How To NOT Gain Weight This Holiday Season

We’re one day out from every foodie’s favorite time of year - Thanksgiving. Here at Luxe Linq we are all about luxury, and you know what the ultimate holiday luxury is? Still fitting into all your clothes after the holiday season.

No shade, honestly. We want you to enjoy the holidays to the fullest, including the food. That doesn’t mean you have to have the looming fear of gaining a bunch of holiday weight over your head for the next month or so.

Here are our top 3 tips to help you not gain weight over the holiday season, without feeling restricted.

Drink Your Water

This is our #1 tip for a reason, and we’ve got proof to back it up.

• Water helps to decrease your appetite

• Water helps you digest food and remove waste 

• Drinking water reduces the need to drink other calorie dense liquids

If you want to be super clear on how much water you need, we found a Hydration Calculator that can help you determine just how much water you need on a daily basis to stay hydrated. This is a simple thing you can implement to help prevent overeating, and improve overall digestion.

Some of the weight increase people see over the holidays is just post holiday bloating that’s not actually weight gain but still makes you feel like 💩. Staying hydrated helps to keep that food from sticking around in your gut.

Lastly, if you’re not drinking water you’re likely drinking something else with calories, save those for food! There’s nothing wrong with having a glass of wine with dinner, or a bit of eggnog. But if you make calorie dense liquids your only choice all holiday season we can guarantee you’re going to see that on the scale later.

Perfect Your Eating Strategy

Having a game plan going into the holidays can help immensely.

• Eat lighter meals - do NOT skip meals - before a big dinner

• Eat in this order - vegetables, protein, carbohydrates

• Eat one plate then wait - the food isn’t going anywhere

The biggest mistake we see people making are skipping meals altogether to make ‘room’ for a heavy dinner. This often leads to overeating because you go into the meal extremely hungry and before you know it you’re extremely full. Instead, eat light beforehand so that you’re not overly hungry, but not already overloaded on calories either.

Eating vegetables and protein first are a great strategy because they allow you to fill up on the less calorie dense menu items. This still allows you to enjoy all the goodness carbs have to offer but you’ll likely eat less of these calorie heavy items.

I’m sure your mom told you that you have to finish everything on your plate growing up just like ours. Unfortunately that’s led to unhealthy eating habits where we feel this obligation to finish everything on our plate, even if we are full. To combat that, we recommend filling a plate with a small serving of all the items you want, then waiting 5-10 minutes and going back for seconds IF you’re still hungry. This way you still get to try everything you want, without overloading your plate.

Use Your Scale Regularly

This is an easy one that requires no change to your eating patterns. Studies have shown that people who weigh themselves regularly maintain and lose weight better than those who do not. One of these studies also found no negative psychological outcomes of regular weigh-ins.

Now our goal isn’t to lose weight during this season, it’s just to maintain. Nevertheless weighing yourself every few days can help you keep on track, and keep from adding on the lbs this season. By checking in with yourself throughout the next few months you can not only see when the scale is going up, but also when it’s going down. This can be a helpful reminder to be more food conscious when eating over the season. Seeing the natural fluctuations of your weight can also reassure you that you’re not actually gaining weight, you’re just bloated.

We sincerely hope these tips are helpful for you and that you enjoy all the good that the holidays have to offer, while looking good doing it!

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