“Please please can I have that candy cane?”

“Please can I have another helping because it tastes so good?”

“Let’s eat just one more chocolate.”

“Everything looks so good, I just want more!”

Is this something you find yourself thinking during the holidays? I know I do. All of the food and treats look so tempting and delicious. You must find it hard to resist when everyone around you is eating those yummy deserts.

Should you have them? OR Should you remember to eat healthy during your short time off of training?

Mmmmhmmm I think you know the correct answer but is it really the answer you want to hear?

“BUT WHY! It’s Christmas Holidays”

It is so easy to come up with excuses. Right now it is Christmas, next is easter, don’t forget about thanksgiving and let’s not even get started on long weekends and summer vacation.

Eating healthy should not feel like a burden. You train so hard all year long for a very good reason, I am sure of it. In order to train hard you have to be physically, and emotionally healthy. If one of those are compromised, your results may suffer.

A healthy mind and body are the two essential keys to a successful athlete. It is kind of like the key to your front door. It is made up of a perfect pattern that only fits in your door. It doesn’t fit in your neighbours door because it not a match to the pattern of the lock. Your special pattern as an athlete is a healthy mind and body. If one is missing, success becomes more difficult to attain.

Here are a few steps you can try to help minimize the craving for all those holiday treats:

1) Eat your healthy options at the beginning of your meal so there is less room for more food and desert by the end.

2) If you have a few choices for desert, try and pick only one thing to try. You could even share yours with a frend or family member. This way you end  eating less but you still get to try some of the yummy goodness.

3) Be sure to fit in some type of conditioning and workout in between all of your holiday events. Make sure you work out an appropriate number of times that correlates with the number of hours you train in a week. For example, if you train 20-30 hours in a week normally, you want to be doing your conditioning on a daily basis.  If you train 2-6 hours a week you can workout a little bit less, maybe 2-3 times per week. Whatever the number is, try and make your workout appropriate to what your body is used to.

So during this Christmas holiday be sure to maintain a healthy body by following those 3 steps to help lessen your craving for all of those the treats. Have some, but do not over indulge. You don’t want to feel like a sack of potatoes when you get back into your weekly training schedule. You want to be able to have a positive training experience upon your return and in order to do that you must maintain your best physical form even during time off.

Your mind and body will be thankful when you return to training.