The only tips you’ll need to maintain your abs over Christmas!

It’s December 25th, 2022
Merry Christmas!

I’ve got some tips on watching what you eat during the festive season and some more thought-provoking insights for you this week…

With the holiday season/most wonderful time of the year in full swing, just always remember not to overwhelm yourself with all the temptations of food and drinks. If there are endless desserts and high-carb/fat dishes right in front of me, I will probably eat them too! What matters is momentum. Don’t let one day of feasting plus a few days of leftovers throw off your entire momentum.

Here is my plan for food during the holidays. I tend to fast or only have some protein and veggies for meals until my bigger feast. Make sure to stay hydrated as well! Aim to drink about a gallon of water on big feast days, as it will help to reduce bloating at the end of the day. I then load up my first plate with what I call “essentials”. Think of your proteins and veggies. Then I get ONE serving of the more indulgent foods. After I finish my plate, I drink some water and take a break to listen to my hunger cues to see if I actually want more.

If there are foods you can eat ANY TIME YOU WANT, such as tortilla chips, salsa, bread, chocolate chip cookies…SKIP IT. Enjoy the rare foods, and more importantly, remember this is a holiday of family, friends, and loved ones. Focus on them, food is just on the side.

I was just in Miami this past weekend visiting a friend, and it definitely made me realize a few things after escaping the Chicago cold for some sunshine. Warm weather affects our behaviors a LOT. If it is nice out, you are more likely to be outside and active or walking places. Warm weather also has the effect of decreasing appetite a bit. So how can I simulate this when it is cold out? Saunas are one way. Acute sauna exposure does decrease appetite for a few hours following, and there is no rebound in hunger. Hunger just slowly returns to baseline. Similar to walking outside, I like to just increase my activity level. I go for shorter spurts of walks outside with my dogs. I walk on a treadmill while watching a show. It doesn’t need to be sprinting, it isn’t all or nothing!

I recently took on a new coaching client who has been having trouble losing weight for the last few years. This client has struggled with several medical conditions, but they have unfortunately never been given a proper answer or solution to their problems. After countless blood tests and tests of the GI tract, the initial theory was gut dysbiosis, which is a disruption of the bacteria of the GI tract. Modern medicine’s unfortunate answer was just throwing more medications, which led to worse digestion and quality of life.

This brings me to my point…As a future physician, at what point are we just throwing medications to resolve symptoms, rather than going for the underlying cause of disease and treating that? I am indeed a big proponent that diet and exercise will help 90% of health conditions out there..but that begs the next question. Are people (on a larger scale) willing to change their food and exercise behaviors for health, or is a pill that will control symptoms more enticing? I always ask myself this question. In random social media circles, you will hear “doctors are pill pushers that only care about pushing big pharma drugs”.

But on the flip side, the vast majority of people would just instead take the pill, as the first line treatment for many health conditions IS indeed dietary modification. In my opinion, I think there needs to be reform on both sides. Physicians should look into (and be taught) underlying causes of disease for patients interested, but also there needs to be a shift in the attitude of society to actually make healthy changes. The classic dilemma here, and I am curious to chat with any of you and hear your thoughts on the subject.

Thanks for reading through all of this, I hope you’re able to make use of a few of them, especially during the festive season!
Do let me know of any topics you’d like to get my thoughts on.

Thanks as always,
CP