By Terra Cardwell, Personal Trainer

Tis the season to be mindful. We find ourselves thinking more of loved ones, being a little bit kinder to others and hopefully to ourselves. This is the time that the cool air swirls with the smell of roasted nuts, our thoughts dance off with the sugar plums and ginger bread finds it’s way marching into our mouths. Are you one to enjoy and savor these moments or feel guilty? If you are the latter, read on to learn how you can enjoy the Holiday’s guilt free. Forgive the tardiness of this article but preparing to eat through the holidays should have started about a month ago…around the end of October. You know, that time when you promised yourself you weren’t going to buy the Economy Sized bag of assorted candy. This is when you want to really hone your mindful eating skills. Mindful eating is the practice of paying careful attention to what you\’re eating and your own reactions to it. It starts well before you have chosen a given meal. It should begin the night before when you are planning for the following day. You will plan your outfit, what time to set your alarm, your route to work, the kids activities and your meals. Planning your meals for the day ensures that you have the appropriate food with you to make sure you are functioning at your most optimum.Most of my clients who stick to their healthy meal plan on a daily bases are encouraged to enjoy 1 treat meal per week. I refrain from using the term cheat meal because a treat meal is part of the program; it is meant to be a treat without the negative feelings of a cheat. This allows them to plan for a party or event without guilt or take the kids for ice cream and enjoy the adventure. However, it is a treat meal. Not a binge day. If you are mindful to eat what is most optimal for your body to run day to day then a 1x treat/ week is not going to reverse all the progress you made the week prior. In fact, a weekly treat will fan the flames of your burning metabolism. As we know, prolonged dieting can have a negative effect on your metabolism by slowing it down. If you use this technique as a license to binge then you can easily negate a week of effort in the gym. Now that we are in December, the best way to set your self up for successfully eating through the holidays is:

1. Don’t buy cookies, brownies, cakes, treats etc. There will inevitably be a tasty supply of goodies brought into the office or gifted to you by a thoughtful client. It’s a lot easier to enjoy these treats guilt free if you didn’t have those christmas cookies after dinner last night or that pumpkin cream cheese muffin with your latte that morning.

2. Don’t starve yourself. Often people will starve themselves the day of the event or the week leading up to a large meal thinking they are saving up their calories and then they binge. Your metabolism doesn’t work like that. You metabolism works best if you feed it like a steady burning flame. Throwing it a moderate log every 3 hours. If you let it die down by starving your fire then throw a massive log on it, the fire burns out. How this relates to your metabolism, is by starving yourself and then gulping down the calories your body cannot utilize all the given calories at that moment and will store the excess as fat. This gorging of calories will also send your hormones spiraling liking causing blood sugar crashes, headaches, bloating, and fatigue. You ideally want to keep your metabolism running smoothly and maintain balanced hormones so that you don’t bloat like a Macy’s Parade Balloon and send yourself into a food coma when you binge. Continue to eat your normal, healthy meals but cut back. If you have an office cookie, then skip your afternoon snack. If you are enjoying a holiday meal then you can count that as a meal + a snack.

3. Do Increase your cardio efforts. Walk more, take more stairs, speed walk to the store. Perform 20minutes of HIIT training at the gym. Interval training is going to keep your metabolism fired up longer and burn those calories more efficiently than long duration steady state cardio. Besides, who has time for an hour of cardio anymore when you can get better results in 20minutes!

4. Do Hit the heavy weights. When you lift heavy, your body needs calories to recovery and this can last for up to 2 days! Your body loves to use carbohydrates and proteins to build muscles. Muscles is also very expensive. So, put those extra sugars to use. Add a glass of milk with those cookies to balance the extra carbohydrate increase with protein.

5.Eat in moderation. Remember your caloric food bank. This is where you can put mindful eating into practice. Asses the spread and decide what you want to spend your calories on. Notice that your taste buds will get board after about 3-4 bites and the food the intense flavors begin to diminish. Ask yourself it it’s worth grabbing another canapé or having another helping of ambrosia? Keep in mind the rest of your week. Will there be more treats at the office tomorrow? Do you have another holiday event to attend? Tell yourself, “this is not your last meal. There will be more foods to enjoy. Eat with mindfulness and moderation.”

Contact Terra The Trainer if you would like to learn more about a proper eating plan for you or if you need help sticking to your nutrition and fitness plan.

For a delicious holiday coffee sans the calorie bomb: Seep a mulling spice or chai spice tea bag for 3 minutes in with your coffee for a natural holiday flavor to your coffee. Add almond milk, steamed skim milk, stevia or agave according to personal preference.