It’s that time of the year again! We have Thanksgiving just around the corner and Christmas shortly following. There’s also all the other holidays that I honestly do not know much about. Although holidays in this year will probably be a little different with Covid, I’m sure we will still be seeing plenty of family and eating plenty of food. It is time for those holiday gains! I couldn’t tell you how many people I’ve heard complain about the amount weight they gained over the holidays. It does make sense with all the food that you consume, and the little activity that you normally end up doing. The gym is not a normal outing for the family, but is it really such a bad thing at the end of it all?

The holidays are such a joyous occasion. Families come in from all over to get together and spend this special time together. For some families, this might be the only time of the year that they get to see their family. The one variable that tends to pull it all together is food. Hours are spent prepping and cooking the food for all the people in the celebrations. Despite all this joy and happiness, the negative thought at the end of it all is always how much weight you put on. Those holiday gains should be an incredibly easy trade-off for all the reasons that I just mentioned. You may have picked up some weight, but I guarantee you that it was well worth it. You can also make use of this weight gain to speed up your metabolism, and gain a little strength.

We are social creatures

Human beings evolved as social beings, because everything worked better when there was multiple people contributing. Could you imagine hunting, foraging, cooking, and building your shelter by yourself? And doing this for years all alone? We get a lot of joy and happiness when we get to spend time with our loved ones. In today’s time, a lot of us are stuck in a grind working day in and day out trying to stay afloat or get ahead. It is very easy for us to get absorbed into something else and completely neglect those that love us at home. And this is posted during the famous Covid-19 quarantine, so a lot of people have been stuck at home in isolation. This makes seeing loved ones even more important.

The holidays are a great time to finally get together and really spend quality time. Many business close early or just remain closed for their employees to make it home for their families. So we need to take advantage of that time. We need to socialize with our family and those that we consider family. Our happiness truly depends on how much social interaction that we get.

Isolation is easily one of the top drivers of depression. There must have been a time in your life that you had to miss a large family event or the holidays. I’m certain that there were certain feelings of dread that overcame you. Then you were reminded of how amazing it feels to hang out with those people again. This overwhelming sensation of joy keeps you smiling and laughing even after the festivities are over. Social isolation forces you to be alone with your own thoughts, and we have a tendency to let negative thoughts slip in there. When this happens it becomes a slippery slope to more negative thoughts. We need some sort of companionship, whether it be family, friends, or a significant other.

That being said, the trade of catching up with your family is way more valuable compared to the weight gain. I’m sure if you had skipped out on the holidays I bet you would actually pick up more weight. The stress of missing the occasion and the feeling of isolation will cause you to look for comfort in food. So don’t worry about the few pounds that you gained and instead focus on the amazing time you spent with your family. Now let us look at how these few pounds can be beneficial.

Metabolism

If you have spent at least a few months prior to the holidays dieting in order to minimize the gain during the holidays, then your metabolism may need that boost of calories. The nutritional advice that seems to be the most consistent with most people trying to lose weight is to eat less calories. However, this isn’t the perfect solution, and can actually cause more damage than good.

For example, let’s say you were eating 2000 Calories a day before deciding to go on a diet and you dropped down to 1000 Calories a day. You saw some quick changes in your weight initially, but your progress suddenly plateaus. You stop losing weight despite the fact that your diet hasn’t changed. So you stay in this calorie range and even try going a little lower some days just to see some progress.

The human body is incredibly efficient and it uses that efficiency for its survival. It is amazing how someone that is clearly 200 lbs overweight can eat 1000 Calories a day and not lose any weight. The body learns and adapts in order to survive. It will learn how to live on only those Calories by cutting corners and trying to get you to move less throughout the day. And, when you stay in this cycle for too long then this becomes all your body knows. It is like your body has turned into a Toyota Prius in terms of efficiency with Calories.

This big jump in your daily Calories during the holidays should theoretically help boost your metabolism back into shape. Now that you have Calories to spare your body doesn’t feel the need to try and hold onto those Calories that it did get. However, this isn’t a quick fix, because it takes some time before we get your body burning Calories like a Hummer instead of a Prius. You will have to do one thing in order to really take advantage of this huge influx of Calories, and that is exercise.

Strength Training

I get that trying to find time to work out while also enjoying the company of your family can be difficult. But, I am really talking about getting in only 30 minutes of strength training. Resistance training along with the increase in Calories, especially protein, will help you gain more strength. Which also means your metabolism will also get a boost.

Again, this isn’t something instantaneous. You won’t wake up the next morning looking like Arnold or anything of the sort. However, there is one thing I want you to pay attention to the next morning. Often enough when it comes to strength training the biggest problem I see is the under consumption of protein. When our protein consumption is too low, and we are strength training, it takes a lot longer for our bodies to recover from the work out. We also might not see the gains in strength that you would expect from how hard you worked. And you want to see the progress from your efforts, don’t you?

With a deficiency in Calories and protein our bodies can’t figure out whether or not it should build the muscles to adapt to the new stimulus. Why? Bigger, stronger muscles take more Calories to maintain. So why would your body add more horsepower to a car that barely gets enough fuel as it is? Remember how I said that your body’s only goal is to survive? So Let us take advantage of this boost in Calories to help strengthen our bodies.

You don’t need to spend hours in the gym trying to make this happen. Besides, you don’t want to spend too much time away from your family that you came such a long way to see. 30 minutes of the big lifts, or your favorite lifts, is all you need. The “big lifts” are the squat, deadlift, bench, and overhead press. Now if you are not at the level to put yourself under a barbell then absolutely do the exercises that are your level. For example, sit-to-stand, bridge, wall push up, and a shoulder press will be just fine. You would most likely want your workout to be before dinner, because after dinner, I mean who wants to workout after a holiday dinner? The point is to just get some activity that will send your muscles the stimulus that it needs to grow, and to use the food you ate to help build those muscles.

So Eat!

Eat freely and don’t limit yourself from eating just to avoid the weight gain. If there was one thing that you should do to help with the holiday gains, it would be to exercise. Take all those extra Calories and transform it into the blocks to help you build a stronger body. I’m sure you noticed that I didn’t mention cardio. Cardio is great as well, especially that walk after the giant dinner to help get the digestion process started. However, the effects of a 30 minute workout earlier in the day will have longer lasting effects on the body in comparison to a 1 hour walk. The 30 minute workout will help you build your strength and help to boost your metabolism. So Savor these precious moments with your family, and don’t worry about gaining the holiday weight, instead take advantage of it to build a stronger body.