Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1167: Seven Ways to Not Get Fat During the Holidays

Episode Date: November 21, 2019

In this episode, Sal, Adam and Justin cover seven ways to prevent packing on the pounds (or kilos) this holiday season. What is Mind Pump’s favorite holiday? (2:52) How much weight does the average American gain during the holidays? (4:20) The seven steps you can take to NOT get fat around the holidays. #1 – Cutting the STRESS! (6:39) #2 – Prioritizing the order of how you eat your food. (13:15) #3 – The importance of drinking plenty of water. (17:35) #4 – Bringing a healthy dish to your family dinner. (20:00) #5 – Being mindful about the food you are about to eat and eating the desserts that are MOST meaningful to you. (23:40) #6 – Going for a walk after your big meal. (31:03) #7 - Scheduling workouts with your family and friends. (37:42) People Mentioned  Paul Chek (@paul.chek)  Instagram Related Links/Products Mentioned November Promotion: MAPS Performance ½ off!! **Code “GREEN50” at checkout** Visit Butcher Box for this month’s exclusive Mind Pump offer! Weight Gain over the Holidays in Three Countries The health benefits of strong relationships Why Eating With Your Non-Dominant Hand Can Help With Weight Loss Chewing Your Food: Is 32 Really the Magic Number? The Case For Taking a Walk After You Eat Mind Pump Free Resources  

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. In this episode of Mind Pump, we talk about something very important right around this time of year. Now a lot of you will probably, or might be stressing out about the holidays coming up. You're worried that you're going to get fat or get at a shape. Now we understand this.

We've been trainers for a very, very long time. So we worked with clients around the holidays and we've also struggled with this ourselves. So we came up with some tips on how you can help keep yourself fit and healthy during the holiday season. We have seven of them. We talk about stress, that's a big one. The way you should eat your food

in terms of order, proteins, and vegetables first and second. Talk about drinking lots of water, how you can bring a healthy dish, how to eat mindfully, taking a walk after dinner, and then also working out with friends and family, and much more in this episode. Now this episode is brought to you by our sponsor Butcherbox. Now Butcherbox believes in better.

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Have you guys been to the store, not the grocery store, like the retail stores? Christmas shit. Oh, they just go right past Thanksgiving. We don't even bother with it. They're like, pff. Thanksgiving is like the stopping point. It's Christmas now.

I like Thanksgiving more than Christmas, to be honest with you. Oh, really? I do. It's my favorite holiday. Yep. Well, I'm not gonna agree with you there. It's by far my favorite holiday is that. Yeah, I'm not gonna agree either, because we actually, our Christmas dinners

do like Thanksgiving dinner. Right. So the perks of the Thanksgiving, whole getting together, massive family, tons of crazy great food. We get it Christmas, plus all the gifts and all other. Well, so the way I look at his reverse. It's like Christmas minus the retail. You don't like the retail. No, it's

you know, it's expected. It's not the same when you buy something for someone. Well, I can get down I can get down with that statement because we better meet though in Christmas. Like we've all like sort of like made the decision to have like more steak on Christmas than have Turkey. Get rid of Turkey one time. Turkey is a tough meat to cook right. I'm not if you eat the first off

frying a turkey, change your life. Well, I had him attempted that last year, right? He did. Second, pretty good. Second, dark meat. It's all about the dark meat. I got sold on the white meat when I was a kid. Racist.

Dark meat is, well that means, yummy, it's delicious. You're poor, so great. You know, this can be a very stressful, difficult time of the year for people who are really into maintaining their health and fitness because. Oh God, how many clients did you guys have around this time that just freak out? Just pandemonium for no reason.

You know, especially if they finally got to a place where they lost weight and they're feeling good, they're like, oh my gosh, it's my first holiday. Well, you know, the average, I believe, is six to eight pounds of fat that people put on between now and New Year. Now is that a real statistic? Or is that the one that we were told?

Well, I mean, I read it somewhere. They obviously took surveys from some people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't know. I've heard these people. I've, from my experience, I would say that's a pretty good guess. I mean, not only my personal experience, but then also my experience with clients and trainers clients. Like, I would say a good, and that is,

those are people that were already working out and like cared about exercise. So I would imagine the average American who doesn't already go to the gym, it puts on, probably close to that. So they worried like, this is the straw that might break the camel's back. Like, it's just gonna like be this cast

I don't know look at that statistics. See with how much weight does the average American gain over the holiday season? Yeah, cuz I that's that's statistic I used to also repeat but part of me thinks I wonder if that was one that we were told like a scare to sell more people in January Yeah, I had to give Jim members shit throwing Exactly in January. Yes, he had to give Jim members shifts growing exactly. I'm not going to use that January. I'm not going to lie. This is a machine that we have here. There is a good chance that this is true, Sal.

There's a good chance that this could be true. Yeah, because January is the average America gets 68 pounds. You know, let's say, totally. According to a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine, the average American, Americans weigh increases by 0.4% over Christmas and 0.2% over Thanksgiving.

In total, this amounts to around one pound gain per holiday season for the average person. One pound gain? Come on. That's nothing. Hold on a second. That makes more sense. Yeah, that makes more sense. That makes more sense.

Yeah. Because people gain weight through the whole year too. So that's just holiday season that they gain weight. That's not very much what does that say. Off the side studies, it's commonly to be average, very high, and gain five pounds between things when you're your day,

but the study authors found that the average was little less than one pound. Yeah. Wow. Which makes sense if you think about. Way more sense. Okay, so here's what I wanna do. I wanna do with this episode,

is I wanna talk about like the steps that you can take to not get fat during the holidays. But a lot of this is going to also be around kind of one of the first things that I'll tell all my clients, which was myth-busting. Yeah, like relax. Just that alone should put you a little bit more at ease. Totally, like it's not, I think that when you enter

into the holiday, because the holidays can be a stressful time for a lot of people, which is interesting, right? It's like you're gonna see a bunch of family, you haven can be a stressful time for a lot of people, which is interesting, right? It's like, you're gonna see a bunch of family, you haven't seen a long time. Uh-oh, you know, Uncle John, who's, you know, talks about politics, or Rico, the weirdo. Yeah, you know, and Jenny, who's the alcohol, whatever.

You know, that type of stress, but then there's also the stress if you're really body, conscious and health conscious of thinking, oh my gosh, I'm gonna go into this environment where there's pies and cookies and all this food and alcohol and celebration, like I don't wanna, and I always tell my clients, I think going into it with that amount of stress

just makes it so much worse. And I'm speaking at a personal experience. When I used to be super like body obsessed and I would go into the holidays, I would, it was like, it really reinforced this kind of binge or this restrict binge type of mentality where I would go in there, restrict it and then I would binge and it wasn't about the celebration or it wasn't even about celebrating the food. It just became about. Like a consumption. Like how much you could cram in.

Totally, totally. So I think stress is a really, really big one. Like relax a little bit. It's about enjoying, you know, the people around you, the food, you know, bonding over those things. I think that makes a big difference. And also, you know, know that it's a, you know, a once a year type of thing.

So the people that you're gonna see that may annoy you. You're not gonna see them again for another, you know, a once a year type of thing. So the people that you're gonna see that may annoy you, I'm not gonna see them again for another, you know, another 365. Well, I mean, we taught, and you recently brought up that study about the importance of relationships when it goes to health. And, you know, I think it's something that we, we tout a lot on this show is that, you know,

overall health is not just how much body fat I have, how much muscle I built, or how much my bench press is. There's many other aspects of overall health and longevity. A lot of people, if you're anything like me and my family, unfortunately, I'm probably not like Sal's family where we gather together on a semi-regular basis. The holidays are one of the few times that we all do get together. And so, you know, the last thing that I want to stress about during those times while I'm visiting with people I may not get to see for a whole other year again is what I can't and cannot have and stressing about, oh my god, am I going to put on six to eight pounds over this course

of the next few weeks. And instead, spending time and enjoying my family and having great conversation and working on the relationship aspect of my health. I think that that's incredible advice. And to be just be mindful, I think that as long as you go into it and you don't eat like an asshole, or you don't have a really bad relationship with food where you, you know, you totally cut hard or so. Those are probably the people that are, that boost this average up.

Are the ones that put so much energy and effort going into it. I'm going to. They're a lot more likely to derail when you're that rigid, right? Because it's like at that point, it's hanging on a thread to everything is so compartmentalized, systemized where I have to have like all my foods like completely portioned out. Everything has to be just so otherwise like one little slip and it you know The dominoes just completely fall when you're that rigid and strict with something what ends up happening is when you step over the line

A little bit the mentality becomes well. I've already fucked up. Yeah, the fuck it. Yeah I've already fucked up now. I'm gonna go crazy Now's the spiral and you're gonna get the reversal of The you're gonna get the the counter to the feeling of being restricted. So leading up to the point where you finally, let's say you go into the hall, you're really stressed out about it. And you're like, I'm gonna be perfect.

I'm not gonna have a single cookie. I'm not gonna have a single piece of pie. I mean, just a little bit of turkey, a little bit of vegetables. And that's it. And you're going through the day, going through the night, you're with your family, you're doing okay, but you're like, you're willpower,

you're just so much willpower, like I'm not gonna need it. You're not gonna do it. And then like, Aunt Jane comes in with Fudge. Yeah, dude, there's Fudge. Yeah. So forget it all. So you're so restricted and you're using all this willpower

and you can feel it and then you finally break a little bit. You have that cookie. Now in your mind, you're like, well, I've already fucked up. And then because you've been feeling so restricted before you rebel and go the opposite direction, this was me. This is how I go into these holidays. And it ended up leaving being like, I can't believe I ate.

And it's well, it was well beyond enjoying that kind of food. So the stress is a big one. And Adam, you touched upon relationships. If you are disregarding relationships to try to become more perfect with diet and exercise, you're robbing Peter to pay Paul when it comes to your health. You really are because your relationships and studies have shown this quite conclusively. Your relationships are just as important to your health and longevity as your diet and exercise.

It's a very big, and it's, of course, it's a big part of... A huge part of sustainability. It is, so when you go in there, don't stress so much, because that, all that stress you're placing on yourself is gonna make everything else we talk about in this episode impossible.

Now, I'm glad we started there, because I think that's the most important message for us to convey. But that doesn't mean that there aren't tips. Not a whole past. Of course. And strategies and things that either one, I personally implement or that I teach clients to have a more successful journey through these holidays. Because in a perfect world, I get to enjoy family.

I don't stress about the food. I enjoy the different dishes that are there and have great conversation and some wine and whatever, but then at the same time too, I also don't fall way off the wagon and I still am in a place where I can manage my fitness school. So there are certain things that I think that we can talk about that are good strategies to this.

And one of the ones that, and this wasn't until like way later in my career did I start, and I do this not just Thanksgiving. So I think this is a great tip all the time. I think we've mentioned this on the show before. I think Thanksgiving, this is even better strategy. And that's like the order of the foods that you choose, right? So I like to go after my protein and vegetables first before you indulge on all the carbs and desserts

and sweets and alcohol. And I think just eating in that order and not telling yourself, I can't have these other things. Sure, all if I get to the match. Just prioritizing. Yeah, I'm just prioritizing the things that my body, which are also still delicious. I mean, the meats that are on there, the vegetables that are typically on the plate or on the table are all phenomenal. It's just knowing that eating those first is naturally going to satiate me a little bit so that I don't even have the desire to want to overindulge on other things.

I do the exact same thing. What I do is, because typically we have big family gatherings, so we'll have anywhere between 30 to 50 or 60 people at my holiday parties. And the way we organize them, because there's so many people, you don't sit down at a table and have food served to. There's too many people. So we have it all up somewhere, either in the kitchen or whatever. And it's a face style. We all get in line. And then we walk through and get we get our plate fork and then you put whatever you want on your plate. And so what I've done is I've done exactly that atom. As the first round, I'm going for the proteins

and the vegetables. And I'll fill my plate up with all the meat. So let's say they're sausage or meatball or turkey. That's gonna take up a big portion of my plate. Then I'm gonna go and I'm gonna get all the green beans and salads and other types of vegetables people prepared. And then I'll fill up my plate. Then I'm gonna go and I'm gonna get all the green beans and salads and other types of vegetables people prepared. And then I'll fill up my plate. So my entire plate is vegetables and proteins.

And then I'll go sit down and enjoy dinner with the whole family. And then when I'm done with that plate, which, you know, and I'm eating slowly, I'm enjoying myself when I'm done with that plate. Thanksgiving is normally like a two hour plus type of dinner. Oh my God, my family, we're eating the entire time, right? So then when I'm done with that plate, then maybe I'll get up

and I'll go back and oh, there's the stuffing. You know, there's the sweet potatoes. There's the, you know, all the other dishes that... Match potatoes. Whatever. And what I, but I prioritize the more, the more what I consider more important foods, but they also have satiating properties.

For example, the vegetables tend to be higher in fiber. Of course, you should eat your vegetables to help you with your digestion. Protein is very, very filling. It's the most satiating macronutrient. And so if you want to work from a just a hunger standpoint, eating a large serving of protein tends to make us feel a little bit more satiated anyway. You know, this tip and strategy is started for me during Thanksgiving, but carried into my regular life, like my everyday eating. It was something that I remember the first time I kind of implemented this, like, okay,

this is how I'm going to eat. And realizing how much I still enjoyed it and didn't feel like I was sacrificing anything. I had a great time and Thanksgiving and felt like I got to enjoy everything and anything that I wanted, never felt like I was restricting. And it kind of like dawned on me, like, why do I not approach every meal like this? And forever after that, that's kind of how I address, especially when we go out to restaurants and we eat, is, you know, I'll eat in that order, and it's helped me out a ton of not over-consuming, especially since I was a very carb-heavy eater in the past, where the chips, the breads, the mashed potatoes, the stuffings are all the things that probably would have filled my plate first,

and then I have like three ounces of turkey, because it's so stuffed from all the other stuff. Yeah, and the other thing too around this is to limit the snacking. So what would you used to kill me? What would I go and I'd pick at things while I'm hanging out, whatever. I would just make sure it was on my plate. So if I get my proteins and veggies first

and then later if I'm gonna eat other stuff, I'd make sure and put it on my plate and then sit down. And it's just a nice, and again, I'm not stressed. Remember the first thing we said was about stress. I'm not stressing over all the stuff, but eating those important things first really helps reduce the amount that you're gonna give to stuff. Kind of speaking to both these points and the stress,

like I know alcohol is a big part of like one side of my family anyway, where that's something that, I mean, just for just social outings and whatnot, like it tends to come in a lot more amounts of alcohol being available. And so, you know, one thing that I do with that is, I'm definitely trying to, you know, have something I'm sipping on,

and I'm not like, you know, indulging crazy with drinking, but in between, I'll have, I'll make sure to keep hydrating with water. And just that's something that I guess they actually have a term for this now, they call it coasting. So it's like when you're drinking, you're more social and you kind of elongate that social lubricant, but you're not like drinking in excess to where it like, because to me that actually is one of the big components

to then, well, the fuck it all kind of the thing. Well, you know, like it inhibits my normal reserves towards like, you know, grabbing all the treats and eating. You know, it's funny about that is that when you're going in, stressed out and you have that restrict mentality, what do you think happens to those people who then drink alcohol? Right. Because alcohol is a known inhibitor of, you know,

it'll reduce inhibitions, I should say. So if you're a restrict, restrict willpower, willpower, you have one drink. Gah, I'm going to walk the door. Out the door. So that's why I think that stress one was really. Well, even if you're not drinking alcohol, you're your tip, Justin, about just drinking water.

I mean, that's another strategy again that I try and teach clients. A lot of times that what we think is hunger or cravings that we're having is just dehydrated and our body wanting something and wanting to stay our mouth stay busy and just by sipping on water. So I tend to do that. I'm not as big of an alcohol drinker although I'll enjoy it with the family when that time comes. I normally will make because we're together for the whole day, right? So early on before it's served and we're watching football and hanging out,

I'll just always have like a water bottle in my hand and I'm just kind of keeping myself busy by sipping on water. It just makes it easy for me. You know what water? Irish coffee's flowing around. You know what water is good for that? Is liquid death?

No. Because it looks like you're having a beer. That's true. No, any kind of like, celser water, like... Oh yeah. Water, yeah, like, that, you know,

we put a little lemon in there and it's just, it's easier to, I guess, sip on. It feels like you have a drink versus just a, you know, think of water. Here's something else that I do and I started doing this

with all my family parties and because I considered myself the ambassador of health for a little while with my family, so when I show up to family functions. You have a ribbon or anything you want. I had a hat. I had a happy suit, a little sat.

I had a little sat or a belt. When I would show up to family. Super du-du-du-du-du. Like, he's like just rolls up front door. Hello, your ambassador is here. Like a homeowner. Yeah, yeah. I didn't even have the treats away. I sell. Thanks to like a homeowner. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm glad.

I'm able to treat you. I sell. Thanks to you guys, I realized my nerdiness. It's a full amount of that. I'm sorry, bro. I just had a vision. I'm just like this knitted sweater with a big H on it. I'm here.

But no, this is a thing. Any question? I'm, of course, I was always into work now, was always into nutrition. So when I'd show up to family functions and I'm bringing a dish, I would always try to bring the healthy dish. The dish that was the thing that was the healthiest.

Now this is a big one. Like you're showing up to your family. Sometimes I've had clients who told me this, they'll be like, Sal, there's literally nothing healthy at my family at these family parties. That's a big problem for sure. They'll say, you tell me the vegetables first. Nobody's serving vegetables. Yeah, they wrapped it in bacon.

Salad is jello. Yeah, it just, pfft. So what I used to tell them is they'd say, you bring it. You make the healthy dish, bring it for everybody. But now you have something that you can eat from that is somewhat healthy. So bring that healthy dish.

It's a very, very important, powerful tip that is to tell clients that I eat. No, that's such a good, that's such a good tip and strategy. And this is something close to home for me too, is because Katrina's family is not like them. In fact, the, the, the, the jello, the statement you just made, Justin,

it totally reminds you of salad. Yeah, the, the salad was on it. And then any sort of vegetable is wrapped in drowned and bacon butter and other sweets or caramelized. It's like, it's like, yeah, it's like mostly fat and sugar. And then I get a little bit of vegetable. So I remember that I told Katrina, I'm like, we have to start bringing a dish or two to these, these dinners. So I have something to fill my plate up with besides just all this other stuff. So I actually think that's a really good strategy. Instead of making the excuse that there's nothing there that's healthy to eat, be proactive.

If you know you're in a family that considers Jello a salad and no vegetable doesn't have cheese, bacon, or butter drowning it. And it's mostly that and very little vegetable. Then, you know, be the person who makes, you know, Doug's famous Brussels sprouts. That's the best, yeah. I wrote some veggies. Yeah, that's always a good one. Doug's Brussels sprout recipe is the best for,

because, you know, you bring a big, you know, plate of, big tray of broccoli. Your family will look at you, be like, well, thanks. Absolutely. It's thinking up the room, but you bring in his, his Brussels sprout recipe, be like, well thanks, absolutely. It's thinking up the room, but you bring in his Brussels Sprout recipe, which is still very, very healthy. They have meel in itself, it's so good.

We brought that to last year's Thanksgiving, I think it was Thanksgiving or Christmas. It's the one that I bring. And it was gone. Like my family ate the fuck out of it. It was gone, everybody was so happy. And I was happy that I was able to provide something that was really healthy. By the way, this extends to that I was able to provide something that was you know really healthy

By the way, this extends to other things as well So let's say you want to drink you're gonna come you're gonna go to your family big family thing You're like God, I want to drink but like rip all the drinks are not so good bring some white clars some shit You know He's me on the low calorie alcohol guy Totally own it, you know just to kind of help out your vodka's a good alcohol for that, because you can mix that with anything. Yeah, be that one of the failing that was carrying a freaking fifth of vodka.

My guess. Oh, wait a minute. Mine pump told me to drink straight vodka. That's why I'm here. That's hilarious. The other thing, mindfulness, Adam, you touched on this a little bit earlier in the episode, but about being mindful. You know, it's funny. You have to ask yourself when you're eating the food, what is it about eating the food that is enjoyable? Is it the feeling stuffed like you can't breathe feeling, or is it the enjoyment of the food itself and the people that are around you?

Actually tasting it. Yes, because I would catch myself doing this. I, oh my god, my aunt made her famous stuffing and I'd come back and I'd, as I'm chewing it and tasting it, all I'm thinking about is the next bite. Right. And I stopped myself and I, what am I doing? What's a rush?

Why am I thinking of the next bite? It's in my mouth right now. Why am I not enjoying this taste now and the people around me? And I realized it was just this impulsive stuffing my face kind of action. So I slowed down, became far more mindful. I would, and I ended up eating less because when you enjoy it, when you stop to enjoy,

you actually end up having more fun and eating less. You just reminded me of a tip that actually a client gave to me. I've never done, and I've been meaning to try this. Now, I think that I practice mindfulness when I eat and have been practicing this for quite some time. So, that's probably the reason why I have an implement of this. But when I was teaching this to a client

and it was like kind of hitting home, like, oh my God, you're so right, I do that. I'm chewing my food and you've already got the next bite, like halfway to your mouth before you're even finished swallowing and And so he told me something that he started to do that helped him out that so I'm gonna share it with everybody else I haven't done it myself to see if it made it would make a big difference But he would switch hands between

I've heard of this yes, so you know study shows it's for every bite Yeah, so he bites, you know grab with the right hand You know you hit your you get your bite with your right hand and you're chewing it. And then before you take the next bite, you have to switch to the other hand. And just the transition of that makes you kind of stop. That's a cool idea. I know. I just, now obviously it's a little tough to chew with your, or cut with your other hand. Both my left hand, but that's part of causing you to be more mindful is because it is harder to shovel it in your mouth.

Because it's not impulsive, and you can't be as impulsive or reactive because you have to think for a second. Oh, I gotta grab it with my left. Studies have actually shown that techniques like that work. Oh, really? Yes, because it's no different than eating when you're watching TV

and you're not thinking about what you're doing and you're just eating. If you stop and think about what you're doing and because that's what mindfulness really, so people ask, what does that mean? What the hell does mindfulness actually mean? It means being present. Oh, look at that. Oh, is that the study he pulled it up?

Yeah. It actually works. You eat less, especially if you eat with your non-dominant hand. So the studies are rather than switching hands, eat with your non-dominant hand and people tend to eat much less. And it's because again, you have to concentrate, oh, my left hand, I'm not as coordinated, I have to be more present,

focus on balancing this food on my fork and so that you're just more mindful. And that's, again, mindfulness is just being present. So when you're eating the food and enjoying the food, you're not thinking of the future, which is the next bite. And to kind of go into this a little further, like I remember when we were meeting with Paul Check and he was talking about not drinking as you're eating.

Yeah. And that sounds like so duh, but for me, I would always take massive bites and then try and like... Wash it down. Wash it down. Yeah. Because I had to cram it in because it was so big. And I would choke otherwise.

You know, it was just like, it didn't even dawn on me that I should probably just sit there for a little bit longer and chew it even further to allow, you know, my body to be able to swallow and digest it properly. Well, that's, you just named like two big tips that I give him before, which is, there's also actually a whole diet book written around this and I forget what the title is, but it's about counting how many times you chew.

Like it's like 40 or 50 times. Like if you just chewed your food every time, 30 or 40, I don't remember the number, what they recommend, but just chewing it that many times every time, what a difference that makes in the reduction of calories. You don't even have to do that though, if you just don't drink at all while you're eating, you'll automatically...

That's why he enforces you. You nailed like two big tips that either one, you can use or both, which is one, being mindful of how many times you actually choose the food, chew the food, or two, just not having any sort of fluid. So you're forced here. So yeah, you're forced to chew it all the way up. Now here's the way up.

Now here's the other thing. Eat the desserts and the foods at the holidays that are meaningful. So what does that mean? Okay, so you go to, I'll give you an example. I'm at Thanksgiving dinner and I've got all these foods around me and my aunt made her homemade, you know, special cookies that she only makes on Thanksgiving and my other uncle made his, you know, special cookies that she only makes on Thanksgiving

and my other uncle made his, you know, special peanut brittle, whatever. And then there's Oreo cookies, okay? I'm not gonna eat the fucking- It was the Oreo cookies. It was the asshole that brings Oreo cookies to the Thanksgiving. I was the last time they get invited to buy things here. Yeah, yeah.

But you're Oreo cookies. But you know what I mean? Like you have all these meaningless foods that you can have anytime, at any point during the year. Right, right. Donate those. They have no meaning behind them.

Eat the foods that are meaningful. So I don't have a problem with eating desserts, but I try to seek out the desserts that have some meaning, the stuff that I'm not gonna get. Oh, you know, all the cool. Is there one specific food you can think of in terms of like the whole, so either it's Thanksgiving or Christmas

that's like somebody makes that's like the food. Oh, well, so two things. So we have pasta all four know and we always have that on Thanksgiving and on Christmas. And so I normally don't eat pasta, but I definitely eat it when it's there because I don't get it all the time. And then the other one is my aunt's stuffing.

She has this stuffing that she makes that's insane. And I'll have it. And I never have it. I never have stuffing at any other time. So I make sure I have it. So yeah, Christmas morning, it's the tradition. My grandma is still with us. She's like 97 now.

Oh, wow. But yeah, it's called Patitsa. It's like a Danish bread that's like, it's got hazelnut to it. It's all like homemade and ground up. It's amazing, but you just put butter on it and it's, that's the thing. That's the food.

We have a 100 year old recipe of stuffing that's been in the family forever. So that's like when my mom makes it and it's unbelievable. So it's a must for me every time. Yeah, but you ever noticed that? Like you're at the family party and you've got all these amazing foods

and then there's random snacks and stuff, bullet chips, whatever. Oh yeah, get rid of all that. Just go to the meaningful stuff. Yeah, exactly, it's worthless. Like I could have potato chips any time of the year. Not gonna have that. No, that's a great point.

Stick to the meaningful. And so that's really all, that's what I mean by being mindful. And what's, here's the side effect of being more mindful by, you know, paying attention to the food, paying attention to the people around you and the relationships and actually enjoying things and only eating foods that are meaningful. Here's the side effect that I learned this about it years ago was it made the holidays much more enjoyable.

I actually really got way more out of the holidays by being more mindful. So it's not like, and the reason why I'm saying that is because I think sometimes people think, oh, I'm not gonna enjoy as much as I have to restrict myself or I'm not gonna eat as much as I whatever. Actually, the opposite is true. It's less stressful and more enjoyable when you're more mindful because you're in the moment.

You're being present with everybody. So, so I wanna say that one. Now, here's another one. Do you guys do a big family walk after dinner or do you guys go walking with like anybody in particular? Well, this is another, so we used to play basketball. So Chinese whole family plays basketball and so that has been a family tradition ever since

I've been a part of her family is about two hours or so after we have this big meal, we all go outside and we play basketball for a few hours, which is phenomenal that we get all this extra calories that we burn. Another's been years, one of the years I had my torn Achilles, so I wasn't able to play ball, and so we still went for a walk. And this is another one of those habits that probably started around Thanksgiving that again has blood into other aspects of my life.

In fact, I was getting interviewed this morning and was talking about this exact thing and these behaviors that originally I implemented to combat excess calories or to help me stay in shape that later on, I began to attach to values that had nothing to do with my aesthetics, for example, walking. And it started off with, oh, I ate, I should go walk and burn some calories or whatever. And later on, realized like, wow, one, how much that helps with my digestion,

just going for a walk after you eat a big, heavy meal like that. Huge effect. Huge. Studies support this 100% that getting up, moving, gravity, just the gravity alone by standing rather than sitting after you eat, but moving and contracting the muscles that surround your digestive organs. Like, every time you take a step and walk, there are muscles that move through the body,

that almost massage the intestines and get your body to digest food better. This is proven time and time again with studies. So that was something that I connected. And then the other thing was, and I guess maybe this is, I've noticed this more today, than probably two decades ago, and how attached we can be to our cell phones. And even at a family event with everybody, so I thought, we now live in this time where it's really easy for you to be looking down

at your phone or scrolling through Instagram or whatever the fuck you're doing on there because it's now become like a limb for all of us. And just taking off for a walk after we eat like that, leaving our phones at the house and going for a walk, what that's done besides the digest and besides the calorie burn that I'm getting from that and feeling better, not lethargic after eating. But just for relationships. Totally. And it's a practice that I was sharing in really this morning that this has been a game changer for my relationship with Katrina. We've been together for nine years.

And you know, you could you can get very comfortable in a relationship and take the other partner for granted and many nights can I come home and you know, sit on in front of my phone or my computer and work all night and basically kisser good night. And we didn't have much deep conversation. It was mostly, oh, the laundry we need to do this. Oh, could you help me with that? Or could you go with the grocery store?

Very surface level conversations because you're thinking about the day to day and you're distracted by work or this tool or this thing that you have. Going off and taking a long walk helps me reconnect and reconnect to her. It's something that, again, probably started from a Thanksgiving type of tradition that I try to do to originally combat putting on body fat, but has served me not only for those purposes, but more importantly, in other aspects of my life, like keeping a good, strong connection in relation to it. more importantly, and other aspects of my life, like keeping a good, strong connection and relationship. It's funny, because Courtney and I both,

like, helped to implement that as something that we've done the past few years, but it's, because it was in like, start contrast, that we used to just, I mean, go right to watch it a movie, or, you know, something like that, that was like tradition, and then everybody's just, you know, lethargic,

and passing out, and, you know, everybody's just like not communicating anymore. And then the opposite of that now, we go for a walk. We'll take pictures of all the kids, the cousins together at this tree that's at the end of the walk and it becomes this thing where we all come back. We all have this energy still that we pour into activities and competitive games and card games. It's just a lot more interactive. So it just sparks that socialness. Yeah.

Studies found that walking post, with called post-prandial or post-meal increases satiety because it gets the body digesting. So you get that signal that says, oh, we don't want to eat anymore. It actually blunts the blood sugar spike quite significantly. It's actually pretty good effect out walking after you. So it's got those health effects.

And then of course, what you guys are talking about, it's something that my family's done for a long time after a big meal. I'll either go with my dad or my uncle or more often than not. It's with my brother and my cousins. And we go for like a nice, you know, 40 minute, one hour walk

and we're not like power walking. We're going for a stroll, having fun conversations, laughing, whatever, maybe my cousins will, you know, spark up a joint or something and we'll just laugh about it or whatever. And it's just a nice part of the whole process rather than sitting around the food or falling asleep. It actually makes a big difference. You know, one of the whole process rather than sitting around the food or falling asleep. It actually makes a big difference.

You know, one of the traditions that I've had a lot of clients, and I know here in San Jose, they do this. And I think for the most part, most big cities for sure in most towns, I think, do this is the turkey trots. And a lot of them, that's like they're more, they normally start the morning of, right? Yeah, really the morning of is they'll take off and do that. So you get a nice, and they could be something that, and I know a lot of them that just do it to walk,

and for that exact reason, is getting up early and creating movement early on because they know they're gonna be eating later on the day. But, you know, man, if you get up and do like a turkey chop the morning, you walk a walk or jog or run a few miles a start your day. And then after you have a nice, great meal, you make sure to go and go for another 20 minute to an hour long walk afterwards, those two things in a loan, it would be almost hard to consume enough calories to counter that good work.

I mean, the amount of calories that it takes to put on one pound of body fat is you've got to eat an north of 3,000 additional calories than what your body needs. And so if you're moving and exercising like that in that day to eat that many calories, believe it or not, it's almost challenging to do. It totally is. And which brings me to another one that this is something that I've done now for, I wanna say eight or nine years in a row, and that is to schedule workouts with my family and friends. Again, I'm the fitness and health guy in my family, and so initially the way the Ray I would do it is this is back when I had my personal training studio,

is we would either do workouts before the holiday or we do a workout after the holiday, which was the day after Thanksgiving, which I still do to this day. I bring my cousins all together and we do our post Thanksgiving workout, we used to call it. We all meet together and we try now.

My workouts are different than when I'm working out alone. This is more of a bonding thing, but we're still active, we're still lifting weights, we're still, so if you're like a fitness fanatic, and you're afraid that you're, it's gonna be hard to get your workouts in because of family stuff, invite your family. And you know, a lot of these people

probably would enjoy coming with you. Now you're probably gonna have the responsibility of leading the workout, and I'm sure it's not gonna be the same kind of workout that you normally do, but it's much better than no workout, and it is a really, it's really an enjoyable time. I joined your family last year.

That's right. So I mean, it's good time, right? No, it was absolutely. And so, you know, we did. We sparked up a joint. We saw who could lift, could do a single pull up with the most way to attach to them. We did a bunch of macho things, but it was great.

I mean, there was probably what? A good six or eight of us, I think, that were there that morning and music, blaring in the background, having conversation laughing. I mean, we go sometimes five, 10 minutes with nobody lifting any weights, and then all of a sudden we're all lifting weights for a little while, or we're trying maxes out

on certain things. And I think that just us being together, the benefits of us having great conversation with each other and enjoying each other, not having a bunch of food and crap to be picking at during that time, we're moving, we're exercising. Well, I mean, if you're a real fitness fanatic and you're traveling, and you're like,

oh, I'm gonna be out of town, and it's gonna be hard to find a workout, ask your family members, say, hey, you know, you wanna follow me, oh, I'm gonna be out of town and it's gonna be hard to find a workout Ask your family members say hey, you know You want me you want to follow me through a workout, you know Saturday morning or whatever? Oh, no, you're gonna work out You know, no, I'll take you through an appropriate workout. Let's all hang out together And I'll take you guys through some stretches and then make it fun. You'll get your workout the family members will get their workout And it's a great. It's really a great time and I'm I'm telling you, it's something I do every single year now, I've done it for almost 10 years.

We do sort of, well, it's sort of a mountain man workout. I mean, the next day we're cutting our Christmas tree. And I'm like lifting rocks with the kids and we're throwing them and stuff. And yeah, I would make a whole like outdoor activity event out of the whole day. So that's pretty fun. Think about it this way.

You know, the holiday season is a great way. It's one of the best ways, because it does get people together to train and work on your relationship, spiritual, emotional fitness. Those are all parts of your health and wellness, just like your physical fitness and the dietary, you know, your nutritional fitness.

You are working on other aspects of your fitness, so think of it that way. You're going into a time where you have the ability to, okay, I'm not gonna be focusing so much on my dietary perfection or my physical fitness type stuff, but I get to work on these other aspects of my fitness and then you get to incorporate what you do best, which if you're listening right now,

and you're, you know, my pump listener, you're probably love working out, and you're probably love eating healthy. You can incorporate some of those things by some of the strategies that we talked about. Along the lines of the training and working out too, you know, we're talking about like, post Thanksgiving, right?

Afterwards, and putting a lot of those calories you could use, there are good strategies to the day before leading into that and getting like, I like to get a real heavy hard training session and totally the day before because what we know is if I stretch myself like that as far as like a really heavy strength training or a high volume training day, I know that my body is gonna be wanting and needing additional calories. What a great time to stretch the body like that, knowing that I'm gonna be probably over feeding it the next day.

So I love to get a really good hard session in of lifting the day before going into Thanksgiving. Totally. But again, the first thing we talked about, don't stress, enjoy it. It's the holidays. They come once a year and Mind Pump wishes everybody happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas. With that, go to MindPumpFree.com and download all of our free resources. We have resources on training, nutrition.

We have resources for personal trainers. Make sure you go check them out. You can also find all of us on Instagram. You can find Justin at Mind Pump Justin. You can find me at Mind Pump Sal and Adam at Mind Pump Adam. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at MindPumpMedia.com.

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