Podcast Transcription: How to Stay Lean During the Holidays (It’s Easier Than You Think)

Ted Ryce: Every December, millions of people gain weight, not because they fall off the wagon, but because they never get back on. In fact, in one study from the New England Journal of Medicine researchers followed nearly 3000 adults in the us, Germany, and also Japan, and they found that people gained about half a percent of their body weight in just 10 days of Christmas, and they kept. 

Half of that weight permanently. Now I know half a percent doesn't really sound like much, but here's the catch. Half a pound here, a pound there. Do that every year for a decade, and you've added 10 pounds of body fat you never intended. So in today's episode, I'm gonna share how I personally stay lean. 

While spending two weeks with my family in Texas, eating barbecue, eating all the different foods we're gonna be eating for the holidays, and without being a fitness weirdo, without missing out a connection, and without being on a strict diet. In other words, I'm gonna be eating what I want. So what is up my friend? 

Welcome to the Legendary Live podcast. I'm your host Ted Ryce. Health expert and coach two entrepreneurs, executives, and other high performing professionals. And in today's episode, I'm gonna share with you exactly how I approach the holidays as well as how I coach my clients. And the goal of this episode is so that you start to understand and get a plan for yourself. So let's dive right in.  

Number one is bring the good energy. What do I mean by that? Don't be a fitness weirdo. Okay. When I land in Texas, San Antonio, Texas, I know what I'm walking into. Smoked brisket. Cole slaw, all the different things we're gonna be eating, right? I, I end up eating way more things. I, I get exposed to way more things, way more foods, way more junk foods, way more, you know, just a different variety of foods. 

We're gonna go to this amazing Thai food place, uh, brings back such good memories of Thailand. It's a very authentic Thai restaurant. So I'm gonna be doing all that. I'm gonna be having bacon for breakfast. I'm not gonna lecture anybody about their nutrition choices, because if you show up with that vibe, people are not gonna like you. 

And it's, I think, very common for people on a health kick to be like, oh, don't eat the. Oh my gosh. I can't believe you're eating that or Right. Don't make a scene with what you do. Okay. We're, we're gonna be talking about nutrition and how to approach it in a minute, but just understand, bring the good energy. 

The moment you make fitness, your identity at the dinner table or breakfast table, you start to disconnect from people and it creates tension. And my belief is that health is not just the physical side of side of things, it's the emotional side, it's the social side. Okay, so I'll even tell you, uh, I had a client who is a bit anxious about visiting family and realized that relaxing socially made him eat less because he wasn't battling the guilt. 

And if you're a person and you're on a bit of a health kick right now, and you're maybe a bit more extreme in your approach and you do wanna lecture people. Realize you don't change people's behavior by preaching. You show up by leading. In other words, you show up with good energy, you show up. You're sharing in what everybody else is doing. 

You don't have to go for seconds or have huge plates, et cetera, et cetera, but you need to show up and be a model of what people want to be. And what will end up happening is people will look at you and say, whoa, I want to be more like you. You look great. You've lost weight, you're in better shape. I can see your muscles, whatever compliments, whatever they think about you and you're eating what you want. 

You're not restricting anything, you're not making it weird. You're not being the nutrition weirdo or the fitness weirdo. So that's number one, and that's what I'm gonna make sure I do. I never show up and start to lecture people. I might make jokes. If I think it's appropriate because it's like my cousin, two boys and my cousin's wife, right? 

So that's the type of energy. But I'm, and you know, if it were a different situation, I might pull back. But as part of the ongoing thing that me and my cousin and his two sons have is we kind of bust our balls, right? We, we bust each other's balls, so. And make fun and make jokes. It's, we, I always come back with these new inside jokes every year. 

I just, it's such a, it's so much fun, and that's what I want for you, regardless if, uh, you know, you're into ball busting or not. I want you to come back from the holidays feeling like, wow, that was amazing. Can't wait to do it again next year.  

So step number two, arrive lean, because why? Because preparation beats willpower. 

Before I travel, I tighten up in my approach, my framework. I have a framework I call the metabolic reset sequence. There's a phase of it that I call phase one, right? Or in fact, there's three phases. There's phase one. Phase one actually is a combination of nutrition, diet, and supplementation, but I take the nutrition part and I, I try to tighten up as much as possible, so I'm getting into the best shape that I can be in before I board that flight for Texas. 

So many people. Get this wrong. They show up and once they get there, they're like, well, I'll just do my best. No, you're not gonna do your best. You're gonna, you're gonna repeat the habits that you already have right now, and they're gonna be amplified by either the stress of the holidays or by the excitement and the celebratory nature of the holidays. 

In other words, if you're not gonna rise to the occasion, you're gonna fall to the level of your preparation. And so I'm, I'm gonna give you a client example in a second, but I'll tell you what I'm doing. I'm getting into the best shape I'm gonna get as lean as possible. I'm gonna build as much muscle as possible. 

I'm gonna be dialed in with my workouts, my diet, my supplementation, my sleep, right? I'm, because I know during those two weeks, there's gonna be a lot of things that I won't be able to control, and in fact, I don't want to control, because again, going back to not being the nutrition or fitness weirdo. I want to be a positive force in the lives of my family. 

So I wanna use an example, a client example here. I have a client who, actually, I had three clients who went to Italy, but I think this particular individual is, is the best. The best example here, so his name's David. He was going to Italy and he has been working with me for a few months. He's doing great or was doing great, and he had this apprehension about his trip to Italy. 

Now David and I, we both love traveling to Italy. I know exactly what he's going to experience over there because I, I actually only spent a couple weeks total in Italy, but I just love it so much. It's my favorite place in Europe to visit. And he, again, he was like, oh, well what about Italy? What, what am I gonna do? 

And what I said, David, the first thing we need to do is get you into the best shape possible. So I started pushing him, lose more weight, get leaner. Focus on your workouts, be extra on point because why? Because it's uh, not very typical if, if you're bouncing around Europe, generally, depending on, you know, what part of Europe, of course, but if we're talking about Southern Europe, like Italy, Spain, et cetera, we're talking about places. 

You, you are gonna end up in places where food is part of the experience. Alcohol is part of the experience, and gyms are a bit harder to come by now. Now it depends where you are, what type of hotel you stay in, but even in the smaller cities, it can be a bit tough, right? I stayed at a beautiful hotel in Positano. 

The Ancor, Kora, I'm probably saying that wrong for my Italian listeners. Excuse my butchering of your language, but it, it did not have a place to train. Okay. But two weeks is not a long time. So we got David into the best shape we could right before he left and he went there. He drank alcohol, he wine, right? 

He drank the wine, ate the pasta, the pizza, probably the pastries, probably the tiramisu. And he had an amazing time and he came back. Guess what? The change in his weight was Zero. He did not gain any weight by the time he weighed himself. By the time he got back and finally got around to weighing himself, his weight had not changed one pound. 

And he was so surprised by that and I was not. 'cause it's very common. I have so many clients who have the same experience. Now not all of them come back weighing the exact same weight. David in this case did. Some of them come back weighing just a couple pounds, but they're all surprised. The surprise is that either they're the same weight or they just gained a couple pounds instead of the five to 10 or however many, however many pounds they used to gain when they went on vacation. 

So again, you don't rise to the occasion, you fall to the level of your preparation. So what I'm doing, I know if I get into the best shape I can. I'm gonna be, let's say, those habits that got me there to that peak shape, they're still going to be playing in my brain as I go through the two weeks of, uh, you know, letting things go, relaxing and having a good time and relaxing my choices around food, et cetera. 

So. Again, get into the best shape you can.  

So let's talk about nutrition. What I want you to do is stock up on lean foods. What do I mean by that? As soon as I arrive in Texas, I'm gonna go to the grocery store and get my staples. I'm gonna get Greek yogurt, I'm gonna get egg whites. I'm gonna get protein powder. 

I'm gonna get fruit and vegetables this way. Whenever I'm not eating a meal with my family, I'm gonna be able to keep it lean. Okay? So what you want to do, and these are phase I call these phase one meals, but um, you know, you don't know what phase one 'cause you haven't worked with me and don't understand that part of my program. 

So what I'll tell you to do, get lean proteins, veggies, and fruits because every time you have an opportunity to have a meal on your own. You're going to eat one of these meals and it's gonna satiate you, which is going to help you eat less at the other meals naturally. And instead of like, oh gosh, you know, I, I ate some of the, uh, whatever shepherd's pie, whatever you end up you having, right? 

Whatever it is that you end up having, and you're going to naturally just not be hungry. You want to stay satiated. I'm not a fan of intermittent fasting. Now it works for some people. It doesn't work for others. You can also try skipping meals, but what ends up happening with a lot of people with skipping meals, I don't like to call it intermittent fasting. 

If you're doing that, you know, the 16 eight, that's not really fasting usually for a lot of people. It's just meal skipping. So meal skipping can work provided you don't end up eating just as many calories as you would've had you eaten breakfast. 'cause that's the most typical meal people skip. I prefer skipping lunch or having a lighter lunch. 

But again, it depends on your situation. It depends when you're eating with your family. So. Stock up on lean proteins, vegetables, and fruits, and whenever you can have one of them. Okay. The freedom doesn't come from restriction. The freedom comes from. Having these meals that just allow you to eat less without using your willpower. 

Because if you're having to say no, like let's say you really want more pie, but you're like, oh, I sure really shouldn't, versus you're stuffed, you cannot eat more, and someone asks you if you want more pie. You're like, no, no, I'm good. I'm, I'm super full. I cannot eat more. Right? People pick up on that vibe and they don't try to push it. 

You can just say you're full and nobody's right. Nobody's gonna try to push you to eat more until you throw up, okay? Unless you have very unhealthy family members. That's for a separate episode.  

The next tip I have for you is don't isolate yourself to exercise, turn fitness into a connection. For example, in my case, I'm gonna be at my cousin's house. 

I'll stay there for two weeks. He has a really nice gym in his garage. So what I'll end up doing, the older son is into lifting and I'll take him into the gym and we'll work out together. And what that ends up being, it's not Ted. Oh, where did Ted go? Oh, I wanna do something. Oh, no, he's gotta work out. You know, he is like this fitness guy. 

No, it turns, it turns from that type of talk into, oh, Ted and Austin are together in the gym. That's my nephew's name. And they're working out together. So all of a sudden it's like bonding time. It's strengthening relationships. It's not me separating myself. Now, if you gotta separate yourself, that's okay too. 

Try to combine relationship building, connection with movement. Another thing that I try to do, 'cause my cousin, he's got a, I don't know, he is got a few injuries, something. So we, we end up not working out together is the point. But what I can do, he likes to walk and he's super fast. He is so hard to keep up with when the guy's walking, I don't know his secret, but he's super fast. 

He's a way faster walker than me. Which is great because I'm hanging out with him. We end up taking walks and we do walk and talks around his neighborhood and it's a way for us to get, again, strengthen relationships. It's much more fun talking and walking. It's nice to sit around too, don't get me wrong, but especially after meals or in in the morning or whenever he wants to. 

So try to find people to partner with to go do some walks. There's you. There's, in this world we live in, right, there's always gonna be someone, or for many of us at least, there's gonna be someone who either wants to walk or wants to do something active, but they don't want disrupt the vibe and. Try to make it about hip fitness or stabilizing blood sugar or burning fat, or improving digestion, no, but as soon as you make it into like, Hey, who wants to go for a walk? 

Who's up for a walk? Right? Then that becomes something different. So it's, this is such a good way to lead by connection and try to turn fitness, walking, et cetera, into something where you're not so focused on the physiology, even though that's obviously important. But it's just a way for you to spend time together. 

And some of the best conversations happen too, because you're in motion, because exercise improves the blood flow to your brain. It reduces stress and anxiety. So the vibes during. Uh, the conversations during walks tend to be quite good. So the best workouts aren't the ones you grind through. They're the ones that you bring someone with you at least during the holidays, right? 

And, and, and you end up walking more because you're not even thinking about like, oh, I gotta get my 10,000 steps, which is boring. You're thinking about the conversation you're having, you're, you're connecting and both of you're feeling good, hopefully. 'cause you're talking about the right things and you're using it as a a chance to connect. 

And again, you just start naturally feeling better as you walk, right?  

So number five is accept imperfection, then get back on track fast. And it really just should be that get back on track fast. So here's the thing, you may go into the holidays with a plan and. That plan might go to hell, right? It might fall apart under the pressure of real life and it doesn't go perfect. 

But let's say it's not a complete failure, right? You got some walks in, you gain less weight 'cause you were managed to squeeze in some of the meals that we talked about that were lean protein, veggies, fruit, and very filling. So as soon as you come back, get back on track. Right, get back on track. Now what I tell my clients to do, if they really fell off, go on phase one and they know what that means and they have their phase one nutrition, exercise and supplementation plan. 

But for you, get back on track to your normal routine. Do not come back and take it easy. By the way, a lot of this, again, I'll go back to the second one, the second. Step, which is arrive lean because if you get into great shape before you go, then get off for a couple weeks or maybe a month, depending on how long the holidays last for you. 

So I've got clients where a bunch of people have birthdays during the holidays. It it, it looks different for everyone regardless of what it looks like though, get back on track fast and the better shape that you get into before the holidays start, the easier it will be to get back on track fast. So no coming back from the trip, feeling guilty. 

Whether you feel bloated or off, whatever, it doesn't matter. It's not failure. Get back on track with your nutrition, lifting weights, sleep, stress management, because this is where like most people don't gain five pounds during the holidays. They get, they gain one or two. Keep half, or maybe you do gain five pounds or 10 pounds during the holidays, but what ends up happening is that you don't get it off regardless of what you gain, you don't get it back off. 

So it's not the damage you do during the holidays that matter, it's how long you wait to recover from it. The holidays is only a couple weeks or a month, or maybe even two months, depending, again, depending on your situation. That is, there's still 10 more months in the year. So it's not the damage you do during the holidays, it's how long you wait to recover from it. 

So listen, being fit during the holidays, it's not about depriving yourself, it's not about separating yourself from everyone. It's about designing a lifestyle that can bend without breaking. So enjoy. The brisket. Enjoy the Turkey, enjoy the wine. Enjoy your family. But don't forget preparation. Make sure you go food shopping, you control the meals that you have control over. 

Make sure you have a plan for movement. Make sure you get back on track fast. And if you do that, that's what's gonna keep you lean year after year. That's how I do it. I'm 48 right now. I'm feeling amazing. I look well amazing. Depends on who you are. I get a lot of hate on social media. I'm not as shredded, but 15% body fat that's not shredded, right? 

That is, uh, I can see my abs, let's say. My abs never disappear. That's how I do it. That's how my clients do it. And you can do it too. So that is it. And let me ask you, what part of this do you feel like you can implement? All of it. Some of it. What parts are you already doing and what parts should you start doing? 

That's the question I wanna leave you with. Holidays can be amazing time of the year. They don't have to sabotage your fitness progress. All you gotta do, follow the strategies that I outlined here and you're gonna be good to go.