YOU CAN NOT OUTRUN YOUR CALORIES

I see it ALL the time at the gym.  Members that indulge in too much rich and fatty food and booze the night before and are bemoaning the fact they must spend an additional half hour on the treadmill.  It’s especially prevalent this time of year around the holidays.

Good luck with that.  The damage is already done.

You can’t come in to the gym today to correct yesterday’s mistakes.   What happens when you indulge in a high calorie meal with cocktails, the alcohol will literally put a halt on the metabolic breakdown of the food.  Your body will process the alcohol first all the while the food you just ate is being stored as fat.  It’s why drinking is one of the major factors for weight gain and failure to lose fat.  It will do a number on your metabolism.  Depending on how many drinks and types of drinks you have, it takes longer to break down all those calories before getting to your food.

Alcohol also spikes your blood sugar levels so when you crash, you will eat anything you can find in your fridge.  It’s the reason for 24 hour diners and greasy hangover meals.  There’s just no reversing the process of one bad day, you just need to get back to normal healthy eating with minimal alcohol intake.

I’m not preaching you live a monk’s life without some occasional brews.  Far from that.  So instead of feeling guilty about stuffing yourself and drinking yourself silly, and mistakenly trying to make up for it by extra cardio, this is what I suggest.

If you know you’re going out to restaurant or party with friends and have even an inkling of over indulgence:

1. Eat some lean proteins, low glycemic carbs such as a small sweet potato which will act as a time release capsule to stabilize your blood sugar levels.

2. If you MUST drink, stick with light beer and clear alcohol such as gin or vodka, but abstaining from fruit juices as mixers. Go with the tonic instead.  As a trainer, it goes against my grain to advise for this behavior but it seems to me that people feel they MUST drink and I never understood it.  By this I mean drinking above moderate levels.

3. Drink less and stay hydrated by drinking a glass of water in between beverages.  This will also create a full feeling.

4. Do NOT starve yourself the next day, you will only make it worse.  That will slow your metabolism even more.

5. Go back to the plan!

SPECIAL THANKSGIVING NOTE ABOUT THE INFAMOUS TRYPTOPHAN

I often laugh at people when people tell me how exhausted they were from the tryptophan in the 5oz piece of turkey they select during Thanksgiving.

NEWSFLASH folks:  It might have something to do with the piles of stuffing, mash potatoes with gravy, candied yams, cranberry sauce and I’m not going to include the cheese drenched vegetables…  So after a 4 pound plate of carbohydrates, your fatigue is from the 5 ounce piece of turkey and the immense amount of tryptophan in it.   Really?

So we’re on the couch right now with our pants wide open and the grunts and groans are coming from the living room and all I can say is damn that tryptophan.  But tomorrow, we’re doing 45 minutes of cardio and that should erase it all.

Not going to happen. Only in a perfect world, not this one.