It's December 24th, 2018. Christmas! The most wonderful time of the year! Or is it? As a psychiatrist, I know for sure that for many of my patients holidays are the most stressful times ever – people often feel isolated, lonely, stressed and show up to emergency rooms for support. And as someone who preaches specific nutritional approaches, I feel that these days are tough for people following their respective diets as pretty much everywhere you go someone is offering you some cookies, sweets and other treats. All these gestures are nice, but obviously they are ruining our diets. So how should we handle these situations?
I would say that there is a variety of strategies we can use and I'd put them on a spectrum ranging from doing the right thing (staying on your diet no matter what) on the right and losing it completely on the left with some options in between.
So, let's talk about these strategies in detail. I will start with the most proper thing to do – just staying on your diet and following it to a tee. Definitely, this approach will allow you to achieve your goals and to be proud of yourself at the same time. The real problem with this approach is that you might feel like you're isolating yourself socially and missing out big time – while you're chasing your dream the rest of the people are having fun and socializing. This problem can be quite a huge issue for a lot of people and maybe it is the main reason for many to use the opposite strategy – taking a break. This one sounds like an easy answer – you don't have to follow your diet 100% of the time, right? I truly believe that you do, mainly because it becomes very difficult to draw the line between taking a break and completely ruining all your progress. How many days of bad diet can you afford? How many days will take to recover? What if your diet is very unforgiving, like pretty much any low-carbohydrate diet that aims at ketosis and it takes a couple of weeks for your body to adapt to it? My point is that it's always a slippery slope, quite steep and quite slippery. My best example is my family – if I decide to break my diet for Christmas and New Year's time, it's already a week or slightly more of bad eating. On top of that we have Orthodox Christmas and the "Old New Year" (one odd way of having an extra holiday in some countries) and both of my parents' birthdays are in January. Effectively, if I slip in the second half of December, I won't be able to recover before the end of January, plus it would take 3-4 weeks (at least 2) to lose the fat I gained and to get back in shape, so it's like 8-10 weeks wasted in total and I don't even count the missed opportunity to get into better shape during these 8-10 weeks.
So, if the total adherence is almost unrealistic (kudos to you if you manage though) and taking a break is too problematic... what are the less polar options in my spectrum of nutritional strategies?
Well, first of all you can take short breaks from your diet, like a day here and a day there and compensate for these days by having good workouts on these days and having "recovery" periods afterwards that would allow you to return back on track quickly. Potential issues with this approach would be a) still being problematic for those in ketosis and b) with all the "recovery" items the whole idea of compromise might sound rather futile – what's the point of having it if it takes more effort than just sticking to your diet?
Speaking of which, what could be slightly less polar than "doing the right thing" approach? I would say that you can still stick to your diet if you exercise full control over the cooking and your meals – so you still stick to your diet, but at the same time you socialize with your friends, colleagues, family members, but while doing so you are eliminating the nutritional elements that do not fit your diet either from the menu or from your portions of the meals. Say, you're going to get together with your folks over a turkey dinner – then you should be the one who cooks it. Say, for example, you're on a low-carb diet – in this case you will not use any stuffing or you might use some low-carb stuffing, your will not have cranberry sauce or you might find a low-carb alternative and, finally, when cutting and serving the turkey, you will not put anything that has carbs in it on your plate. Sounds a bit extreme, but in my opinion it's one of the best ways of going through the holidays and staying true to your diet.
Finally, right in the middle of the spectrum lies the compromise which will allow you to stay more or less true to your diet and at the same time not feeling like pariah – careful planning of your meals and your responses to potential temptations. You might decide to turn down certain minor temptations like a cookie or a pastry here and there, you might cook some meals and treats yourself to be at least close to your own nutritional standards and you can allow yourself some minor breaks with the foods you really enjoy/crave on one or two special occasions. Again, I would recommend pairing these "breaks" with physical exercise and "recovery" periods to compensate for your deviations from the nutritional plan.
I would say, that the last two strategies are the most cost-effective in terms of preventing major relapses, avoiding losses of physique quality, staying on track with your diet even given the obvious effort required to follow them. In the end of the day, you will maintain your gains / weight losses and won't have to catch up and the effort is comparable to the "doing the right thing" approach.
I know that some of these thoughts and ideas might seem obvious to someone, but at the same time it's better to stay aware and informed rather than missing something important and then recover your losses, so in the end of the day I hope that you find this blog useful and encourage you to subscribe to both this website and to my YouTube channel so you won't miss anything ever. Feel free to ask questions, make comments – I'm always happy to answer them.
Sincerely Yours,
Dr.Sam