Disclaimer: This will undoubtedly be my least “liked” blog post yet, but it will not keep me from posting it! Why will it not be popular? Because I will appear to be the “fun police” as I speak the truth to those who are failing to lose weight and live a healthier lifestyle. The purpose of any of my blog posts is to just state the truth and let you choose what to do with it. Please read this with an open mind and understand that I mean it with the best of intentions…to help you on your path to a healthy lifestyle!
This post in particular today, is about how “celebrating” every accomplishment/Holiday/special occasion is ruining progress for many people. Here’s why. It is accepted in the personal training and nutrition community that it takes three times as long to lose weight than it does to gain it. Meaning, in simple terms, one day of binge-eating and being reckless with your diet will turn into three days of work to get back to where you were. Think about that for a minute. How does that impact your progress this month or even in 2020? First, let’s look at some of the occasions that many Americans celebrate:
- New Year’s Day
- College football national championship
- Super Bowl Sunday
- March Madness (potential dozens of games)
- Easter
- Spring break (sometimes an entire week!)
- Memorial Day
- Cinco de Mayo
- Summer cookouts (many!)
- Independence Day
- Labor Day
- Halloween
- Thanksgiving
- Winter Break
- Christmas
- News Years Eve
- Promotions
- Your birthday
- Spouse/significant other’s birthday
- Kids’ birthdays
- Your third cousin’s birthday (sorry, not sorry lol)
- National pancake day…
- National taco day…
- Family vacations (sometimes several per year)
- Promotions
- Weddings
- Every Friday and Saturday night (sadly, this is still a thing for many people even beyond their college years. Which, if you add them up, is approximately 104 days per year which may overlap with a couple holidays)
The list can go on for many people. Now, let’s assume the above list applies to you. Many of the holidays or occasions can be celebrated for several days or even weeks in a row (spring break, winter break, family vacations, July 4th weekend, Memorial Day weekend, etc.)! And if you are the type where you live for the weekend, look at #27 above. That’s already 100 days out of your year! If that’s you, and you take 100+ days to “celebrate” during the year, it will take you 300 days to get back on track. How many days are in a year? Do the math…you’ll never catch up. So, year after year, people “celebrate” their butts off, eat too much food, spend too much money, and come December 31, they are wondering what happened the previous year and are setting New Years resolutions for the upcoming year. Let that sink in…..does it sound familiar? If it does, luckily you can change! And you can start today!
How do you change? First off, before I tell you that, you are probably wondering why I keep putting apostrophes around “celebrate”. Well, that’s because I think you can enjoy life without blowing your own goals and ambitions. You can hangout with friends and family and have a good time without regretting your actions when you get home. One person can “celebrate” by dropping $200 at the bar, eating unhealthy food and being hungover the next morning, or another person can celebrate by spending quality time with friends, making good choices and waking up and conquering the next day. It’s just a choice. But I digress. How do we change? How do we go from celebrating 100+ days a year to limiting ourselves while still having a good time?
- Be selective. Sure, most people celebrate Christmas, Easter, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and rightfully so! But maybe you don’t need to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, national pancake day, etc. They are choices. But every choice has its repercussions. If losing weight is a priority, show it with your actions and your choices.
- Celebrate the right way. Every occasion doesn’t require you to go through a bottle of wine and 4000 calories. Maybe you can have just one glass of wine and a small dinner? Or, you can fast throughout the day, get a great workout in and eat a larger meal? The options are many but treating every celebration as if it’s your last will leave you disappointed in the end. If you have questions on what to do for days where there are major food festivities, please go back and read my blog post about Thanksgiving preparations!)
- You must have the power to say no. What does that mean? Say no to some friends’ birthday parties. I know, again I’m the unpopular one right now. But imagine if even half of your friends invited you to their birthday parties this year, how many would you attend? Choices. You have to be able to say no to certain foods. You must be able to say no to second a glass of alcohol. Remember this…people who fail in life say yes, people who win have the power to say no.
There you have it. Three simple (but not easy) ways to change how you celebrate life’s occasions while still accomplishing your goals. For some of you, you won’t like this post because you feel convicted and know you can change. There are some of you who just read this like “yea…exactly” because you just did this over the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holidays and passed with flying colors. I have many clients who continued to lose weigh during the holidays while most Americans just give-in to gaining 10 lbs!!! And there are some of you who read this and think I’m full of crap. No matter what you think, it’s okay. I did not write this post to make friends or tell people things they want to hear. I wrote this post to state the truth behind why so many people fail in their weight loss journey year after year. It’s up to you to decide what to do with the information.
If you’re tired of losing, please take this post to heart and change how you celebrate. As always, if you need help, please contact me!
Coach Rich
Richard Fitzgerald 