how to not drop your diet for the holidays

[HeyMrWaters]

Just wanted to give you guys an example that it IS possible to enjoy the holidays with good food, and not ruin all the hard work you’ve put into your physique. I am one that is notorious for binging and eating till I have an upset stomach and hate myself the next morning physically because it hurts and mentally because I think of how many steps back I’ve taken.

Everyone has their own way about doing this- whether that’s extra cardio the next day, less calories the day before, etc. but for me I feel like these create bad habits and teach your body its okay to cheat because you’ll just “make up for it.”

So what I’ve found what works for me is to still enjoy a wonderful holiday themed meal – but cook it healthily!! You can eat great and not feel bad afterwards very easily………
Below I present to you my Christmas dinner:



to all you out there thinking “omg waters no you cheated your diet you can’t eat that” NOPE what you’re looking at is a delicious dinner I made that is macronutrient friendly.
Let me explain how said dinner was 100% acceptable:
-very lean beef tenderloin, raw broccoli salad with walden farms dressing, asparagus with lemon rinds, green beans with a pinch of sea salt, baby portobellos cooked down until brown, and last but not least – mashed sweet potatoes with stevia. I think you can still see the steam coming off the plate! yes, my normal veggie portion for this meal is 1 cup, but EliteBodyTuneup(who I'm working with) will not be mad at me because extra veggies are no problem at all. For being a healthy meal I think it looks pretty damn good…..tasted amazing too, the whole family had some haha.

Hope everyone got to enjoy some time during these holidays with the people they love, currently watching mickey mouse and playing with my daughter in her new “play-house.” Before you know it we’ll be playing tea party jeeez time goes by fast………..take care everyone. Work hard and stay strong!

[SwoleZilla]

Re: how to not drop your diet for the holidays

great post and nice to see you over here!

[Christsean]

Re: how to not drop your diet for the holidays

Great post. The unfortunate thing is when you have no control of the cooks. What I did is avoid the ridiculous foods that are big no no's and eat only things that were similar to my typical diet foods. For example. Green Bean and artichoke casserole, squash and shrimp casserole similar, pumpkin cheesecake no no, dinner rolls no no.

I track my macros so I had to allow myself proportions that were similar to my normal feed. If I eat x%protein, x%carbs and x%fat, then I stacked my plate accordingly. Believe me it wasn't easy because of the high fat content of casseroles, but you can make it work and not totally ruin your diet. It all bills down to discipline and self control which is what is required any way do maintain a successful competition duet.

[HeyMrWaters]

Re: how to not drop your diet for the holidays

Great post. The unfortunate thing is when you have no control of the cooks. What I did is avoid the ridiculous foods that are big no no's and eat only things that were similar to my typical diet foods. For example. Green Bean and artichoke casserole, squash and shrimp casserole similar, pumpkin cheesecake no no, dinner rolls no no.

I track my macros so I had to allow myself proportions that were similar to my normal feed. If I eat x%protein, x%carbs and x%fat, then I stacked my plate accordingly. Believe me it wasn't easy because of the high fat content of casseroles, but you can make it work and not totally ruin your diet. It all bills down to discipline and self control which is what is required any way do maintain a successful competition duet.

haha I'm a bit of a mental nutcase when it comes to counting macros so I have to keep it clean and simple so i know X is X cals and that's a fact. I can't play the guessing game with casseroles and what not...hurts my head way too much, but hey if you can do it more power to ya wish I could lol.

..and shrimp and squash casserole? Me and you must be from the same neck of the woods, we fixed a killer eggplant and shrimp casserole for thanksgiving(fell on a reward day yay haha)

[SwoleZilla]

Re: how to not drop your diet for the holidays

Great post. The unfortunate thing is when you have no control of the cooks. What I did is avoid the ridiculous foods that are big no no's and eat only things that were similar to my typical diet foods. For example. Green Bean and artichoke casserole, squash and shrimp casserole similar, pumpkin cheesecake no no, dinner rolls no no.

I track my macros so I had to allow myself proportions that were similar to my normal feed. If I eat x%protein, x%carbs and x%fat, then I stacked my plate accordingly. Believe me it wasn't easy because of the high fat content of casseroles, but you can make it work and not totally ruin your diet. It all bills down to discipline and self control which is what is required any way do maintain a successful competition duet.

i did this same thing...u just know when you shouldnt eat it. like bread is never a go haha. and there is a difference between cheating on a diet and just straight up forgetting the diet

[Christsean]

Re: how to not drop your diet for the holidays

haha I'm a bit of a mental nutcase when it comes to counting macros so I have to keep it clean and simple so i know X is X cals and that's a fact. I can't play the guessing game with casseroles and what not...hurts my head way too much, but hey if you can do it more power to ya wish I could lol.

..and shrimp and squash casserole? Me and you must be from the same neck of the woods, we fixed a killer eggplant and shrimp casserole for thanksgiving(fell on a reward day yay haha)

I'm a houstonian. Yeah, you think that's weird, weird was the look I got from the people when I asked for the recipe so I could break it down properly. Believe it or not, I was successful staying true to my diet for the most part. I love my fitness pal app!

[Christsean]

Re: how to not drop your diet for the holidays

i did this same thing...u just know when you shouldnt eat it. like bread is never a go haha. and there is a difference between cheating on a diet and just straight up forgetting the diet

Yes there is brother! Lol!