A personal training & food journal. Read about our weight loss progress at Train With Ron in Chicago, our nutritional habits and the life changes we're making to get in shape and stay healthy!

I think the next 5 or so weeks are the toughest for anyone in a weight loss routine. Even if you’re just trying to maintain your weight, making sure you don’t put on the “holiday pounds”, can be difficult. Especially if you’re a really good cook or you’re related to one. OR, let’s say if someone shared a picture of their Caramel Pecanbon on facebook. Hide them, immediately! Who do they think they are?? This just happened to me, in case you couldn’t pick that up. But I’m back here and I’m not going to think about that.

For us, it will be the first year in a few years that I won’t be cooking for Thanksgiving because Dan and I will be traveling to a football game out of town. But there will be Christmas too and I intend to participate then. So in the spirit of the Holidays I wanted to share a few tips with you of the things we will be doing over the holidays to try and be good. I realize you may not have control over all of these things but do your best. That’s all you can really ask for, your best. We can recognize when we have the opportunity to be better but maybe choose not to. Just be conscious of that.

Here are my Top 5 Holiday Tips:

1. Don’t skip working out! Even if you do a lighter version of your typical workout, schedule it into your days off. It is no ‘reward’ to skip workouts.
2. Buy local and organic where you can. Find out which foods are most valuable to purchase organic.
3. Make your own desserts from scratch. If you want to have dessert, make it from scratch. Not only will you burn additionally calories by mixing and prepping but you will have control of all of the ingredients.
4. Take smaller portions. Since you’ll probably go back for seconds, or visit more relatives and have a bite here and there, take a smaller portion on your plate.
5. Don’t stress out! Enjoy the holidays, I am a strong believer that if you stress over every calorie, fat gram or carb you’re going to drive yourself crazy and end up binging. Set your goals and stick to them. Don’t let it become a mind game. If you’re going to friends or relatives that you KNOW are not going to cook the most healthy, eat before you go so you’re not starving when you sit down to eat. Do your best and don’t stress. If you feel you’ve gone over, take an after dinner walk or run. Avert the guilt and enjoy the Holidays!

Happy Thanksgiving!