Sunday, my little Alves Family, went to Tia's house to join her and Tio and their family for a boiled dinner and watch the Patriots game. Anytime we get an invite to their house, we'll try and move heaven and earth, to get there because we have so much fun and luckily the game was at 3, so we could do an early nap and go (she didn't nap).
The boiled dinner was an Irish boiled dinner with the Presunto bone as the finishing piece (aka Prosciutto for my American friends). In the Alves family and the Portuguese culture, probably similar to many Italian families, Presunto is a common staple, you'll find it at most every Portuguese immigrant household and often times you'll find the whole leg and not slices from the local deli. I'm talking the hanging Presunto you see in local butcher shops. That's what my family has and serves. Well my uncle got as much of the easy slicing off as he could and it was time to make the dinner by boiling the leg with cabbage, potatoes, turnips and a whole lotta great other food. This was a double bonus for my family since we basically missed Thanksgiving because the girls were sick, to get to eat at the long table with most every Thanksgiving guest here again for the boiled dinner.
In any event, the food and family was great. The game was stressful with a best case ending for Patriots fan and then they served Cheesecake. I don't normally eat cheesecake, but when I do...I enjoy it. :-)
Cheesecake for a couple years was a great indulgence and pleasure of mine, so much so that my Prima Nancy, used to make me my own cake at Christmas time. Gosh, how blessed was I, but when you eat the whole the cake, it gets really hard to work it off. The first year it took 2 days, the 2nd year a week and the 3rd year 2 weeks. That's too much time and since then, she conveniently stopped making me my own cake and I stopped looking for it as I associated A LOT OF EXERCISE and consistency with my nutrition plan to work it off.
Since Sunday was a designated and planned for splurge day, preceded by a little family self-care at the Blue Hills (Burn & Earn for me), I chose to participate and enjoy the dinner and dessert and I feel good about it. Yesterday, I got back on track with great meals my bride prepped for us Sunday before we left for the boiled dinner (oatmeal, egg whites, spinach, apple and mixed nuts for breakfast; and for lunch & dinner was brown rice, black beans, avocado, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, corn and hot sauce) and I got good sleep and my workout in.
Now my focus is back on my goals, the habits I'm practicing and each moment and using Friday's kick a** weigh in and Saturday's private measurements as carrots to peak for and track my progress with data stamps. Then I'll rest and have fun with my family before doing it all over again the next week.
Splurge Meals - How Many? I tell you this long story to engage you and show you how I plan for and build in splurge meals into my life. Dr. Thomas Halton, the author of The Weight Loss Triad, says its o.k. to have 1-2 splurge meals per week if you're eating 3 meals per day. That equates to roughly 90-95% of the time you're following the nutrition plan and the other 5-10% of the time you enjoy whatever variety and different things you like.
Let's be an honest. Unless something pretty special is coming up, plan for the 2 splurges per week. Any more than 2 splurges per week and you're making things more difficult for yourself. It's fine if you're looking at making changes monthly, but if you're looking at making changes weekly, you're more likely going to need the full week and extra effort in that week to work off the 3rd meal and that may or may not be fun.
The same holds true if you're splurge meals are big, long and calorically dense. No judgement from me as I do them too, but don't beat yourself up, if you choose to have a big splurge meal and expect your body to have remained the same or quickly bounce back. Its psychologically unfair, so set or reset your expectations and timeline to bounce back.
What foods are considered splurge foods? Great question.
- Sugar, sweeteners and fake sugars
- Refined carbohydrates
- White rice
- White potatoes
- White flour
- Bread, Wraps, Rolls, Pitas,
- Pasta
- Cereals
- Cookies
- Crackers
- Chips
- Sweets
- Desserts
- Cakes
- Pies
- Muffins
- Donuts
- Cupcakes
- Caloric Beverages
- Juice
- Alcohol: beer, wine, spirits
- Smoothies and Shakes
- Processed foods
- Fast foods
- Fried foods
This is not an exhaustive list, but you get the idea.
Why are they considered splurge foods? In most cases these foods are high glycemic (digest rapidly) and/or high glycemic load (digest rapidly, are calorically dense and not nutrient dense) thereby they digest rapidly, raising your blood sugar, which causes insulin to be released, which pulls the glucose out of the blood and puts it into storage, thereby lowering your blood sugar, which contributes to lower energy, which can make you feel tired, which can cause you to eat more calories to give you more energy. This is a vicious yo-yo cycle that effects your mood, body composition, health and performance. Short term fun and benefits, but not long term.
Group Personal Training for Health, Body Transformation and Performance Enjoying some of these foods at 1-2 meals per week in most cases is o.k. You could still make progress on your health, body transformation and performance goals unless you have a medical condition, which you and your team, would know whats best for you better than I would, and you might make faster progress on your lifestyle transformation and sustain it longer so you can make an identity transformation if you have built in splurge meals every week.
Nutrition Progressions We have 3 main nutrition plan progressions that compliment our 3 main client goals above. 1. Health = Weight Loss (see the scale go down) 2. Body Transformation = Weight Maintenance + Fat Loss (see scale stay same, while body fat decreases and lean mass increases) 3. Performance = Weight gain + Muscle Building + Performance (keep weight on and possibly see scale go up while body fat % goes down, muscles hypertrophy [increase circumference] and performance increases).
Most every health & diet book would have our splurge foods listed as their "avoid most of the time foods for health" and you probably already know this, but some of them, can be helpful for performance and in situations where you need rapid digestion. A lot of those foods, especially the natural one's like white potatoes and white rice are great for keeping on weight, putting on weight, building muscle, maximizing muscle glycogen stores before high performance activities and recovering from them.
Most can be tolerated by most people before, during and after physically exertional activities, especially muscularly fatiguing activities. They can even aid performance in physically exertional and muscularly fatiguing activities when consumed before (pre), during (peri) and after (post). At other times, unless you're in the performance category, they don't work so well for you.
How do you plan for splurge meals? You schedule them. You plan 1 for the weekend (guys night, girl night, family night, watching the game, date night, ...) and you save 1 for the week in case of an emergency (meeting runs late, work provides the dinner, sick kid, flat tire, sh*t hits the fan). Most everyone looks at their forth coming week, on Sunday or Monday. Look at what's scheduled and decide when, where, how and with who you want to splurge. Circle it. Star it. Then live your life and follow your plan. If you don't use your other splurge meal during the week, you get a bonus on the weekend.
Examples: 1. Friday guys night and Saturday date nights (single and dating) 2. Friday salads and waters with the guys and Saturday date nights followed by Sunday brunches (single and courting future bride). 3. Wed family dinner and Saturday family night (married). 4. Saturday family dinner and Sunday brunch + donut @ church (married with bunny). 5. Grocery shopping day is a splurge lunch and prepared food dinner.
How do you manage cravings? You acknowledge them. Tell yourself you can have the item of desire, but not right now, and instead at this date and time. Want a donut or a beer or something else because you see it, smell it, think of it or hear about it. Acknowledge it, and then plan to enjoy it on your splurge meal. Sometimes I'll bring donuts to events or La Fin Du Mondes to splurges because that's what I'm craving. I love tacos and what goes better with tacos than lime seltzers, coronas and margaritas! Get it? You can have it, just not right now, but this week. Reads fair, doesn't it?
Fruits & Dairy One more thing. Fruits and dairy on my nutrition program are considered splurge foods which means if you're on the weight loss plan you can have them every week (@ 1-2 meal per week), but not every day. On our weight maintenance plan you can have them at splurge meals and maybe before, during or after muscularly fatiguing activities (individual specific and needs to be tested). In our performance plan you can have them at any and every meal if they work for you.
And that's splurge meals. Plan for them. Enjoy them weekly. Don't consume too much, too often or too big, but do enjoy them. Then get back to your plan that you chose, to become your best self, to enjoy your life more fully while achieving the goals you set for yourself.
And by the way, Friend, do you like Cheesecake?
Saving my splurge for cousin lunch,
Coach Mike
p.s. Saturday is the next Private Measurements, Orientation and Nutrition Discussion.
p.p.s. do you need help with your nutrition and/or training? if yes, reply and let me know.
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