what’s up guys? sean nalewanyj, seannal.com. and today we’re going to be going over someholiday diet tips. it’s that time of year and a lot of peoplehave been asking me for advice on what they should do to stay on track with their dietduring christmas time.
easy january diet, so, let’s talk a little bit about it. so, first things first, assuming that youdo celebrate the holidays, and that the food aspect is something that you really enjoyand that you do want to indulge in, my first and my main piece of advice is to just chill.
i get that you have fitness goals, you don’twant to fall off track with things but keep in mind that the purpose of the holidays isto relax and to enjoy your time, you know, with your friends and family. and if you start obsessing about every calorieyou’re eating and heavily restricting yourself then you’re just going to be adding a wholeextra layer of stress on top that really doesn’t need to be there, and you won’t be ableto truly unwind and just appreciate the time. so, don’t think “here’s my fitness programand how do i make the holidays fit into thisâ€. think “here’s the holidays, how do i reasonablymake my fitness program fit into this?†when you look back on your life and if someoneasks you if there’s anything you regret,
you’re probably not going to say, “i wishi had track my macros more accurately on christmas eveâ€. i could be wrong but probably not. now, that said, i’m not anybody’s lifecoach here and everyone is obviously different. and so, how you choose to go about it, willdepend on your specific fitness goals and then what the holidays is actually look likefor you. so, let me go over three scenarios here andi’ll give a few tips throughout. so, scenario number one is the more extremeroute. so, maybe you’re preparing for a fitnesscompetition, or you need to be in a very specific
shape by a certain date, and you made up yourmind staying fully on track with your program absolutely is your number one priority ormaybe christmas time just isn’t a big deal for you to begin with and you don’t feelany real desire to indulge in the first place. that’s fair enough. and in that case, you can just continue doingwhatever you were doing previously in terms of nutritional tracking by knowing what yourcalories and your macros are. and continuing to just count them and usingbasic willpower to stay within your nutritional limits. scenario number two is on the complete oppositeend of the spectrum which is just to fully
let go and just eat whatever you feel likein whatever amounts you’d like. now, there’s nothing objectively wrong withthis approach either, as long as you’re aware of what you’re doing, why you’redoing it and what the possible consequences might be. how it specifically affects your fitness goals? really just depends on how many calories you’reactually going over by and for what period of time. so, if it’s just for a few days and you’renot going completely off the charts insane, the impact is going to be very minor if anything.
whereas, if it’s for two or three-week straightand you are going completely insane, then yeah, it is going to affect your physiqueto some degree, you’re obviously going to gain some fat. is that a big deal? depending on the person, maybe, maybe not. if you’re still in the beginning stagesof your fitness plan, and you start just fully binging during the holidays for an extendedperiod of time, and you end up erasing a bunch of the progress you’ve made, and that causesyou to lose motivation and fall off track in the bigger picture then yes, it could havesome legitimate negative consequences.
on the other hand, if you’re more experiencedand you say, “you know what? i’m just going to go ahead and just fullyenjoy myself this christmas. i’m going to eat and drink whatever i feellike, maybe i do gain 3 pounds of fat. but i’ll just go ahead and diet for a weekor two in january and burn it back offâ€. that’s a perfectly viable option. as long as you know what you’re doing andyou feel that it’s worth the trade-off. so yeah, either of those two extremes, eithercontinuing to track everything and being very strict or tracking absolutely nothing andgoing a 100 percent all out, both of those approaches can be fine for some people, dependingon the circumstances as long as it’s being
done consciously. now, that said as with most things there isa middle ground in there somewhere. and i think that that middle ground is probablywhat will apply and work best for the both of you guys who are watching this, which meansallowing yourself to relax loosening things up, enjoying those holiday food and drinksbut still being mindful about what you’re doing and not going too far overboard withit because again, you have to think not just in terms of how the excess calories are goingto affect your progress right now, but also how it might affect your progress once theholidays are over in terms of maintaining your focus and your motivation moving forward.
so, in terms of practical tips, if you’vebeen in a cutting phase and your goal is to lose fat, you can attempt to maintain yourcalorie deficit but another good approach, assuming that the food aspect of the holidaysis something you really enjoy, is to just treat this time as a diet break for maybeone or two weeks and just eat roughly around your calorie maintenance level or in a smallsurplus. it’s not going to negatively impact yourresults. even if you do eat in a surplus, a good percentageof those calories will be diverted to lean muscle growth anyway, as long as you’restill training. and if you’ve been in a deficit for a while,then a diet break can actually be a useful
tool to give you a nice physical and mentalboost. on the other hand, if you’ve been bulkingand you’re already in a surplus then you can just keep that surplus in place or justbe a bit more generous with it. in terms of actual nutritional tracking, thiscan be a bit of a challenge because a lot of the items are going to be homemade. so, just do your best to roughly estimateand go by feel. being a few 100 calories off is not a bigdeal in the short-term. losing fat and building muscle is all aboutwhat you do in the big picture. so, don’t stress yourself out too much withit.
just try to approximately ballpark it. if you do want to be a bit more precise thenthe best option is to just take whatever homemade item you’re eating and then look up an equivalentitem using a nutrition database like my fitness pal or calorieking, there’s a bunch of differentones that you can use. so, for example, if you’re eating, let’ssay a homemade nanaimo bar or a homemade slice of apple pie, look up the nutritional contentfor those items online and just use those as an estimation. it’s definitely not going to be perfectbut it really doesn’t need to be perfect either.
and again, if we’re talking just about afew days here and there where your food intake is going to be particularly higher, so let’ssay, you know christmas eve, christmas day and new years, i wouldn’t even worry aboutspecifically tracking anything besides just some very basic estimation. i would say, just enjoy yourself and don’tworry about it because short periods like that aren’t going to be enough to have anyreal detrimental effect. and there’s no point in stressing yourselfout during times like that when you should just be relaxing and having fun. and then one other tip you can use on dayswhere you will be eating those bigger higher
calorie meals and snacks is to intentionallylower your calorie intake in the earlier portion of the day so that you can save up caloriesfor later on. an intermittent fasting style approach isone option or you can just make an effort to eat a bit less earlier on, in that wayyou can just enjoy yourself later with less of a chance of going overboard on total calories. so, i don’t want this to drag on for toolong here. bottom line guys, take it easy and enjoy theholidays. in the grand scheme of your life, you’reprobably going to get more fulfillment from enjoying your time with friends and familythan you are from having a six-pack.
so, find a good middle ground in there whereyou can let loose and indulge. but also do it mindfully and keep a roughtab on your food intake if holiday eating is something that extends beyond just a coupledays for you. so, thanks for watching guys. i hope this was helpful. if it was, make sure to hit the like button,leave a comment and subscribe. you can access my complete body transformationblueprint, that includes my recommended workouts, eating plans and supplement guides along withone-on-one coaching by clicking here or by heading over to bodytransformationtruth.comusing the link in the description box.
the official website is seannal.com. and you can follow me on social media hereif you aren’t already. thanks again guys and i’ll see in the nextvideo.
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