Adjusted Reality

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” – Mark Twain

Author: Quix Page 176 of 218

Shredhead, Coming Back to Earth

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On October 27, 2009

In Uncategorized

Few things to talk about today so it’s sort of a scatterbrain Tuesday!  Get ready for the smorgasbord!

Yesterday:

*Ok, squeamish boys, you might just want to skip this section – go on then.*

So yesterday, my post kinda reeked of melodrama.  I wasn’t sure what the heck was going on in my brain.  Sure, that number on the scale was enough to floor me but then little things at work were affecting me more than I should and I was just feeling awfully ill.  I went to empty and fill (my bladder and my water glass, respectively) and started freaking out because I thought something was wrong with me.

After a few minutes of puzzling out what day it was – it’s the first time I’ve been early for TOM in… years probably.  But only a few days so I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.  I am under so much less stress this month than I have been in about a year maybe (taking it easier on the workouts, wedding stuff done), that my 33-ish day stress induced cycle is off.  Once I realized that’s what it was, it made so much sense.  THAT is where probably half of the bloat came from (the other half salt).  THAT is why I was really feeling ill.  THAT is why people at work were making me emotional.

I came home, took pain killers, and curled up on the couch.  Yes, I even skipped my workout.  I’ll make it up later this week.  I needed it.  I’m down 2.1 of the 7 lbs today and I expect they will fall off this week as it progresses.

Occam’s razor – most often, the simplest explanation is the right one.

Shredding:

So I’ve been doing the 30 day shred, and it’s been interesting to say the least.  I always discount short workouts a bit – I can do anything for 20 minutes, right?  Well, Jillian definitely pushes that theory to the limits.

The videos have you doing her 3-2-1 system – 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of abs.  During the strength portion you do one sort of isolating arm move for 30 seconds, then arms and legs for 1 minute, and then repeat.  During the cardio section you do one exercise for 30 seconds, then a different one for 30 seconds, and then repeat.  During abs, you do abs.  For example, one circuit is chest flys for 30 seconds, then side lunges with anterior raises for 1 minute (then repeat) for the strength portion, then jumping jacks for 30 secs and punches in a squat for 30 secs (then repeat) for cardio, and then bicycle crunches for 1 minute for abs.

So Day 1 I had no respect.  I was like, ok, this is cake, and went for a 5k immediately after.  The next day, I was kinda sore.  Which isn’t too hard to believe – I worked different muscles than normal.  Then I realized I had to do it again.  The second day – that was tough.  The third day?  I decided it was a shred and yoga instead of the additional cardio I had planned because I was so incredibly sore.  Day 4 I felt better because of my little rest and ran again after, and that made me sore as hell for Day 5, where I blew off the rest of my cardio.  I was pretty sore through the weekend, but I think that was also attributed to being on my feet most of the day on Saturday and then dancing my hiney off at the party.

By yesterday morning (Day 6) I was feeling better and though I blew off additional cardio it wasn’t because I was sore.  This morning I moved on to level 2 and I have 2 words for you – SQUAT THRUSTS.  Ugh.  Some of it was easier (the ab workout was pretty weak in comparison I thought but we’ll see what’s sore later), some of it was harder (hiya, cardio, you actually felt like a workout), and I can tell different muscles are sore.  The plan is to stay with this another 6-7 days, and then move on to level 3 and finish the 4 weeks out there.

My impressions after a week-

The Good:

-It is a kick ass workout if you only have 30 minutes to spare from start to cooldown/stretch.  Even a 5k takes me longer and that’s typically my shortest workout.

-You will most likely find some new awesome moves.  Lunges + bicep curls?  Painfully awesome!

-I haven’t been this sore and also felt this much improvement in the strength side of things in a while.

The Bad:

-While I definitely feel an intensity to it, I don’t think it’s enough time.  I need some running, DDR, and yoga in there. 6 mins of cardio bursts per day doesn’t feel like it’s doing my running any service.

-The first week of almost utter and complete soreness made it really tough to WANT to do anything else.  I had the best success going for runs immediately after shredding because I was warm (and might continue that trend on short and fast runs), but splitting workouts into morning and afternoon is NOT optimal with this as I cool down, get sore, and then have to get back into something else 9 hours later just as my body is starting to repair.

-It is rough on your body.  I trained for a half marathon with very few aches and pains and this short workout gave me minor knee and ankle aches.  I question whether doing it every day (ok, 5 days a week for me as I just don’t do a week with no rest days) or even consecutive days is good for you.  As Jillian says it helps you adapt quickly, but at what cost?

-It’s boooooring doing the same things every day.  I’m trying to follow instructions for now but I think I’d rather rotate between the levels during the week.

The verdict:

Gonna stick with it for the next 4 weeks, 5-6 days a week.  After that – I think it gets thrown into the strength training rotation.  I expect to look a little firmer once it’s done but I don’t expect miracles unless I really put a little more effort into my consumption.  I think this would also be the PERFECT workout for crunch time at work when 30 mins is about what I’ve got and just do it every day before work.

I am going to make doing the shred my first priority.  That is, if all I can do in a day is shred, that’s ok.  I have 2 yogas, 2 DDRs, and 2 runs planned as well, but I have to listen to my body.  If I’m going to die, I need to rest.  I have 2 weeks post-shred before a 5 mile race, and then that week I start half training.  I don’t want to come out of this weaker than I was.  That being said, I cannot forsee doing this more than 2-3 times per week max if I want to also continue running.

Zliten also tried it yesterday.  He has been complaining ever since. ::grin::  I don’t think he’s going to do the every day shredding, but it’s an option for him on days he doesn’t want to leave the house.

So, my dear internetians… I leave this in your hands to continue the discussion?  Ever had TOM just completely sneak up on you and you thought you were going crazy?  What’s everyone else think of the shred?  What’s going on with your Tuesday?

Pictures from nataliedee.com… because they are adorable.

Where Everything Falls Apart

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On October 26, 2009

In Uncategorized

So my big thing is no guilt.  No regrets.  But it’s hard not to regret and rib yourself a bit if you treated yourself so poorly over the weekend that you are feeling physically ill about it.  And by “you”, I mean me.  Consider yourselves my proverbial priests, while I give you a full confessional.  I’ll give you a play by play of the carnage.

My first mistake was going out Friday night.  I knew I had a party lined up the next night, yet I couldn’t wait.  I didn’t go too crazy and I ate well (I was a good girl and ordered chipotle tacos with meat, lettuce, salsa, and that’s it, and that was the worst thing food-wise I had all day), but there was definitely whiskey involved.  And I was up until almost 5am.  And I skipped the DDR part of my workout.  Mostly because I was sore and wanted to die, but partly because I didn’t have time – friends were already over and food was sitting on the counter after Jillian kicked my butt.

My second mistake was sleeping in Saturday, lazing around, and then having to run all over town getting things for my costume.  I missed my sixth day of Shred.  Six days is more than I usually do, but considering 2 of those days were only 20 min shred workouts, I still owed myself a workout.  And I didn’t do it.

My third mistake was following my advice for parties – I had a very small and what I thought was filling snack before I headed out, but I guess a gardenburger wasn’t enough.  I was so seriously hungry I downed an OBSCENE amount of junk food there because I was STARVING.  On top of that, I could only obtain a one liter of diet soda and had to move on after that to sugared punch and soda.  Ugh.

My fourth mistake was lunch on Sunday.  It wasn’t that it was so unhealthy – it was just so BAD.  We went to try out what we thought was a new soup and salad bar, but it ended up being more of a straight buffet, and probably the worst one in town we’ve had thus far.  Everything was fatty and greasy and bleh (except that salad, that was alright- but the topping bar was pretty small).

My fifth mistake?  Not making up my skipped workout on Sunday.  I had convinced myself somehow that I should rest today so I didn’t tire myself out, but I think it was more about the hangover.  I usually punish myself by working through hangovers but not so much yesterday.

My sixth and final nail in the coffin was dinner.  Calorie-wise, I was a freaking saint.  We got chinese takeout and I had wonton soup, veggie delight, and one bite of orange chicken.  And about half a cup of rice.  The problem is – I ended up with a gigantic portion of the wonton soup + broth and it was especially salty, so I am Bloaty McBalloonperson today.

I will say some good things about this weekend though:

1.  I didn’t partake of the late night fast food runs either night.  I had a few fries off Zliten’s plate Friday but that’s it.

2.  I did dance my ass of for a while at the party Saturday.  Plus I was shopping for 3 hours – shopping is cardio, right?

3.  I made good food choices with what I had to work with Sunday.  I went for non fried stuff (minus one small taste of fried fish which was honestly the best thing on the buffet :P) and loaded up on veggies and non-sauce covered protein.  Chinese, I ate probably just about the lowest calorie foods on the menu and was actually pretty satisfied with what I got instead of feeling diet-punished.

However, the truth is today the scale is saying unthinkable things that I am going to throw out as a mulligan.  I’ll give myself a day or 2 being healthy to detox and I should be back in business.  The problem: I have just about the same weekend to face next weekend.  I have high hopes going into each weekend and then it all falls apart.  It’s one hundred percent my fault.  While I’d love to get persnickety about people around me not being the best influences and yadda yadda yadda, I am the one making the choices.  I am the one who controls my destiny.

I am the one who had to have her heart jump out of her chest practically today because of what she saw on the scale.  Yeah, it was that ridiculous.  Who gains seven lbs in 2 days?  That would be me, people.  I am really going to have to get it together if I want to accomplish project: the last effing 20 lbs.

But really, all I can do is analyze, figure out how to be better next time, and move on.  So that I will.  This week, I will stop letting those close to me be enablers.  If I choose to go out drinking and find myself hungry because of it, fuck it.  Being hungry is not the worst thing in the world.  If I have the strength to run a half marathon, and the capability to come up with a training plan – I can figure this out.  I’m not a dumb bunny, but I sure played one this weekend.

So, I guess here is last week by the numbers:

Monday: under 1400 1500 calories, Shred Lvl 1, 30 mins DDR 5k run (had an itch to run, so I ran instead)

Tuesday: under 1400 1500 calories, Shred Lvl 1, 5k run 30 mins DDR (switched from Monday, and at lower intensity than normal because – um, sore!)

Wednesday: under 1400 1500 calories, Shred Level 1, 30 mins DDR yoga (was about to die from soreness so I yoga’d out)

Thursday: under 1400 1500 calories, Shred Level 1, 5 mile run 5k run (just didn’t have a 5 miler in me)

Friday: under 1500 1700 calories, Shred Level 1

Saturday: healthy eating until the Halloween party, Shred Level 1

Sunday: under 1500 calories (who knows), rest

So this week is:

Monday: under 1400 calories, Shred Lvl 1, 30 mins DDR

Tuesday: under 1400 calories, Shred Lvl 2, 5 mile run

Wednesday: under 1400 calories, Shred Level 2, yoga

Thursday: under 1400 calories, Shred Level 2, 5k run

Friday: under 1500 calories, Shred Level 2, 30 mins DDR

Saturday: under 2000 calories, Shred Level 2, yoga

Sunday: under 1500 calories, rest

So yes, pretty much a do-over of last week, and moving up to level 2 of the Shred.  Since this post is already looking to be like a novel, I’ll talk more about the shred and other random stuff tomorrow.

How was your weekend?  Anyone else want to pull up a chair to the confessional?  If you had a saintly weekend, wanna give me some tips? 🙂

Running A Year Ahead

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On October 23, 2009

In Half Marathon Training

So I have this horrible habit of planning too far ahead.  I know, sounds great, right?  Well, I’ve already got my half training plan semi-set for the half on Valentines day, I’m just letting the changes I made roll around in my brain to see if they make sense.  Now, I’m starting to work on a full marathon training program targeting a marathon in October 2010.  Oddly enough, I was not excited for either really until I started looking up training programs and putting schedules into excel.  Now, I just want it to be TRAINING TIME!!!  I would like to pose some quandries out there to people who are either in training or who have done the whole 9 yards (or even half of it…).

Half marathon:

  • I’m considering a longer taper. Last time, I ran hard up until 6 days before the race (did my 12 mile Sunday).  Then I did easy runs Mon/Thurs, a pretty hard tempo Tues, and raced Saturday.  A two week taper scares the crap out of me (last long run 2 weeks before the race), but I think one of my failings last time is I didn’t feel that well rested and this might help.
  • I am going to cut the time on my cross training. I did it because it was in my plan, but I see NO need to do 60 mins of cross training late in the game when I’m already running 25 miles and trying to cram in weights and yoga.  Instead of ascending with the run times, it’s going to be 30 mins per week.  Period.
  • Long runs on random days. Due to scheduling conflicts, the first 1/3 of my long runs will be Fridays, the second 1/3 will be Saturdays, and the last 1/3 will be Sundays so I get used to running Sunday.  Will that totally throw me off?
  • Anyone have awesome speedwork suggestions? I’m not trying to qualify for the olympics or anything, but I’d like to beat my 2:16.  Currently the plan is alternating 400 repeats w/400 jog (6 working up to 10 @ 8 min mile pace) and tempo runs (from 25-40 mins @ 8-9 minute mile pace).
  • Do I *really* need to run hills? I know the answer to that but… hate, hate, hate.  How would I work them into a training program?  Replace a speed workout every few weeks or replace an easy run every few weeks or…
  • I’ll be training through the winter and will attempt to not be a wuss and run outside every day. However, I’ll venture due to inclement weather I’ll need to hit the ‘mill occasionally.  I’m making the rule that at least 2 out of the 4 runs per week need to be outside.  Thoughts?  Since my feet are pretty road hardy already does it matter, or should I attempt to make every run outside unless its stupid stupid cold and raining/snowing?

Marathon Training.  Hooboy, lots of unknowns here.

  • Do you really, really have to drink aide in training during long runs? I prefer water and fueling with sport beans every 45-60 mins or so.  I like to train with water and then save aide for the race if I need extra oomph (I took aide at the last station during my half and it perked me up).  However, a lot of places out there swear you can’t get through the long 15+ mile runs without it.
  • I’m considering the less-is-more 3 days per week training program. Anyone ever tried it?  Basically, you skip all the pure mileage runs and run a tempo, a speedwork, and a long run per week.  Then, you cross train the other 2 days per week for 40-45 mins.  It makes sense to me.  You run good quality and focused runs (and faster than easy pace) but less often.  Am I committing long distance running suicide trying to do this for my first race and should stick with a more traditional plan?
  • Training time. There are some 3 month plans, some 4 month plans, and some even go to 6 months.  The current plan I think is coming off the half marathon, rest a month, for the next 3 months make sure I do one long run (10 miles or more) at least every other week.  Then, in mid-June (4 months out), I start formal training.  Woohoo.  Heat training all summer.  Oh boy.  I will be FLYING at that race when it’s a nice cool 60-70 degrees with an ocean breeze.  Or – should I start sooner since it’s my first?
  • Max miles on long runs? Some programs have you only going up to 20 (which seems ridiculous to me), some have you going to 22-24 (which seems more reasonable), and some have you running 30 a few weeks before.  It seemed good to train up and peak your miles on race day, but I’m not sure I want to add SIX miles on.  Two, sure.  It makes more sense to my logic circuits to run the whole distance or even a little further in preparation, but since I am NOT a robot, I don’t want to push myself too hard.
  • How hard is it? I mean, really.  Talk me out of this nonsense.  Training up from 6 miles to 13.1 was hard – but doable.  Most of the long runs were enjoyable.  That was 2 hours.  How different does it feel running for 4 hours?  13.1 miles was really not all that much harder than shorter distances as long as I made sure I kept my pace in check (with proper training).  Is there some magic that happens between 13.1 and 26.2 that makes it a whole different world?
  • Speed workouts? Some sites suggest them, some sites say don’t bother.  Some interesting workouts I saw: progression runs (most of the long runs easy – then the last 40 mins pick up the pace to finish at race pace), 10×100 pickups after a run (just to not forget how to go fast), 2×6 mile tempos 5 seconds faster than race pace with 10 min recovery jog between, 10 x 800 meters in the same minutes and seconds you want to finish your marathon in hours and minutes (if you want to finish in 4 hours you should run them in 4 minutes),  and 6 x 1 mile at 10k race pace.  It seems like most of the sites that suggest speed works say to mix them up.
  • I’m targeting Long Beach for a marathon because it’s pretty and temperate there is a 7 mile stretch along the beach and it makes for the start of a nice vacation.  However, there is a much closer one I can get to that would be a short drive, not a flight.  Who wants to talk me out of doing my first marathon 2000 miles away from home?

Anyone out there have other suggestions for me now that I’m starting to put together THE PLAN?  What helped you in your training?  What’s your best race story?  What’s your favorite race distance?  Should I just sit on the couch and eat popcorn instead?

Now, to run headlong into my weekend.  See ya next week, and I’ll let you know how Miss Jillian and her shredding are working out for me…

Fantasy…

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On October 21, 2009

In Uncategorized

First, read this.  Totally ripped the idea from there…

I loved this post and wanted to share my own.  I often dream about what I’d do if I won the lottery, but it’s fun to just confine it to things that would make me able to live a healthy lifestyle better (some of them are a stretch…but…).  Let the opulence begin with a day in the life!

I wake up whenever my body tells me to – however, since I don’t have any worries or things to do to keep me up at night, I probably naturally arise around 9am.  I reluctantly leave my bed, because it is made to the exact firmness for me (and Zliten’s side for Zliten) and feels pretty much like sleeping on a cloud.  I plod into my perfectly clean bathroom that the maid just tidied up for me yesterday and get ready to start my day.

I head to the kitchen where a chef is waiting for me.  He asks me what I want to eat for breakfast, and I jokingly say a waffle with ice cream, chocolate syrup, and some homefries.  He says that he would oblige, but it’s not on the nutritionist’s list for me and it’s not a splurge day.  Instead, he whips me up some delicious whole grain homemade toast and a fruit salad, as he knows I’ll be doing a long run that day and need something to fuel it.

I eat my breakfast while catching up on the internet/blogs/etc.  After the food settles, I go into my workout clothes closet which are organized by temperature and sport, and select an outfit for 60-70 degrees, running.  Since I have all the time in the world, I get my driver (please, if I ever get rich I will NEVER drive again) to Town Lake for a change of scenery, and run a nice, easy 10 mile jaunt – as I’m gearing up for a half marathon and that’s what my trainer has prescribed today.  When not training for a race, I might have someone come in and teach a different class each week so I can try everything.  After the car takes me home, I stretch out, and the chef has a smoothie waiting for me.  At first I object because I’m feeling fine and not hungry, but after his insistence, I drink it and feel even better.  He lets me know that lunch will be served in about an hour.

I see that Zliten is now up and swimming in the pool.  It’s too cold for the roof to be retracted, but it’s still nice to see the sun shining and get in the perfectly heated water.   I begrudgingly take a cold bath first for my legs, but then jump into the water and splash around with him for a while.  I look longingly at the hot tub, but figure that wouldn’t be the greatest on my just ice-bathed legs, so tomorrow it is.  On another day I’d make use of the diving board and be thankful for the life guard under our employ, but after a long run, I’m just happy to be in the water.  Before we know it, the chef lets us know that lunch is ready.

We dry off and put on our super cushy robes and eat lunch outside.  Today, mine is a gigantic turkey sandwich made on the same delicious homemade toast I had that morning, a salad, and some assorted veggies and pita slices with hummus.  Zliten is munching on the same thing, but a kobe beef burger instead of turkey.

After lunch, since we have some free time, we walk down to the theatre and decide to take in a movie.  The movie runs a little longer than we thought, so we have to call the car to have them pick us up and bring us a change of clothes and a snack (homemade protein bars and fruit) or we’d be late.  It’s time for a yoga class and then after, an hour massage.  It’s such a relaxing afternoon we both fall asleep during our sessions, and pretty much float back to the car.

On the way home, we decide that we want to hang out with our friends, and invite them over for dinner, after checking our schedules (easy workout tomorrow for Zliten, day off for me, check!).  After having a delicious dinner of shrimp cocktail, light caesar salad, petite filet mignon, and assorted veggies, we decide that we must hit the town.  The car takes us out to a new spot we’ve been wanting to try, and after we’ve had enough, it drops our friends off and takes us home.  Almost instantly, we fall into bed after the eventful day and drift off to sleep.

Instead – it’s get up reluctantly after the alarm has been buzzing for about an hour (snooze, snooze, snooze).  Squeeze in half of a workout.  Get ready really, really quickly and grab a promax bar on the way out the door.  Get to work just in time.  Head home for lunch, cook up something easy, finish up the day, come home and finish up my workout, cook/eat dinner, and have about 2 hours to relax/knock off anything on the to-do list, and then it’s time to get ready for bed.

While I crave a little stress and excitement, I think I could surely live with that sort of lifestyle for at least a little while.  How about you?  Tell me about your wildest fitness fantasies?

Super awesome pretty pictures from wallpaperpimper.com.

Quix’s Guide to Surviving The Holidays

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On October 20, 2009

In Uncategorized

So, I always hear that the holidays are the hardest part of the year to maintain a healthy lifestyle.  And by holidays, I mean the last quarter of the year being Hallo-anksgiv-mas.  Which might as well just be Christmas, since ALL THE FREAKING STORES have their Christmas decorations up already.  Some were up in August.  Does that just piss anyone else right the fuck off?  Christmas is a holiday on December 25th.  Christmas season is from black Friday to Jan 1.  I DO NOT WANT TO SEE CHRISTMAS SHIT IN OCTOBER!

Ok, grinchy rant over.  Anyhoo, I so don’t agree – I think summer is the hardest for me and I regularly LOSE weight during the holidays.  The first year, I took off 15 lbs between Thanksgiving and NYE.  Last year I took off 7.  I’m hoping to continue the trend although my track record hasn’t been that great this year.  Honestly, the holidays are only as big of a deal as you make it.  Here are how I’ve gotten through them.  As always, your mileage may vary.

Healthy Lifestyle Problem #1: There will be candy, cookies, and other random non-healthy eatings around in abundance.  Yes, it would be nice if we gave out protein bars for Halloween and made Christmas Salad for santa, but sadly, it’s not the case.  There will be food all around that is not necessarily good and healthy for you.  It might even infiltrate your house via significant others picking up some sale Halloween candy or neighbors bringing over Christmas cookies (yes, people in our neighborhood still do that, isn’t it cute?).  How do you deal with sweets being shoved in your face 24/7 for the greater part of 3 whole months?

Tips:

  • Allow yourself an occasional treat.  Sure, Snickers aren’t the epitome of good healthy eating, but if see it and want it, you’ll go nuts about it if you’re like me.  If I see something like that, I’ll grab it and stick it in my desk drawer at work until I can work it in my calorie count for the day.  I still have a reese’s peanut butter egg from easter in there somewhere.
  • For baked goods others are offering, I have a guideline – if it’s from a store, skip it.  If it’s homemade, at least have a taste.  If someone took the time to make homemade cookies from scratch and is offering them directly to me, I’ll find the smallest one and eat half.
  • If something gets in your house, really think long and hard if you can be trusted around it.  If not, take it to work for others to enjoy, ask your significant other to keep it somewhere besides the house, or failing everything, just throw it away.  It is not the end of the world to put something you don’t want to eat in the garbage.  It is not doing the starving kids in China ANY GOOD to pad your own hips more.  This is probably the most freeing thing I learned during deporkifying.
  • If you find you can’t escape a situation, lie.  If your coworker Jeannie McPushypants is INSISTING you eat one of her storebought cookies because they are JUST SO CUTE, tell her you have a mild allergy to flour so you don’t indulge very often because it makes you feel ill (which is not TOO far from the truth, if you ate every cookie offered, you’d indeed feel ill).  For some reason, people seem to respect allergies where they don’t respect trying to be healthy.  Go figure.

Healthy Lifestyle Problem #2: Parties, parties, parties.  First there is the “let’s all get together and hit the haunted house and go out” this weekend and then the halloween party proper next weekend, and then the actual halloween weekend will have more parties.  Candy and sweets and witches brew in various forms (adult or not).  Let’s not even mention the multiple thanksgivings that most people have (work, friends, family, other family) as well as Christmas parties (again – work, friends, family, etc).  How do you cope with the “awww, we’re all celebrating – loosen up a little” being thrust in your face every freaking week?

  • Don’t participate.  It’s not an option I invoke very often (I like parties!) but if the party isn’t meaningful to you and is just going to set you off, find something else fun to do (so you don’t feel deprived).  Or if it’s a work potluck, just have some last minute lunch plans during that time you can’t cancel.
  • Some people say to eat a healthy meal before, but if you’re like me, I eat a healthy meal before, then munch and drink at the party too.  I compromise and make sure I eat a super healthy filling lo cal snack, but leave some room to taste the best of the best yummies.
  • My plan already allows for 1 or 2 higher calorie days on the weekend with lower calorie days during the week – I just make those the party days.  In that vein, if you make sure and be pretty much saintly the day before and after said party, you shouldn’t have problems.
  • Get an extra workout in or go extra hard to burn some extra calories.  Gonna have a few glasses of wine tonight?  Run a few miles.  Too much turkey?  Say hi to the elliptical.  Just make sure you’re not overtraining if you’re already on a pretty rigorous workout schedule.  I’m signing up for a race on Thanksgiving morning and already have half marathon training runs scheduled Christmas Eve Morning and the 26th.
  • If it’s the holiday proper, enjoy yourself and don’t think too hard.  Eat a nice, filling, healthy breakfast and then sit at the table enjoying the company instead of obsessing over how many calories each slice of turkey has, please.  Thanksgiving and Christmas are generally days where a lot of love and tradition goes into the preparation of a big meal – one day is not going to kill you.  Just make sure it’s that ONE day.  Again, if you’re saintly the day before and after, it’s not going to kill you.

Above all, my biggest tip would be…

YOU ARE GOING TO SCREW UP.  Yes, even you Ms. Perfect over there who is convinced your willpower will keep you on celery and hummus through the WHOLE holiday season.  Ok, maybe not this guy, but still.  Most of us mere mortals will have a day or two where we eat and drink more than we should.  Know this…

IT IS OK.  I promise.  You are not kicked out of the healthy lifestyle club for falling facefirst onto a stack of cupcakes or having a big two three helpings of mom’s famous mashed potatoes rife with butter and gravy at Thanksgiving, or having 6 glasses of wine at the company Christmas party instead of the 2 you had planned on.  Just don’t blame me if you get fired, tee hee.  You enjoy your moment of indulgence, wake up the next morning (or next meal or next moment or whatnot), and go back to the healthy living you know and love.  This means…

NO GUILT.  NONE.  No feeling bad because you screwed up so you’re going to mope around and you feel worthless so you might as well just eat a cookie because you’re never going to lose any weight with your lack of self control anyway.  Well, since they’re there, you might as well finish the bag so you can start again tomorrow… sound familiar?

The best aha moment I ever had was recognizing this (I still succumb to it but not nearly as often) and telling myself, “Self, we had a good time last night!  Those sweets sure were divine and it was certainly fun to get a little tipsy, huh?  Let’s make sure to be extra good today so it doesn’t put a damper in our week, right? Right.”  And be done with it. And dear fluffy lord – if you’re NOT enjoying the cookie or the wine SPIT IT OUT (preferably not on anyone nearby) and throw it away.

What are your tips for surviving the holidays?  Does anyone else think I’m crazy for thinking the holidays are easier than the summer?

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About Me

I'm a video game producer and a lover of anything game related by trade.  I'm a triathlete by hobby.  I live for being on or in the water as much as I can - scuba diving, snorkeling, paddleboarding, water slides... you name it.  The dichotomy between my outdoor and indoor realities are interesting, but they're all mine!  Longer version here...

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