The average American gains 10+ pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.

If everyone who did that immediately lost those 10 pounds in January and February, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

But most people don’t. Most people keep packing it on.

Even if 10 pounds a year was all you ever packed on, in 10 years you’d be 100 pounds overweight.

That is a LOT of extra weight.

It’s way easier on your body and your mental state to keep your weight about the same through the holidays.

And despite what you may believe (or what past experience has taught you), it’s not THAT hard to keep your weight about where it is now.

Step 1: Drink a gallon of water a day.

It sounds like a lot. But if you’re drinking two pots of coffee a day and guzzling six cans of soda a day, you’re probably already drinking a gallon of fluid.

Cut back on the other stuff and chug water instead.

You can add electrolytes to it to make it taste better if you want. (Use the code, CODERED, for 10% off.)

If you need to work up to a gallon, that’s fine. Start at 16 ounces and add 8 ounces more per day.

2) Weigh yourself daily.

What gets measured gets managed. If you SEE your weight every morning, you’ll be able to look back at what you did the day before and notice patterns around when your weight goes up, stays the same, or goes down.

If it goes up one day, make sure your sleep is good (sleep is the #1 rule in weight loss). Eat a little less to help you get it back down.

When you’re monitoring your weight every day, you’ll catch a small gain before it becomes a big gain.

“But Cristy, I hate the scale!”

Unless you have an eating disorder, get over it and get your butt on that scale. It’s just a tool to measure ONE health metric, just like a blood pressure cuff measures blood pressure.

Stop wrapping up your worth as a human in that number and start seeing it as the impartial tool it is.

3) Eat less.

Sounds obvious, right?

But this is the opposite of what most people do.

They go back for seconds, thirds, fourths.

You can still eat whatever you want, if that’s what you choose to do.

Just eat LESS of it.

Your body can only handle so much food volume before it HAS to start storing it as fat.

If you’re eating starchy, sugary foods, you’re spiking more insulin, which will store even MORE fat if you overdo it.

Eat what you want, but eat LESS of it. One small piece instead of three huge ones is plenty!

4) Eat your fat and protein first.

Fat and protein stick to your ribs and reduce your appetite. Eat those first, and you won’t want as much of the the fattening stuff.

In other words, it’ll be easier to genuinely say, “No thanks, I’ve had enough,” because you’ll feel full.

Navigating the holiday feeding frenzy isn’t as hard as you’re making it out to be.

Follow the steps I’ve outlined for you in this post, and you can start the new year off at about the same weight, vs. 10+ pounds up.