How do we avoid holiday weight gain on keto? As we all know cheat days can wreck our diets and kick us out of ketosis. The holidays provide the perfect storm of temptation combined with built in excuses that can take us off track quickly. In this post we will talk about practical ways you can survive the holidays on keto.
What causes holiday weight gain?
- Social Pressure: Pressure from loved ones to ‘live a little’ and eat what everyone else is eating
- Stress: Stress from being a keto eater in a non keto house or the reverse, hosting non keto eaters in your own house.
- Broken Routines: Most of us are better at maintaining our diet when we’re in a routine. Holidays are not routine.
How can we avoid holiday weight gain?
There are 3 main areas we will focus on:
- Planning Ahead
- Making Decisions in the moment
- Getting back on track after the holiday
1. Planning Ahead
Yep, we can avoid many of the pitfalls of eating the wrong things by planning ahead. You can prepare for your guest some hidden keto friendly options. If you’re the guest you can bring along some low carb dishes.
- Make keto friendly holiday side dishes. These were a hit at thanksgiving this year.
- Add some keto friendly desserts. We use some of the recipes in this keto dessert cookbook. It’s only $6.99 so it was well worth it this thanksgiving alone.
- Pack some keto friendly snacks. We preach having lots of keto snacks.
- Let people know that you’re on a special diet. Letting the know it’s for health reasons (rather than just vanity) should keep them supportive
2. Making Decisions in the moment
There you are about to eat. What do you chose? With just a couple good choices in the moment you can stay on track!
- Keep things simple (by eating traditional favs like turkey, ham, brussel sprouts & cauliflower)
- Know what to avoid (no starchy carbs like potatoes. Swap our pecans for chestnuts)
- Fill up on low carb veggies
- Drink lots of water (and limit the booze. Or try some of the low carb booze options in this article)
- Enjoy yourself! (2020 has been stressful enough. Make some good choices but don’t stress)
3. Recovering from holiday weight gain
- Assess the damage. Yes this means stepping on a scale. You need to face where you are to help you get where you want to be.
- Get on track quickly. (you can recover a binge weekend by following it with 3 super strict days of keto)
- Drink lots of water. Like lots! Shoot for 1oz of water for every pound of your body weight. For instance a 150 lbs person should shoot for 150 oz of water. Do this for 3 straight days and you’ll be surprised.
- Get serious and do our 21 Day Weight Loss Challenge
Happy Holidays to you and yours!
Mr Skinny Pants
PS need some help with your diet? Schedule a free call with us. It might be the best 45 min you invest in yourself.
by Mr Skinny Pants