 In this episode of Mind Pump, we talk about something very important right around this time of year. Now, a lot of you are probably or might be stressing out about the holidays coming up. You're worried that you're going to get fat or get out of 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. Their mission is to create a world where everyone wins with meat that is better for you, your family, the animals, the farmers, the businesses, and our planet. Typically, the view is in the meat industry that it's a zero-sum game, where for business profits and consumers pay a low price, the farmers, the animals, and the planet suffer. But it doesn't have to be that way. It's possible to create a world where everybody wins and ButcherBox is actively doing it. Now, here's what they do. They deliver high-quality meat you can trust. It's 100% grass-fed and pasture-raised beef, free-range organic chicken, heritage breed pork, and wild-caught Alaskan salmon directly to your door on a monthly basis. They actually mail it to your door. You don't have to go to the store to get all this stuff. Now, all of their products are humanely raised, and they're never given antibiotics or added hormones ever. Now, they have a huge promotion going on right now, and you can get this with the Mind Pump hookup. You can get the ultimate steak sampler. Now, this is two New York strips, four top sirloins, two filet mignon, all free in your first order, and $20 off. Here's how you get that. Go to ButcherBox.com forward slash Mind Pump, use the code Mind Pump. Also, this month, mass performance is 50% off. Now, this is our workout program that's excellent for fat loss, muscle building, and athletic performance. This is a functional workout. It's one of our more popular programs. It's half off. Here's what you do. Go to mapsgreen.com and use the code green50, G-R-E-N-5-0, no space for the discount. Have you guys been to the grocery store, not the grocery store, like the retail stores? Christmas shit everywhere. They just go right past Thanksgiving. They don't even bother with it. They're like, 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 going to agree with you there. By far my favorite holiday is that. Yeah, I'm not going to agree either because we actually, our Christmas dinners are like Thanksgiving dinner. Right. So the perks of the Thanksgiving whole getting together, massive family, tons of crazy great food. Yeah. We get it Christmas plus all the gifts and all the other shit. Well, so the way I look at it is reverse. Okay. It's like Christmas minus the retail. You don't like the retail? No, it's expected. It's not the same when you buy something for someone. Well, I can get down with that statement. We better meet though in Christmas. We've all made the decision to have more steak on Christmas than have turkey. Get rid. Turkey one time. Turkey is a tough meat to cook right. And not if you eat the first off, frying a turkey change your life. Well, Adam attempted that last year. 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, I mean, it's yummy. It's delicious if you pour some gravy all over it. 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. Obviously... How many clients did you guys have around this time that just freak out? Just pandemonium for no reason. Especially if they finally got to a place where they lost weight and they're feeling good and they're like, oh my gosh, it's my first holiday. Well, you know, the national average, I believe, is six to eight pounds of fat that people put on between now and New Year's. Now, is that a real statistic? Or is that the one that we were told? I mean, I read it somewhere. They obviously took surveys from some people. Yeah, yeah. And I don't know. Who are these people? 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 trainer's clients. I would say a good... And that is those are people that were already working out and cared about exercise. So I would imagine the average American who doesn't already go to the gym puts on probably close to that. So are they worried this is the straw that might break the camel's back? It's just going to be this cascading effect? Doug, look at that statistic. How much weight does the average American gain over the holiday season? Yeah. Because that statistic, I used to also repeat, but part of me thinks, I wonder if that was one that we were told... Like a scare town. To sell more people in January? Yeah, to sell to give gym members shifts, Rowan. That's exactly... Tell me 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, the average American gained 68 pounds over the holiday season. Let's see. Totally. According to a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine, the average American's weight 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. Yeah. Do that. That means nothing. Hold on a second. That makes more... Yeah, that's way more sense. That makes more sense. Because people gain weight through the whole year too. So it's not just the holiday season that they gain weight. That's not very much... Oh, now, what does that say? Off the side of studies, it's commonly assumed that the average American gains five pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year's 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 want to do. I want to do with this episode is I want to talk about the steps that you can take to not get fat during the holidays. But a lot of this is going to also be around one of the first things that I used to tell all my clients, which was... Myth busting. Yeah, like relax. 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 going to see a bunch of family you haven't seen a long time. Uh-oh. Yikes. Uncle John, who talks about politics. Uncle Rico the weirdo. Yeah, Aunt Jenny, who's the alcoholic, whatever. 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 going to go into this environment where there's pies and cookies and all this food and alcohol and celebration. Like I don't want to... And I used to always tell my clients, you know, 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 restricted 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 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 the people around you, the food, bonding over those things. I think that makes a big difference. And also, you know, know that it's a once a year type of thing. So the people that you're going to see that may annoy you. Not going to see them again for another 365 days. I mean, we taught... And you recently brought up that study about the importance of relationships when it comes to health. And I think it's something that we tout a lot on this show is that 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. And so, you know, and a lot of people, if you're anything like me and my family, we 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 another 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 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 boost this average up. Are the ones that put so much energy and effort going into it of, 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, like 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 going to go crazy. Now it's the spiral. And you're going to get the reversal of the, you're going to get 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 going to eat perfect. I'm not going to have a single cookie. I'm not going to 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 know, your willpower. You're just so much willpower. Like I'm not going to eat it. I'm not going to do it. And then like Aunt Jane comes in with fudge. Dude, there's fudge. Ah, 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 in 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 relations 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 huge part of sustainability. It is. So when you go in there, like, don't stress so much, because that all that stress you're placing on yourself is going to 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 hall pass, 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 goals. 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 an 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 mashed potatoes. You're 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 the other things. I do the exact same thing. So 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, is you don't sit down at a table and have food served to you. There's too many people. So we have it all up somewhere, either in the kitchen or whatever. But face style. And it's a face style. We all get in line. And then we walk through and 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, Adam. 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 there's sausage or meatball or turkey. That's going to take up a big portion of my plate. Then I'm going to go and I'm going to 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 say, Oh, there's the stuffing, you know, there's the sweet potatoes. There's the, you know, all the other dishes that potatoes, whatever. And what I, but I prioritize the more and 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. Do you know this tip and strategy is started for me during Thanksgiving, but carried into my, my regular life, like my every day eating, it was something that, and 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 in Thanksgiving and it 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 I'm so stuffed from all the other stuff. Yeah. And the other thing too, around this, is limit the snacking. So what used to kill me was what I'd 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 want to 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 stressing. 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 eat the other stuff. Kind of speaking to both these points and the stress, like I know that 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 one thing that I do with that is, I'm definitely trying to have something I'm sipping on and I'm not indulging crazy with drinking, but in between, I'll make sure to keep hydrating with water. And just that's something that I've, 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 that to me, that actually is one of the big components of then, well, the fucking all kind of a thing. Well, you know, like it inhibits my normal reserves towards like grabbing all the treats. And you know what'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 your inhibitions, I should say. So if you're a restrict, restrict willpower, willpower, you have one drink, I'm going away. Out the door. Out the door. So that's why I think that stress one was real important. Well, even if you're not drinking alcohol, you're 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 in our body wanting something and wanting to stay, our mouths 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. There's a lot of Irish coffees 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 seltzer water. Like, yeah, like that, you know, we put a little lemon in there and it just, it's easier to, I guess, sip on. It feels like you have a drink versus just a thing of water. Definitely. Here's something else that I do. And I started doing this with all my family parties because I considered myself the ambassador of health for a little while with my family. So when I show up to family functions... Do you have a ribbon or anything? I had a hat. I'd have you see a little sash. When I would show up to family... Super good. Like he's like just rolls up front door. Hello, your ambassador is here. Like a hall monitor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh God, everybody put the treats away. You're sal. Thanks to you guys, I realized my nerdiness with a full, with a full amount of that. I'm sorry, bro. I just had a vision immediately. So I envisioned like this like knitted sweater with a big, big H on it. I'm here. But no, you know, this is a thing. Any question, anybody? Of course I was always into working out. I 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've told me this. They'll be like, Sal, there's literally nothing healthy at my family, at these family parties. That does happen for sure. They'll say, you tell me to eat 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 I'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, you know, somewhat healthy. So bring that healthy dish. It's a very, very important, powerful tip that I used to tell clients that I used myself. 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 that. In fact, the jello, the statement you just made, Justin, it totally reminds me. It's called a salad. Yeah, the salad was that. And then any sort of vegetable is wrapped and drowned in bacon, butter and other sweets or caramelized. 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 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 by one. Rowsome veggies. Yeah, that's always a good one. Doug's Brussels sprout recipe is the best. It's awesome. Because, you know, you bring a big plate of big tray of broccoli. Your family will look at you and be like, well, thanks, asshole. Stinking up the room. But you bring in his Brussels sprout recipe, which is still very, very healthy. It's like a meal in itself. It's so good. Oh, 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, you know, really healthy. By the way, this extends to other things as well. So let's say you want to drink. You're going to come, you're going to go to your family, big family thing. You're like, I don't want to drink. But like all the drinks are not so good. Bring some white claw or some shit. You know what I mean? Yeah, bro, that's me. Is that you? Yeah, it totally is me. I'm the low calorie alcohol guy. Yeah. Yeah, I don't actually own it. You know, just to kind of help out. vodka is a good alcohol for that. Because you can mix that with anything. Be that one in the family that was carrying a freaking fifth of vodka. Hey, guys. Mindbub told me to drink straight vodka. That's why I'm here. Exactly, 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 like, what am I doing? Like, why am I? 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've practiced mindfulness when I eat and have been practicing this for quite some time. So it's probably the reason why I haven't implemented 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 like, I'm chewing my food and you've already got the next bite like halfway to your mouth before you even finish swallowing. And so he told me something that he started to do that helped him out that. So I'm going to share it with everybody else. I haven't done it myself to see if it made it, it would make a big difference, but he would switch hands between bites. Oh, I've heard of this. Yes. So you, you know, studies show that this works. Every bite. Yeah. He's such a hand. 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 cut with your other hand. It's terrible with my left hand though. But that's part of causing you to, it's what's also causes 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, 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 is. So my people ask, what does that mean? Mindful. Like what the hell does, does mindfulness actually mean? It means being present. Oh, look at that. Oh, is that the study he pulled it up? Yeah. Yep. It actually works. You eat less if you eat, 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 Czech and he was talking about not drinking as you're eating. Yes. And that sounds like so duh, but for me, I would always take massive bites and then try and wash it down. Wash it down. Because I had to cram it in because it was so big. Choke, otherwise. You know, it was just like, 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 them 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 I say he forces 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 chew the food, chew the food or two, just not having any sort of fluid. So you're forced to chew it all 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 special cookies that she only makes on Thanksgiving and my other uncle made his special peanut brittle or whatever and then there's Oreo cookies. Okay? I'm not gonna eat the fucking Oreo cookies. Who's the Oreo cookie? Who's the asshole that brings Oreo cookies at 6K? That was the last time they get invited to buy things here. Yeah. One good guy, 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. Don't eat 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 all the time. Is there one specific food you can think of in terms of like the holidays? 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 for no 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. Oh yeah. 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, good for her. But yeah, it's called patizas. 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, and 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 like snacks and stuff, bullet chips, whatever. Oh yeah, get rid of all that. Just go with 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 here's the side effect of being more mindful by 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 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, the reason why I'm saying that is because I think sometimes people think, oh, I'm not gonna enjoy as much because 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 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? This is another, so we used to play basketball. It's like the 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. Now there's been 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 kind of habits that probably started around Thanksgiving that again has bled 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 like 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 and so I thought it's 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 and leaving our phones at the house and going for a walk. What that's done besides the digestion 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 earlier this morning that this has been a game changer for my relationship with Katrina. We've been together for nine years and you can get very comfortable in a relationship and take the other partner for granted and many nights can I come home and sit in front of my phone or my computer and work all night and basically kiss her goodnight 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 to 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 and going off and taking a long walk helps me reconnect and reconnect to her and 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 relationships. 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 stark contrast that we used to just I mean go right to watching a movie or something like that that was like tradition and then everybody's just lethargic and passing out and 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 you know car games and it's just a lot more interactive so it just sparks that socialness. Yeah, the studies found that walking posts is what's called post-prandial or you know a post meal increases satiety because it gets the body digesting so you get that signal that says oh you know we don't want to eat anymore it actually blunts the blood sugar spike quite significantly it's actually pretty pretty good effect at walking after you eat so it's got those health effects and then of course what you guys are talking about like 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 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 spark up a joint or something and we'll just laugh about 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 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 you know big cities for sure and most towns I think do this is the turkey trots and a lot of them that was that's like they normally start oh they do that in the morning of right yeah really the morning of is they'll take off and do that so you know 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 and getting up early and creating movement early on because they know they're going to be eating later on in the day but you know man if you get up and do like a turkey trot in the morning you walk or jog or run a few miles to 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 it's the amount of calories that it takes to put on one pound of body fat is you've got to eat in a 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 I this is something that I've done now for I want to say eight or nine years in a row and that is to schedule workouts with my family and friends again you know I'm the fitness and health guy in my family and so initially the way the way I would do it is you know I had my 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 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 we train 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 going to 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 going to have the responsibility of leading the workout and I'm sure it's not going to 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 well I joined I joined your family last year that's right so I mean it's good time right no it was absolutely and you know we did we sparked up a joint we saw who could lift could do a single pull-up with the most weight attached 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 you know music blaring in the background having conversation laughing I mean we go sometimes five ten minutes with nobody lifting any weights and then all sudden we're all lifting weights for a little while or we're trying maxes out on certain things and I think that just that 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 a lot of there's a if you're like a real fitness fanatic and you're traveling you know 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 want to you want to follow me through a workout you know Saturday morning or whatever oh no you're gonna work out to no no 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 it's I'm telling you it's a 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 where we're cutting our Christmas tree and I'm like lifting rocks with the kids and we're throwing them and stuff and uh yeah we make it make a whole like outdoor activity event out of the whole day so that's pretty fun think about it this way you know your your 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 going to 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 mind pump listener you probably love working out and you 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 to you know we're talking about like post Thanksgiving right afterwards and putting a lot of those calories you could use there are there are good strategy 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 what we know is if you 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 going to be wanting and needing additional calories what a great time to stretch the body like that knowing that I'm going to be probably overfeeding at the next day so I I love to get a really good hard session in of lifting the day before going into Thanksgiving totally so 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 and with that go to mind pump free dot 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