Almighty Dad | A stay at home dad blog

Gaining Holiday Weight: Don’t Let it Get you Down

14 Written by Keith on November 11, 2009 – 7:52 am

 

I‘m writing this as one of the biggest offenders of holiday indulgence.  I gain 5 to10 pounds every year between Halloween and New Years.  I’m not bothered by it though because I do it intentionally.  I love the gluttony of Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, and I don’t particularly care, at the end of it all, if my revelry results in a few extra pounds.  This is the season of celebration, and my philosophy on it is such that I ignore the extra weight until it’s time to burn it off again come January.  It’s all a matter of perspective.  If I didn’t know I would lose this weight in January then I might be depressed that I was putting it on.  However, since I have the security of knowing I’ll be back to 160 lbs by mid January, I can spend these couple of months enjoying myself – as I believe we all should.  It comes down to basic math and a little willpower.  When we know what to do and have the willpower to do it then it is suddenly nothing to panic about.  In fact, it’s an amusing challenge I put myself through every year.

 

The Math:

 

One pound of fat equals 3,500 unresolved calories.  In other words if your metabolic rate is 2,000 calories and you eat 2,500 calories per day (500 too many) then you will gain one pound every 7 days.  Likewise, if you consume 500 calories per day less than your metabolic rate then you will lose 1 pound every 7 days.  It really isn’t that hard to see how this works.  If I eat like an idiot for a month or two then all I need to do is figure out what my metabolic rate is, how many pounds I want to lose and how quickly I want to do it.  The rest is all willpower.  Math plus willpower equals success every time.  If I know that my metabolism will increase after a few weeks of doing the right things then I have nothing to worry about.  Now, as we know, not all calories come from equally nutritious foods.  That’s also something to be aware of.

 

Don’t be Stupid:

 

Obviously not all fat is the same.  There is the good kind and the bad kind.  The good kind doesn’t clog your arteries and kill you.  The bad kind does just that.  If you are a person with high cholesterol or prone to heart problems, then any amount of candy eating and bacon indulgence is too much.  Plaque build-up in the arteries leads to death.  But, if you’re like me, and you don’t have any of those issues, then a month or two of greasy eating is not going to kill you.  If you’re already overweight or you’re already unhealthy, don’t use a holiday as an excuse to continue your downward slide.  It’s unfortunate, but if you’ve already used your get out of jail free card then you’ll just need to pay the price first.  No pigging out for you.  Everything in life is about balance.  Seriousness can be balanced with silliness.  Exercise can be balanced with indulgence.  Fat people need balance.  Over exercised muscle heads need balance.  That’s how it works.

 

It’s okay to have fun once in a while.  Being healthy does not mean we have to live Sisyphean lives.  We are allowed to relax, to take a break and pick up our task later.  People get depressed around the Holidays.  Depression happens when people see their lives as predetermined. Folks who gain a little weight might see that as a slippery slope and worry.  I say we can feel secure in science.  Science says that losing weight is a simple mathematical formula.  The hard part is in our heads – the hard part is always in our heads.  Chill out a little.  Work when it is time to work, and play when it is time to play.  Mixing those elements is unhealthy no matter which direction it flows.

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