During the winter holidays many people as well as I am tend to overeat. I admit, it is quite natural. All we know that Christmas is the time when families are gathering together for the nice dinner and this is where the big problem appears. To a person that have an habit to control the daily based nutrition and strive to be as healthy as possible it is really hard to enjoy Christmas Family Dinner. The food macro nutrients differ completely, from what is considered to be normal for person with healthy diet approach. It is a quite important issue. So how not to feel guilty and at the same time enjoy Holiday Dinner with our family? The consensus between this issues must be reached.
So what is the solution for this problem? What is a way to go and save ourselves from gaining to much fat during Christmas Holidays and for the most important enjoy the company of our family?
As an example of myself, December tends to be the most difficult month to diet. It all begins on December 12th when it is my father's birthday, than it is Christmas, two days after Christmas it is my birthday, following this it is the Dinner with my Friends and Classmates and finally we have New Years Eve. As you can see the list of holidays is quite big. Where there is a holiday there is always a chocolate cake. My mom is a pro as far as making chocolate cakes. These cakes are delicious however the problem is that they have significant amount of calories coming from undesired carbohydrates and fats.On these days I normally eat almost half of a cake by myself. Perhaps many people will think that it is something crazy and that I will gain a few pounds of fat on the next day. But....Despite all the food that was eaten, I even was able to loose weight.
Next day when I weighted myself in the morning I was less heavier (around 300 grams less). Surprised?! ... Not really and the answer is Intermittent Fasting combined with Paleo Diet.
It is quite simple actually. In order not to gain the undesired fat just try to eat two meals on that day. First meal equals post workout and normally would consists from lean sources of protein such as Whey Protein, Egg Whites, different types of meat, carbohydrate sources come from vegetables and as far as fat I tend eat less fat as possible however walnuts and egg yolks are my favorite choice.
For the second meal you can just simply enjoy your Family's Christmas Dinner. Just try not to overeat. You still can eat a lot of food. Perhaps another thing that could really help to minimize the fat gain is to count calories. The equation is very simple: Calories In - Calories Out = Weight Gain. As I control my daily calorie intake for me it is not quite hard to keep my weight and fat gains to minimum. Yet, I always considered that macro nutrient intake is also important. Try to rely more on protein intake during the first meal of the day.
So I would really recommend Intermittent Fasting for the diet approach. It is very convenient not only during Holiday Time but also for the people that don't have enough time to prepare six or more meals a day and are very busy with their work.
So don't be afraid to experiment this diet approach. You will definitely see the desired effect in short terms. In my next posts I will try to explore more about Intermittent Fasting, Muscle Loss, Metabolism, Paleo Diet and other relevant issues regarding food science/technology and especially nutrition.
For more information regarding this Diet Approach created by Martin Berkhan just visit www.leangains.com
The Holidays and cakes will be continued for the rest of December!!!
