Click here to view our disclaimer and disclosure.
Warning! For builders only.The BBB blog may be offensive to wimps.
Nancy and I want to wish you a Merry Christmas. No we don’t take Christ out of anything. Sorry. If you don’t like that unfollow our page and have a good trip!
Christmas is a very special time of year.
Celebrating Emmanuel “God with us!”
Sadly it’s become Commercial-mas to many. Always remember the Reason for the season.
Now off my pulpit and into another issue with the season.
Acquiring unwanted and ugly fat.
It’s not out of the ordinary for people to gain between 3-5 pounds every holiday season. Between halloween candies, Thanksgiving yum yums. and Christmas traditions it’s easy to pack on the pounds.
Do this for 10 years and you have an extra 30-50 pounds to lug around and will be dreading swimsuit season.
The truth is that Nancy and I manage to do the same thing many others do, yet stay remarkably lean. We have a few little, let's call them secrets up our sleeves. Since we don’t believe in keeping secrets… here you go!
Before we give you our 4 tips we’d like to share the golden rule of weight management.
Move more and eat less.
That’s it! It’s truly that simple. If you can manage to eat a little less and move a little more everyday you will start to shed excess bodyweight. Keep that principle locked away in your mind when you read our simple tips.
Don’t let some yo yo, blowing hot air, get you all confused. The health & fitness industry is loaded with quacks and it gets worse everyday. Think for yourself! Here is some questions to ponder before you get mislead by some “Miss Information” (or "Miss-ter Information") trying to make a buck on you.
Is the person you are listening to know what they are doing?
Do they use a lot of talk (hot air) to hype themselves up?
Do they treat it as a profession or just some side gig to play with people’s health?
(Spartans! What is your profession!?!?! should come to mind.)
Do they look the part? Strong, healthy, ripped is the right answer.
Can they explain it in a way that a little child could understand? If not walk away, better yet RUN!!!
With that said let me give you some actual substance.
Action steps you can start doing right now, today, and actually create change.
I’m not going leave you hanging just to beg you to join my new special super secret sauce program at the end, no worries. We give out truth that will actually help you. We know that if we can help you have success then you will want to do business with us sometime down the road.
Without further ado, let’s get into our 4 simple tips to help stop holiday weight gain.
Tip #1 Plan Ahead
Here is a shocker. You don’t have to eat 3 square meals a day to survive. You’ve been brainwashed to believe that. Look around most Americans are not starving. Get real!
This is what we do personally. If I know that it’s Thanksgiving and that I will eat 3 giant plates of it and 2 dessert plates later that day. Yes that happens yearly.
Here’s the tip don’t eat anything else the rest of the day.
Skip breakfast and lunch completely. Have a coffee or we have a drink we recommend that is way better than coffee if you need a focused pick me up. That’s it! Then when it’s time to eat your giant Thanksgiving meal you can tee it up and not feel too bad about it. You are robbing Peter to pay Paul. Although you will eat too many Calories in that one meal you will still be eating less Calories for the day if you had eaten breakfast and lunch too. Simple, basic arithmetic. Too many Calories leads to fat storage.
Tip #2 Minimize Stress
Mental and Physical Stress is a HUGE reason why people have excess body fat. It’s so funny that so many people in an effort to “lose weight” just pile on more stress. Haven’t you ever heard of the stress hormone Cortisol? Look it up!
People ramp up stress with insane workouts, too strict dieting, and a busy, hectic schedule. Then wonder why they still have belly fat! Crazy. Then they think they must diet even stricter and workout even harder which leads to more stress and even more cortisol pumping through their veins. This is the opposite of what you want if you want to become leaner. (Don't be shy! Ask us as we have a dieting supplement that works like crazy!)
The holidays can become stressful. For many it means travel, shopping, and keeping everyone in the family happy. Not to mention carrying on your regular daily life. So how do we handle this situation? Really simple. Minimize stress causing activities such as drama from other people. The Pareto principle shows that 80% of the consequences come from 20% causes. In other words, 80% of the stress comes from 20% of the people. Prove that wrong!
Depending on your circumstance ditch the stress-filled drama mamas (or papas). You’ll be glad you did!
Also don’t workout like a maniac. There is a lot to proper workout programming. One of the biggest neglected portions is stress control. Your response and adaptation to stress can depend on age, occupation, nutrition, and many other factors in your life. If you need help with getting a proper program, we can help.
The trouble is people think more is better and thrash themselves with “insane,” “hardcore,” and “intense” workouts, yet have little to show for their valiant efforts. This is because they are not controlling their stress. They then compound that effect with some extreme diet that they throw into the mix. This troublesome combo really helps that cortisol to run rampant!
Tip #3 Go Walk
Walking is a heathy, natural, and stress-relieving activity. Many will shun walking for “more intense” activities. Go ahead! Enjoy your stress.
Clear the cobwebs and go for a long walk, preferably in nature. Go for 30 minutes plus. The longer the better! If it’s cold, bundle up. If you life up North slap on your snow shoes.
If you are ever feeling overwhelmed go strike out on a couple miles. You will feel your stress levels dissipate. Another huge benefit to walking is improved digestion and fat burning. Because walking is not too intense it pulls energy from fat stores more efficiently. If an exercise is to intense it will pull energy from glycogen (stored in your liver and muscles) instead of fat. This is why some runners struggle with excess body fat, unless they eat an extreme diet.
Tip #4 Strength Training
Getting stronger should be a pleasurable experience. Lift weights, adapt, add weight the next session and lift them again. As you mature into a more experienced lifter you will need to use cycles or a program structure that will eek out even more strength gains.
However, for the average joe start with something fairly light and lift it. Then add 5 pounds the next training sessions and lift it and so on and so forth.
I want to caution you that program design is vital. Many of the “popular” workout programs leave people with hunched over shoulders, tight hip flexors leading to back pain, and nagging injuries.
When we design a program we don’t make those rookie mistakes. We instead seek to build a balanced body that is geared for high performance. By adding intelligent diet strategies this combination will leave you very strong, very lean, and very healthy.
Our personal goal for everyone of our clients is to reach the top 3%. Meaning the top of the population in how they look, their strength levels, and their health levels.
Hate is a strong word that we don’t like to use, but we hate average and mediocrity. By approaching strength training smartly and safely you can have longevity and get strong as hell. Keeping the diet in line is how you become very lean.
It is one of our mottos… LIFT BIG. LIVE LEAN.
The question is who doesn’t want to be very lean and very strong?
Summary
We hope that these 4 simple tips will impact you in some way during this holiday season. To help you stay a little leaner than usual.
In summary, it’s really quite simple...
Don’t eat any other meal on the big day.
Drop the extra stress.
Go for long walks and get some fresh air.
Lastly, have an intelligent workout program.
That’s really it! Again we want you to have a very Merry Christmas!
If you ever have a question or are seeking help with your health and fitness give us a holler and we will do our best to help!
-Beau
Can we ask a quick favor? The goal of our blog is to inspire people to exercise a little more, eat a bit healthier, and to have a good chuckle along the way. Can you help us spread the word! Please rent out highway billboards, tell friends, share our posts on social media, and the like. Feel free to comment feedback or ask a question. We are happy to help and really appreciate you helping us build and grow! Keep building builders!!
Comments