Summary: How do you take time off in a healthy manner? Without guilt? The holidays are finally wrapping up. In this episode we talked about some of what *we* actually did, in terms of taking time off (or not), as well as some of the really unhealthy things we’ve seen prescribed to people.<br> <br> ♦ KEVIN ♦ <br> <br> Kevin just completed a huge move, so his schedule for the past month and a bit has been extremely hectic.<br> In terms of diet, Kev mostly kept to his same schedule, but he did take some time of training.<br> <br> He did enjoy some treats for Christmas, but his eating schedule was *mostly* on point. He made do when he had to.<br> Since he’s getting ready for a powerlifting comp, Kevin is much more “weight” focused (i.e. what weight class he’ll be in) than he is worried about his actually physique.<br> <br> ♦ SCOTT ♦ <br> <br> Every year Scott gets a lot of emails from clients who are surprised that they didn’t lose all their gains when they took time off.<br> <br> Part of this, granted, is eating well and having an optimized metabolism (i.e. not yo yo dieting and messing it up)<br> <br> Scott also saw a lot of nonsense prescribed to non-clients, like coaches say, “Oh, you can have Christmas dinner with family, but you need to do no carbs and cardio in January.” This is… mentally unhealthy.<br> <br> Scott did a parody video about this: The Twelve Days of Christmas<br> <br> ♦ MIKE ♦<br> <br> Mike went to a few dinners with his family.<br> <br> Mike actually prefers to mostly stay exercising in some form. Honestly, he just feels better.For example, if he knows he won’t workout much (because he’s, for example, at the cottage), he might go for an extra long walk with his dog, for example, helps with digestion, energy, and his thinking and stress.<br> <br> ♦ WHAT IF YOU DON’T HAVE AN “OPTIMIZED METABOLISM”? ♦ <br> <br> Scott: “Choose the behavior, choose the consequences.” There are consequences for everything. If you have dinner with family, yes, you might gain weight. That’s a consequence. But if you don’t do it, you might feel mentally deprived, and you’ll miss out on Christmas dinner. That’s also a consequence. Sometimes… you just have to choose.<br> <br> A small step back doesn’t mean “give in” for all of January. What if, instead, it meant you’re ready to get back to things refreshed and ready?<br> <br> (There is a huge difference between “ready and refreshed” and “desperate with guilt to lose weight.”)<br> <br> ♦ OTHER NOTES ♦ <br> <br> You don’t need food police. Don’t hire a coach to be that!<br> <br> Mike noted that it’s “okay” to make some sacrifices now in order to reap rewards later; this doesn’t make you a mindless gym lackey who always needs to be “hardcore”…. BUT, at the same time, you need to be careful: do you find that you’re constantly making sacrifices “just for now” for rewards that never seem to come? If so, that’s a problem.<br> <br> <br> ♦ LINKS & RESOURCES ♦ <br> <br> • Scott’s 12 Days of Christmas Parody<br> • Alba’s tranformation<br> • Check out Andy Sinclair’s Website for pics of him.
