickly, I didn't really know what to do. I just thought, okay, I guess I just have to eat this way forever. And what happened over, you know? Slowly, over a period of many years, I slowly gained all that weight back. I lost my period. I got to where I couldn't lose weight even though I was definitely eating less and working out more than a person should be, and I did an entire podcast on this early on, if you want to hear more about that. So that is kind of my background. I was definitely the chronic under eater of those four under eating types. Lauren, do you want to talk a little bit about your maybe under eating experience?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my under eating really was a little bit later in life than Allison. So, just to give context, I'm 40. I had, like I said, I have two children and so in my, like, younger years, like you know, late teens and 20s, I mean I just over eight and so, like when, and I didn't exercise super regularly the way I have for probably at least a decade or 12 years now, but I was, you know so, when I went on diets, you know, when I cut my calories to whatever that was at the time, I don't even know I would lose weight, and so I really experienced that, you know, through my 20s, and that's just how I kind of kept, kept my body the way I wanted it to look. But then, you know I, so I did, I did a show, so I did, I competed with Allison and Joe I don't know if you know you guys have talked about that before in the podcast but we did fitness competitions and so that, while that introduces you to, I mean, a lot of our, a lot of our program is based on those concepts macro nutrients, lifting. It is a very slippery slope where you can cut your calories very low and you do a lot of working out and a lot of cardio and at first, like if your body's not used to that excessive level of working out and of nutrition, you know, watching your nutrition in that way you can lose a lot of weight and get very fit. But the problem was, is my body, you know, kind of got used to that? And then I, after I stopped competing, I started to have my babies. So I had my first child in 2015.
Speaker 2:And after, after I had her, I kind of went back to that fitness training lifestyle. So I, you know, went really extreme, really low calories, working out a ton. I got the weight off, but in between my first and second pregnancy I never got my calories back up. So I was probably around, honestly, between 12 and 1400 calories, not on a great workout regimen in those couple of years in between my kids. I mean, I would have go in like long spurts, but not consistent the way I am now.
Speaker 2:But it worked. It worked in between my two children. And then I had my second in two and a half years later and again, like, went to the you know fitness crazy, you know fitness competition kind of diet. Lost my baby weight, you know, within like three months or so, but again never got my calories back up. And that worked for a little bit after my second pregnancy, but then it started not to work. So I would say, and Allison was. So Allison and I worked together. We actually had offices next door to each other when we were working together and in the office, and so she watched me go through this whole thing. And I don't know, allison, how long do you tell me that I needed to start like eating and stop doing what I was doing? Years?
Speaker 1:Definitely years, but honestly, I think it takes everybody years. It took myself years of knowing that's exactly what I need to do, but it was too scary, mostly because I didn't have a coach. Like I think if I had a coach, it was like you must eat this much more than you are now. It would be different, but it was terrifying to do it on my own. So, yeah, probably years, but I wouldn't think. But that's not weird, that's not unusual. I would say no, I mean because it is.
Speaker 2:It's terrifying. So she kept telling me you know you need to like, you need to reverse and we'll talk about reversing if you don't exactly know what that is in a minute but you need to reverse and you get your calories up. You need to get more consistent with working out. You know, you just need to not like, you know, go crazy fitness competition style and eventually, when well, actually, when Joe and Allison started Pator, I was one of their first clients to reverse, because I was like fine, you guys are doing this and I will be your first client, I'll be your guinea pig and let's see how this works. And it was scary. And Allison was my coach and I think I started. I mean, I literally was eating like 1,100 calories regularly and oh, by the way, 1,100 calories regularly and I think I was the highest weight I was, since I was like five months pregnant or something. I mean like it was really not working for me. And so, of course, I was like no, I want to lose weight, I don't want to, you know. And Allison was like no, like, we need to like, get you reversed out and get your calories up before you can even think about cutting, even thinking about losing weight. So we gradually you know we were, I reversed for like almost a year, but we did it in a very methodical way and I lifted and cut my cardio way back and actually ended up losing a little bit of weight, you know, a few pounds, but more than that, my physique, like my I mean I just got so much tighter I was finally able to like gain muscle that I'd never been able to before.
Speaker 2:On the Barbie podcast, joe and I talked about where I talked about you know, I always have this like thing with my building up my glutes. Like it was very hard for me and I and finally, after like 10 years and eating adequately, like I actually finally have somewhat of the glutes I want Not totally, but we're getting there, but I had to eat to do it. You had to like build out your. You know you had to build that out but it was scary. But you know what? I did it once and I've never had to do it again and I've been able to. So I reversed out for almost a year. I did one cut after that and I've kind of maintained it ever since.
Speaker 1:So you know we talked about.
Speaker 2:It does take a long time, but you do it one time and you never do it again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah just don't get stuck back into the trap again, right, right, okay. So now we've gone through our whole spiel of you know what is an under eater, told our stories. But let's tie it back to how can this actually make you gain weight during the holidays? So how can being an under eater make you gain weight? So let's say you are somebody who is a yo-yo diet and I'm picking this one because I do think being some form of a yo-yo diet is absolutely the most common. I think scavengers are yo-yo dieters in a lot of ways, because, you know, when there's no food around, they don't eat. But then if they're surrounded by food let's say they're at a, on a cruise, at an all inclusive vacation, at a you know, the holidays, when they're surrounded by food and it's readily available, they're probably are going to eat a lot. So a lot of people are yo-yo dieters, even if maybe they're not. You know, maybe there's something else too. So that's the one I'm mostly going to focus on. So maybe you try.
Speaker 1:There's a couple of different ways we see yo-yo dieting. But let's say you're somebody who tries to eat very low calorie during the week this is very, very common too and then do that so you can kind of save up. So that way on the weekends you can just do whatever you want. You can go out to eat and order whatever. You can have lots of drinks so and you do that on the weekends, but then during the week you restrict and so you feel like you're kind of just balancing it all out.
Speaker 1:Well, the holiday season kind of is just like one giant week. There are constant I mean this goes on for like a month. There are three things giving in weeks there are parties, there are lunches, there are work events, obviously there's family events, and so you're kind of just surrounded by food and it's like one giant weekend. And so if you have spent much of your year under eating and you know eating something like 1200 calories during the week, maybe you're eating 2500 calories or so on the weekends. Your body's kind of gotten used to that. But when those weekends stretch to being a full month, your body is just not used to that and you will gain weight. Your body is used to 1200 calories. You go a month eating double that. Maybe double that is actually a better calorie amount for you. But if your body's not going to sue it, you are going to lose weight. You get that quickly. There's no way around it. So I know it sounds crazy to say being an undertear to make you gain weight during the holidays, but that is absolutely what can happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so this is first of all. I have experienced this every winter for my entire life until probably until the last two years, really, until I reversed and finally got my. Because the trick is and we'll talk again, we'll talk more about this in a few minutes the trick isn't. I mean, of course, you can't like go balls to the wall every day of the holiday season, but the trick, honestly, isn't cutting back on that, it is getting your normal caloric intake up to close that gap. So the closing of the gap really comes into getting your normal calories up and not so much bringing those abnormal calories down. Again, we'll get into that in a minute. But yeah, I literally think this happened to me every holiday season until after I reversed, which would have been and so this is maybe my third, this is probably my third year where it didn't happen. So, yeah, so it really yeah, it happens.
Speaker 2:But anyway, this whole phenomenon also is very common when you're on vacation. So same concept. So think about, when you go on vacation, what you're doing right before you go on vacation, 12 weeks before, 10 weeks before, whatever your number is, you're probably really, really restricting way under eating, probably eating 12 or 1400 calories for a long period of time. You're probably doing a lot of cardio, thinking like that's the way to do it, and then vacation comes and you're like, oh my God, like I've been depriving myself for all of this time and now I'm on vacation, and vacation is only five or seven days, so I'm gonna do whatever I want. It's actually the perfect recipe to just gain a ton of fat, and and not just weight fat, just fat like your fat, because your body is going to all of those calories and all of those extras that you consume on vacation that you've not been giving yourself for 12 ish weeks or however long. It's gonna hold on to that, because it's like, yeah, now I have food, you're finally giving me food, and so your body doesn't know anything but to hold on to it.
Speaker 2:Which is we talked? What do you talk about earlier? Because your body just wants to survive and your body has not been getting food and all of a sudden it gets food and so it's like one's the next time and they get this. I'm gonna hold on to it. But what that looks like in real life is it holds on. You just get Fat. I mean, you get fatter, like you just gained fat, um. So it really is just the perfect recipe to Kind of be the most counterproductive you could have. You could be for the 12 weeks that you were perfect.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we've actually had a lot of clients tell us that, wow, I actually didn't gain any weight when I went on vacation for the first time. And it's not because, you know, we're telling them, oh, after a restrictor free while you're on vacation. It's because they have gotten their metabolism to a better spot, right, even more, all year long, and so you know, the difference between what they normally eat and what they eat on vacation is probably less. But also because they're not depriving themselves, they probably don't feel like, whoo, it's vacation. I can go crazy. You just don't feel that need when you're not Not depriving yourself. When you're depriving yourself, all you can think about are the things you're telling yourself not to eat.
Speaker 2:And actually this. So I actually. So I said I just told you guys I was 40, actually just turned 40 last week, and I posted about this on our Instagram page. But I was able to go. So we had to Cabo and I was able to go and enjoy it and not think about, you know, gaining five or ten pounds or looking chunky in my swimming suit, because I, my, I've like repaired my metabolism and so, like, my normal caloric intake is like Normal, you know, closer to 2000 calories, and so when I'm on vacation and I'm eating slightly different or, you know, having more to drink or what not, my body does not go into like this overdrive of holding on to everything I'm consuming. It just is it, it's just better. It. It just metabolizes it better and it and your body just handles it better when you're in a state of Basically a state of excess. So it really yeah, it Just happened to me like I didn't gain any weight on my vacation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is, this is so common and it's one of the best things to hear from clients I love hearing that from them and they get back from vacation and they feel like I still went and I enjoyed myself, but I didn't gain the normal five to ten pounds that I know that I usually do when I go on vacation.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I was kind of all of that was really using a diet or as an example. But if you are a chronic under either, even just you know, if you're a chronic under eater, a short period of eating more, maybe just a few holiday parties, can really still do a Number on your body, especially if you're used to something very low like 1200 calories a day. You know you have a few holidays where you eat, let's say, 2,500 calories, 3,000 calories, which is honestly pretty easy to do with holiday food and drinks. You definitely can gain Pure fat. Like we were just saying, you can gain fat very easily, especially if you're not Lifting, eating enough protein along with that. It's really really easy to do. So if you are any type of under eater, it's very easy to put on holiday pounds. Do you want to talk a little bit now, lauren, about the concept of reverse dieting and how this is different than just going crazy during the holidays.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so let's. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna use this in in context of the holidays. So, if you are, if you're, if you are identifying at all with any of this of this under eating behavior, um, the Good news is is you can use the holidays so, starting, you know now, ish, november, december, january you can use the holidays to your benefit if you just kind of do it in kind of the right or it look and or an intentional way. I'm not gonna say the right way, in an intentional way, so I'm gonna give you like two examples. So, instead of Okay, so you know you have a holiday party, you know, like on a Saturday or something, and instead of restricting all week long and Saving up all those calories and then going crazy on Saturday day and then you know you're gonna be hungover on Sunday, so then you're gonna go crazy on Sunday, that's what happens.
Speaker 2:Um, think about it differently. So, instead of doing that, try to get your calories up during the week. And to do this, try to add in protein. So one easy way to do that is just like with protein shakes or like protein bars at first, anything that maybe you're not totally used to, but the really big concept is like just eat normal. Just eat normal through the week, even though you're going to have that party on Saturday, because your body is going to handle it much better on Saturday. It's just I know it's so counterintuitive because it's so counterintuitive and it's such a concept that people have to get used to.
Speaker 2:But the other reason why it's a good idea to use the holidays for this is because more than likely like, let's say, you wanted to work with us you're going to come in. If you identify with these behaviors. You're going to come in and we're going to tell you you have to reverse first. You have to reverse for at least three months, if not six or nine months. So use this time to start that process. That's the big message that we're trying to give you here today is, if you are identifying with this behavior, start to think about what reverse dieting looks like and start to maybe implement some of the things we're talking about today so that when you come to us in January, you're not like oh, I was eating 1100 calories, and except for those weekends, and you can come to us and say you know what? I was eating 1600 calories, except for these like holiday events or something. So it's just about getting your calories up so that, if your goal is to lose weight, eventually being able to give us the room to let you do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think that is the best tip and, honestly, right now, this is the best time. If you know you're an underer and you know you need to get your food up, but you're a little bit nervous about it, which is very understandable, this is the best time of year to do it. You're, you know, for most of our listeners anyway, it's cooler. You can wear back of your clothes. You're not, you know, in a swimsuit as much. You've got lots and lots of time before summer, so this is the best time to really, really focus on getting calories up and putting on muscle and all of those type of things that will just make you know, having a fit and toned body that much easier.
Speaker 1:Okay, so, besides reversing, what can we do to prevent this holiday weight gain from happening? Obviously, figuring out how to get out of this under eating trap is number one, like Lauren talked about, this is where that reverse diet can really help you. We actually have an entire course it's called Mastering in Metabolism that teaches you how to do this all on your own. But if you want more support, we also want clients through this process with our one-on-one coaching program, where your coach will tell you exactly how much to eat, when to increase, et cetera. That is definitely what I could have used many, many years ago. And if you get to your body to a place where you're eating enough and when I say enough, I mean bare minimum 1800 calories. That is the minimum you will do a lot less damage.
Speaker 1:When you have as an example a few holiday events where maybe you eat 2500 calories, and when a lot of that extra calories is coming from junk food, it's nearly as much damage. If your body is used to something like 2000 calories a day. 2500 calories is not really that much more. You could also start lifting weights if you haven't already. If you're lifting during a time when you might be eating what I would call in a surplus, which just means more than your body needs to maintain its weight. You can actually put some of those calories towards building metabolically active muscle tissue as opposed to your fat, and that will only help in metabolism in the future. So if you know you're going to be eating a lot, at least be lifting weights during that time and make some of it muscle.
Speaker 2:Yes, that is the absolute best way to use those extra calories is to lift and try to turn those extra calories into muscle, versus letting them just sit there. But a couple other things that you can do throughout the holidays. One simple thing is just walk, like, go on a walk like for Thanksgiving. Like take a walk Thanksgiving morning. Take a walk after you eat a Thanksgiving meal. I mean, if you're like me, you're going to like 4 million Thanksgiving and then 5 million Christmases and you're eating and eating and eating. You know just, I mean not long walks. 10, 15 minute walks will make, honestly, will make a difference.
Speaker 2:Other things you can do is drink water. Drink water make sure you're kind of fleshing out your system, and also water is just a good way to, you know, make yourself feel a little fuller. Don't you know? If you're going to have like a big Thanksgiving meal or a Christmas meal, don't skip breakfast, don't skip lunch. You know you can have. You know maybe don't go all out but have something and have protein, like we talked about. We have all kinds of protein hacks on our Instagram page and our Facebook page, but don't just totally skip and then have this like huge meal at 6pm, like that's not going to be good. So those are some other kind of ways you can do it. I don't know, alton, you want to talk a little bit more about, like, what you do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can also talk about. I think it'll be interesting for me to say what I just said when I was talking about my bad times. Okay, so before I was definitely a classic like oh, I know there's going to be a big Thanksgiving meal and so I would. Sometimes I would try to save up for the week.
Speaker 3:And again I was somebody who was tracking my things, so I knew like, okay, if I just need to put some calories less a day.
Speaker 1:For this whole week I'd need to turn on whatever Thanksgiving and then the day of that event I would be. I would try to include little things leading up to like the Thanksgiving dinner. So when I got to whatever the second night I would be really hungry. All I would be thinking about was, like I'm not sure if I could eat this food and I would definitely.
Speaker 3:I was definitely a good thing.
Speaker 1:Definitely second to the sweet potato casserole, which is really just deservedly not for me to take this on, and who even knows how many? Even though I thought I was tracking my food, I'm sure I was way off and who even knows how many things like sweet potato casserole a lot of the junk that we can have holidays. It's very, very market-track.
Speaker 3:So it's really crazy that you're probably going to be playing with calories that you can, and then I would be very full and honestly.
Speaker 1:I feel great. So that is what I used to do that when I was a definitely a product in the firm.
Speaker 3:And I'm sure you know, I'm sure I did gain a little bit of weight after all of those holiday months. So I was ending most of the time.
Speaker 1:So now, honestly, first, I would be particularly fine if I eat more on a holiday. I'm not there at all anymore, mostly because I know one day is a good thing. I have one of those people who I just like to track my food. I like to eat some food for my mac, so I do try to track my food. On stays, I would say some of the days. I probably track food. So a lot of times I could know all the time where I'm out on Christmas. And again, I estimate everything. So it's not like I'm at some table here.
Speaker 1:But anyway, what I do now is I make sure I just normally, during the week leading up to an event, I normally the day of an event and honestly by the time I get to.
Speaker 3:Whatever this event is, it's the compensative food. I just don't feel too crazy. I don't feel as good as I have to be in seconds or something. I just a little bit as enough because I just don't feel the vibe. It is crazy how much of your accessor was viewed from the community of friends and so on.
Speaker 1:I have been there and it's crazy now how you don't like to be in front of you, now that I'm giving myself enough, I mean, if I don't have to stop it today.
Speaker 3:I just need to stop it and I can buy it's not like I'm going to have accessor. No, I can't get chocolate.
Speaker 1:So this is definitely the better way to be, I would say don't want to attract the food and that's what we find.
Speaker 3:If you don't, I think that's what it is. Crazy things you're traveling in and on, sometimes on holidays and vacations, but just try to get in enough culture. You're like. You know you attract the food in your audience. It's not that hard, it's just. Culture is so good.
Speaker 1:So if you look on the human bestness books, no matter what, and then you can follow that up with your statement, Just sort of like and you can just be so much more bold that you probably don't want to see too much of a good appetite.
Speaker 3:That's what your guide is. I also say that's what it is. That's what it's really about. So that's kind of my way. This is the right it's. Don't try to save up and make it big and no pictures. Not the private itself. It's probably not going to be able to support the board and, honestly, if you go a little bit of a run on day, who cares?
Speaker 3:Move on, you don't have to assess a whole lot of things, say, oh well, the holidays are a shot, that's what you're not going to be able to do. Okay, what about you?
Speaker 2:What? Yes, do not throw in the towel from November 1st till January 1st. Like? Or Halloween too. Yeah To, this is Halloween. You know, it's not all or nothing. Like, something is better than nothing. Keep that in mind during the holidays.
Speaker 2:No, I mean, my experience is very similar to Alison's, where I mean, I did kind of the same things before and I kind of do very similar things now that she does. But when you were talking, alison, the thing that I was thinking before you even said it was like there is this phenomenon of like you don't feel like you have to, like you don't feel that deprivation. So you don't feel like you have to eat all the things because you have to get all the things in on this one holiday, because you can't have them except for on that holiday. That whole feeling of being deprived or of like sacrificing really goes away when you kind of let yourself have things in the normal course. So you don't feel the need to have 17 pieces of pie or you know, 17 helpings of sweet potatoes which sweet potatoes are my thing? Not any potato, sweet potato, mashed potatoes, anything, just potatoes.
Speaker 2:Um, but no, but you don't. It is, it is. It is such a, it is such a thing and it is really probably like the most surprising, probably the most surprising effect of eating normally, of eating closer to that you know, healthy caloric intake of 2000 calories on a normal basis Um, you just don't feel the need to go crazy and and even, I think it even resets like. I don't know if, allison, this has been like your experience. But you know, I'd like have a different like my like, my feeling of full is different now than it was before. I don't know if you know what I'm talking about, but it's like you. You have this feeling of being satisfied. I never have this feeling of being like overly, like stuffed, really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I. Just that sounds terrible to me.
Speaker 3:However when I think you are, when you're like you're sorry that you've been eating so much than you've experienced in your past. Even now, the idea of you know, you have to. You know, not experience terrible but I'm not giving you the responsibility so I don't feel like, oh my gosh, I'm just going to just just to like to the people, so, but honestly no that's been my experience.
Speaker 2:That's definitely been my experience too. Like your body, like you're, like I said, the, the feel-filling, the feel, the full feeling that your body gets is just different and your body becomes used to something different. That's better, obviously, because you're not you know, or indulging all the time.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so I think you know our big message is the holidays do not have to be a throwaway. You can use them to your benefit if you're already an under-eater or if you have any of these tendencies that we've been talking about, you know. And if you're not an under-eater, there are things you can do that Allison talked about and then I talked a little bit about to kind of stop the bleeding per se. It doesn't, you know, you don't have to gain 10 pounds during the holidays, that's not. That does not have to be a given.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, I think that's all we've got.
Speaker 3:Hopefully we could do some good actionable tips that you can actually use as holidays to begin to get you closer to your fitness goals, even even during the holidays. So so we've got. Thanks everyone, thank you.