Welcome to The Dead Zone.
I’ve written this to clients so many times over the years I figured I’d make it into a post.
You know the expression “it’s not how you eat between Xmas and New Years that matters, it’s how you eat between New Years and Xmas?”
There’s a lot of truth to it. One week isn’t a lot of time, no matter how badly you eat. Especially if there’s another 51 weeks to treat your body much better.
Fact is a client in a really good training & diet rhythm can go off the rails completely for a week and not gain an ounce of fat, once they resume their plan and the travel bloat washes away. It happens all the time.
But that’s one week. FOUR or more weeks is a different story. That’s a long time to take off from productive, intentional eating.
Yet that’s exactly what many people do.
They see the time between Thanksgiving and Xmas as too brief to ‘hop on a diet’ so they play the dreaded ‘aww screw it card’ and eat like a-holes 24/7, resolving to really hit it January 1st.
THAT’S how you gain 10 pounds over the Holidays.
Not a few big meals here, a few days off there, but a month of taking your eye off the ball or in many cases leaving the damn ballpark completely.
The solution? Go All In.
Go all in on the holidays — enjoy food, rest, even booze, and especially time off — on all the days that are important to you. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Fesitvus, Kwanzaa, whatever. No half-measures.
But on the other days go all-in on your diet & training.
It works because there’s way more “other days” in the Dead Zone than holidays. More than enough to keep you in rhythm and mentally engaged while still enjoying the holidays. And a hell of a lot less stressful.
But the whole process starts NOW, in the weeks leading up to the Dead Zone, not the day before Thanksgiving.
Start nailing your habits. Get into a healthy, workable pattern you can easily resume between travel days and parties and holidays.
And whatever you do, don’t think “screw it, I’ll just pick up the plan in the New Year.”
That route will leave you bloated & miserable January 1st. Though you’ll probably have a lot of company.
– Coach Bryan