Post Thanksgiving Damage Control – Recover And Reset

what to do after eating your heart out on thanksgiving? typical and unconventional ways for damage control, motivation and still lose weight.

I posted an article with 5 steps to a guilt free thanksgiving

http://www.buzzfeed.com/eileenn4c0a9c25f/no-guilt-thanksgiving-5-steps-13lzl

this is step 5 - the day after thanksgiving

One of the hardest part is knowing what to do after a day of indulgences and glutton, first a foremost it's changing the way we think, analyze our tendencies and filtering information. There will be articles and videos telling you to do this and that, tips and tricks about post thanksgiving nutrition and workouts that claim to burn all of what you eat, or tick your body etc. etc.

But the one thing that all the information and articles have in common is that to recover and keep you motivated after a big "cheat" day is to eat healthy long afterwards and keep on exercising. There are some merits in what people do and say that can help you to continue your goals of weight loss, fitness, and healthy living. From experience and a lot of thought I've developed a few theories on the best practices to bounce back.

So the day after thanksgiving:

Don't think about the scale, don't even step on it!

it is okay to fast

Just think of all the calories you ate. I ate ribs, turkey, stuffing, fries, loaded salads, cookies, brownies, cheesecake. All of that then becomes stored energy and the amount of stored energy in one thanksgiving dinner is enough to fuel you for an entire day or two.

exercise

Exercise helps you use the stored energy, building muscles increases metabolism BECAUSE you increase the energy expended in a day and if you worked out hard the whole week before and the day of, the energy to recover your muscles are what really burns calories.

filter information and change what you've been told

Your metabolism is your metabolism; it's the rate at which you use energy. It does not change just by one day of over eating. The way you metabolize the energy in food was either used or stored into your fat cells. Stop thinking about changing your metabolism the day after with diet pills, drinking and eating certain foods, it's all about exercising.

balence your macros (unconventional practice that i do)

Let's say if you eat a lot of protein like turkey, ribs etc that I gorged on and high fatty foods, the next day ill avoid those food and eat the opposite, so higher carbs. If you chose to eat higher carbs and sugars for thanksgiving, the next day eat more protein. It's a balancing approach to nutrition. But if you are like me and ate everything in large quantities, I'm sticking to high fiber, low calorie vegetables.

practice the art of forgiveness

Don't punish yourself; like I said in my earlier video, one day after a weeks or two weeks' worth of hard workouts and healthy eating, it's not going to kill your plans, or my plan to lose 20 pounds. Change the way you think, stop feeling guilty for what you ate. Think about continuing to choose healthy foods and exercise daily and developing healthy habits. Thanksgiving is over, what's done is done. Move on and persevere with your health and fitness goals.

stay motivated, remember your goals and just do it!

It goes hand in hand with forgiving yourself. Don't continue eating the high calorie food, especially the saucy leftovers and high calorie sweets; remove the temptations if you can. Do continue to focus on high nutrient foods and healthy diet so use the healthy leftovers, i.e. turkey, steamed vegetables, fruits etc. you know what is healthy and what isn't, to make into a healthy salad or sandwich that is in line with your diet plans. Bounce back and resume your normal routine. It's simpler than you think.