How to Use Intermittent Fasting to Navigate the 4th Of July!
If you are worried about getting off track with your diet or lifestyle this holiday, try these helpful tips and tricks to keep your progress going.
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When it comes to the holidays the most important thing that you can remember is to enjoy the time with your family and friends. As long as you don’t go crazy overboard and you hop right back on your diet the next day you will be able to get right back in the groove of things. The most important thing to do is not punish yourself or let the slip up last multiple days.
Tip #1: Drop carbs on the days leading up to the Big Feast:
When you know a big meal is coming up with family a great way to earn that meal is to drop carbs on the days leading up. The week before holiday party cut carbs in half of what you would normally consume. If you are really bold you can consume only meats and veggies (or protein and veggies) on the days leading up to really push the envelope.
By doing this, when the holiday party rolls around, you will actually gain a huge benefit from the large meal spiking your metabolism almost as if you were carb cycling. This will turn your otherwise “unhealthy” dinner into a tool to keep your progress moving forward.
Tip #2: Extend your fasting window:
Another great way that you can make sure to stay on track when you have a bigger dinner planned or even if one pops up out of the blue is to extend your fasting window. By having a smaller feeding window you are going to naturally limit the number of calories that you can consume during the day.
This is one of my favorite ways to make sure I can enjoy the time with my family and friends without feeling like a stick-in-the-mud health nut. By pushing my feeding window back until dinner I have all of the calories for the day left for dinner time. That means I can indulge in all of my favorite dishes, including dessert and drinks without feeling like I have set myself back too far. If you cannot wait all the way until dinner break your fast with something small and satiating to hold me over until dinner (preferably a lean protein and veggies).
Tip #3: Train with weights in the morning during your fasting window:
A full body weight training session during your fasting window is a great way to make sure that all of the calories you will be consuming at dinner will be put to great use. One of the best ways to ensure you are burning fast during your fasting window is to lift early in your fasting window. By doing this you will deplete your glycogen stores making the main energy source for your body your stored fat.
To make sure you burn off the most glycogen try doing a full body, high rep, lifting session. With the glycogen depleted from your body The reason this works is that after you work out your muscles are like sponges and will take up most of the nutrients you feed them. Plus, recovering from a workout is an energy consuming process; you burn up a lot of calories for your body to recover after an intense workout, so there's no better time to eat cheat foods than after an intense workout. This is when the damage to your physique will be minimal, if at all.
Use tips #1, #2, #3 together for the best possible results.