There Is A Method to the Madness

Thanksgiving Without The Guilt

• Rob Maxwell, M.A.

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Welcome to There is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell, and I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I am the owner of Maxwell's fitness programs, and I've been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works and most importantly why things work. Hence the name, There Is a Method to the Madness. Before I get to today's show, I want to thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilden of the Gilden Group at Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales. Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your home is worth? 386-451-2412. Good afternoon, everybody, or good morning, good evening, whatever time you're listening. It is afternoon for me on Tuesday, a couple days before the 2025 Thanksgiving. I hope everybody's doing well, moving, getting ready for a uh a fun holiday. And that's what I'm going to talk about today. So Thanksgiving is considered to be a big eating holiday, at least here in the United States, right? So we do a lot of eating, we do a lot of uh, well, some of us do a lot of drinking. Uh, you know, I'm a professional, so I retired from that like uh say 32 years ago, something like that. But anyway, I'm not going to be partaking in any of that, thank goodness. But uh, you know, we watch a lot of football, we do a lot of things like that, and that's all well and good. But uh, you know, how do we manage it? So a lot of people tell me often about how much weight they gain over the holidays. So pretty much I think here we look at the holidays as far as Thanksgiving rolling through New Year. So that's you know what most people will call the holidays. And one interesting statistic I came up with, or I didn't come up with, but I found it as I was doing my research for the emails this week and for this podcast, is people generally do not gain as much weight over the holidays as they think they do. And what's probably true is they don't eat any more for the most part than they normally do. Now, we're talking the United States, so that's not uh to give ourselves a pat on the back. What that really means is that most people eat too much most of the time. And uh that's a problem, of course. But most people think if you ask them, they're gonna say they gained four to five pounds over the holidays. The statistics show that most people gain less than a pound over the holidays. I know you might be the exception and all that good stuff, but there does seem to be sort of a disconnect between how much weight people actually gain and how much they think they gain. So that's one little thing to think about. Now let's talk about the most important thing regarding that. You know, people will uh, you know, I've been doing this 31 years or so, and uh I've been uh, you know, asked questions like this for a very long time, and it's not just about Thanksgiving, it could be other holidays or special occasions, but when people are trying to lose weight or they're doing it the right way and they're taking up a new lifestyle, so you know, not that losing weight's the wrong way, but what I mean is that when somebody combines that with picking up a new lifestyle to lose weight versus going on a diet to lose weight. I mean, the lifestyle way is the really way to go. But whatever way you're talking about, people will ask, well, what do I do during the holidays? I've just started this new lifestyle, I've been working out with you a couple days a week, I'm doing my cardio, I'm uh, you know, my skin's getting tighter, I'm seeing greater definition, I'm getting stronger, I'm feeling better. I don't want to ruin that. What do I do? So that is what we are going to talk about. You're gonna get different types of opinions, of course. We all know how opinions work. And I'm just gonna give you my experience with this, my educated experience with this, because there are different belief systems. Now, I've known some people that are on real stringent diets, not ones that I put them on because I really don't believe in that. I believe when we, well, I know when we need to lose weight, we need to create a caloric deficit. So we have to cut the calories, but I don't think we should be cutting them too drastically, or whatever we lose is probably going to come back as soon as we quit trying to be so strict. So I don't think that's the right way. As I said, I really believe in lifestyle changes and I believe in somewhat dropping calories until we get to our desired weight, taking time to do it. All right. Uh you can read my book, You Can't Outrun a Poor Diet. I think I go over those rules pretty well in there because it really is just behavioral rules that you're going to have to master to get better at this, to maintain a nice, healthy weight, hopefully throughout your whole life. All right. So how, well, let me get back to what those folks would do. The people that are on pretty stringent diets, again, not that I put them on, but I've had clients that are either seeing a physician for that or they're doing some kind of uh, you know, diet they found somewhere that most likely I didn't agree with, but you know, let everybody do what they're gonna do. So, you know, they would really stick to it on Thanksgiving or other holidays. I mean, did it work for them? I mean, I guess, like I guess it worked for them at the time. I can't remember it not, but you know, these aren't folks that I've known for years and years and years. My guess would be that it didn't work for long, but that would be my guess. In other words, maybe it worked that Thanksgiving, but then maybe three months later. Maybe, do not know, just really making assumptions here, they were back to an unhealthy lifestyle. So I've have had people be super strict on their eating plans over the holidays. And personally, I don't think that's the best idea. So let me give you an example. Let's say somebody is following one of those really low 1100 kilocalorie diets that some people are getting on and they're taking some hormones and stuff like that to help with this through their doctors, whatever, that's a very low calorie diet. So they they set out to do that on a Thanksgiving. I mean, yeah, they'll probably pull it off, but again, or maybe pull it off. I don't think long term, but again, what are we teaching ourselves? Are we really teaching ourselves how to live in that gray area a little bit better? Like, you know, so many people when they start following plans like this are very black or white. They're either all in or all out. And typically that's not a mindset that works very well. All right. So similar to this would be a bodybuilder training for physique competitions. Now, I've done those and I've trained people that do those. And, you know, a physique athlete isn't going to train for a show, say like in January or February, for that very reason. I mean, I don't know any that ever have because you do have to be really strict for eight to ten weeks, maybe even 12, depending on the conditioning you went into. So, you know, two months to three months, the person is going to be really, really strict. Really counting what they're eating, watching their sodium intake, their sugar intake, keeping the calories at a certain level, keeping the protein at a certain level, the carbs, the fat, all of it, really paying attention because they're really scientifically trying to dial in the exact body fat they want and the exact level of, say, skin thinness that they want that will show through sodium intake and bloating and things like that, that they're really controlling through their diet. So there's no way they're going to do that in January or February going through the holidays because they know they're not going to be perfect during the holidays. And, you know, they tend to do pretty well as far as that goes, like year-round maintaining a really healthy weight. They tend, as athletes, to do really well. You know, again, I'm just speaking in general. I'm sure there's, you know, anomalies with them like there is everywhere. But it's very similar. You know, it's like, I just don't think it's a great idea to try to be perfect on days like that. All right. So we've seen the extreme. And then the other extreme is, you know, all the hell with it. I'm going to do whatever I want to do when I'm going to do it. Now, here's my caveat to that. Again, most people that kind of adopt that mindset are that way all the time, anyway. And there's no such thing as a free lunch, no pun intended, meaning that if you just do whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it, food-wise, alcohol-wise, whatever, there is going to be consequences. And the consequences is going to be weight gain. You will not get around it. I don't care how active you are. So if you're one of those people that says, you know what, I'm going to get up in the morning, I'm going to eat as much coffee cake as I want. I'm going to have as much bacon and scrambled eggs as I want. And then, you know, um, my partner puts out a bunch of mixed nuts and cheeses and crackers, and I'm going to eat that until I'm stuffed. And then I will uh, you know, we'll have our lunch or dinner, you know, a turkey smorgasboard of everything that there is stuffing and mashed potatoes and um whatever, a cornbread. Man, I make myself hungry here. Green bean casserole, pumpkin pies, pecan pies, cherry pie. Uh, you know, maybe there's drinks going around, and I'm just gonna eat until I'm nauseous. And then, you know, I'm gonna get my lazy boy and pass out as I watch a boring football game because so often we get sleepers on Thanksgiving for some reason. Maybe, you know, I'm putting that out there, and all of a sudden the football gods will give us a good game for once on Thanksgiving. That would be awesome because I love football. And then wake up from that uh turkey coma and uh, you know, have a turkey sandwich on rye with loaded with mayonnaise and another piece of pecan pie, and I'm gonna consume about 6,000 calories today, and you know, I'm not gonna pay the price for that. Well, yes, you will. But again, people that tend to go overboard like that do it all the time. I don't know too many people that try to be really health conscious that are gonna go overboard that much. But guess what? Here is the best news of the day. There is a gray area, people. One of my rules I tell people all the time is eat 80% good, 80% of the time. I mean, that's pretty easy, right? Like, if we do that all the time, you know, like I would say that's what I do. Like, I don't eat perfect all the time. I'll have some ice cream here or there, I'll have some foods I shouldn't eat here or there, but like I eat well 80% of the time. And I don't try to eat the best, greatest food all the time, you know. Again, it's gonna go more towards that 80% really, really clean diet every day, 80% of the time. And again, you can't measure that. I get it, it's kind of just a way for you to think about it that you're gonna eat good most of the time. That's pretty much what that means. And if you think about that on Thanksgiving, you know, it's it's not what you eat once in a while that's gonna put weight on you. I try to tell people that all the time. Like, you know, your mom comes over, you haven't seen her in a while, and she brings you some kind of like nice cake that she made, and you've been trying to eat good and you've been eating good all week. You know, no, having a piece of her cake isn't going to kill you. You don't have to cut the cake in fours and have a fourth of the cake, you know, you can cut it into eighths or sixteenths or whatever and have a small piece. I mean, that's not going to hurt you, so you don't have to be so perfect all of the time. We go to a lot of sporting events, you know, football, baseball, basketball, all of it. And um, if you go to stadiums, you know there isn't great food. I mean, there's decent food, but there isn't great food. I'm not gonna turn down one of those nice, like super sweet-looking soft pretzels. I'm gonna have one. I mean, they're good. I don't have soft pretzels every day. I don't go to a game every day. I'm gonna have one of those. Or like uh if I go to Yankee Stadium or something like that, or another baseball or football stadium, I might get the vanilla ice cream in one of their little silly helmets, you know. I mean, that's what I'll do. I I don't, there's certain foods I don't eat because it's pure crap. Like I don't eat trans fats, I don't eat uh red meat for me. I like there's certain things I don't eat, but like I'm not gonna stay away from things that I really like all of the time. I don't eat pizza every day, but if I'm in New York City or somewhere, I'm gonna get a slice of pizza, or even if I'm here. I mean, so we don't have to be saints. So I want you to enjoy your Thanksgiving, understanding that you don't have to be a saint and maintain a good fitness level. I promise you, studies have shown that it's not what you eat once in a while that puts the weight on, it's what you eat every day. It is your staples. And there's something cool that happens in the body. It's called the set point theory that you can make work for you. So the set point theory says that your body gets really comfortable at a certain level of kilocalories. Now, ideally, it's best to try to raise this set point theory, which you can by basically maintaining a good, healthy weight and exercising, you can raise that level. But what it means is that your body really, really likes homeostasis. So it likes to stay at a certain weight. So what it will do is if you consume, say, two to three to four hundred calories extra in a day that your body's not used to, your body's gonna do a pretty good job of revving everything up and burning it off. Now, if you do that every day, it's not gonna do that. Eventually that catches up with you. But because you do it only sometimes, you only go over your needs, you know, every once in a while, maybe once a week, something like that. It's not gonna cause you any damage. At the same time, it's not good to just simply binge, binge, binge on Thanksgiving because that's not good for your digestive system. You're probably not even going to enjoy it. And if you really want to enjoy it, slow down when you eat. That's your body's way of not taking in too many extra calories. You want to enjoy it, right? So don't eat so fast. Now, a couple things here as I wrap up. Number one, this isn't true for everybody. Some people have diagnosed eating disorders, so they have to be really, really careful. There are certain foods, it's like alcohol to an alcoholic. Once it touches the lips, they can't stop. So there are certain people that do have these diagnoses, and you know who you are, and only you know who you are. So, yes, you do have to be careful because there are certain sugars or whatever that if you start to eat, you may start to overeat. So, for you, you need to listen to your professional on that because it's sort of a slightly different rule system there. Another thing is remember move, move, move. The average person burns at least 150 calories a half hour of walking. So if you really want to enjoy more, move more. If you want to play football with the family, studies show that that burns another additional 500 calories. So the more you move, the more you can enjoy. And by the way, it really does aid digestion to walk before, to walk after. It's simply good for the system. All right. And you know, just this is just something that I like to do. Um if you really want to think about really getting into the spirit of the holiday, talking about Thanksgiving here, you know, a nice little gratitude journal gets the soul set on fire for you. You know, wellness is a connection of body, mind, and spirit. And I just think like if we got up and no, I'm not trying to preach to you, or maybe I am, but you know, whatever, you can turn it off if you want. But for me, it really, really helps to just kind of like get up and write down just things that are really good, you know, things I'm really grateful for. You know, it's Thanksgiving, you know, it's not, you know, eat turkey and watch football day, you know. Just sometimes things like that will change your whole perspective on how you're looking at the day. And that could really, really help you. You know, that's just my five cents on that. So I hope everybody enjoys your Thanksgiving, and I appreciate each and every one of you. All right, thank you everybody for listening to today's show. I really appreciate it. I want to remind you to please hit automatic download. It really helps me and it helps the show. And now I'd like to thank Overhead Door of Daytona Beach, the area's premier garage door company. They have the best product and the best service. I personally vouch for Jeff and Zach Hawk, the owners. They are great, they're going to get you exactly what you need. So if you have any garage door needs, give them a shout at 386-222-3165. And now I'm very excited to add another sponsor. Procharge Liquid Protein Enhancer has joined the team. And let me tell you, they are a great product. I pop one after a workout. Each container has 40 grams of protein, so that's two servings. I take 20 grams after I work out. What's really cool about them is it's portable. You can throw them in your suitcase. You don't have to worry about mixing powders and making a mess. 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Rob Maxwell

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