It’s that time again! The holidays are in full swing. I’ve already heard a few people say “Diet is on hold for two months!” Or “I don’t know how I’m going to stay lean for the holidays.”

It is common for most of the American population to ditch healthy nutrition habits from Thanksgiving until January 2nd, but that may not be your only option. Below are a few protocols you can incorporate into the next few months, including the day of the holiday to optimize your ability to stay lean during the holidays

Don’t skip workouts. Even on the day of the holiday

You read that right. As long as you have access to your gym and even 20-30 minutes to spare, you can squeeze in a workout on the day of the holiday. If you don’t have access to your gym, you can absolutely do an at home workout consisting of body weight exercises or busting out those dusty dumbbells that have been hanging in the corner of the spare bedroom for 6 months.

Although most of us truly could squeeze in a 30-minute workout on Christmas day while the kids are playing with their presents and you are finished cleaning up the trash, I know most probably won’t. And that’s OK too. You deserve the day off. Instead, squeeze your workout in the day before or the day after the holiday. Doing a workout that consists of substantial resistance training and/or HIIT (high intensity interval training) will enable your body use EPOC (Excess post oxygen consumption), which means your body will continue to burn calories after you’ve completed your workout. In some cases, after an intense HIIT workout that includes resistance training, can last up to 72 hours. Imagine burning calories from your workout the day before while you’re eating your Christmas ham.

Don’t skip meals before the main event

Counter intuitive to thinking, most people skip meals throughout the day thinking that they will decrease their overall calories by the end of the day. Sometimes this may be true, but the danger is what may occur during the big meal after you’ve been skipping all of your previous meals. Suddenly your eyes may get bigger than your stomach and you’ll find yourself forcing down an extra 500 calories or more that you don’t need because you’ve been skipping meals and building up the anticipation of eating as much as possible at the big meal!

Be mindful of calories

Balance. There’s many ways to look at calorie intake. Sometimes it can be daily, sometimes it can be weekly. If you decide to throw caution to the wind the day of your holiday party, then balancing your calories throughout the rest of the week is a good idea. If I had 5000 calories the day before, today I’ll stick to a deficit and only eat 1500 to 1800 calories, and I’ll use those carbs for a good workout. Or, since I’ve already had 1500 calories today and I have my holiday party tonight, I’ll make sure I only have a small piece of pie and I’ll be mindful of how many other carbs I eat, and I’ll make sure to eat my salad first to get fuller on good stuff first.

The holiday parties are temporary, your goals are going to be there after

It may seem like disciplining yourself to one dessert item and only a small portion of mac n cheese is boring, and someone might even make a comment about it. In the moment, you’ll feel like the boring one or the outsider, but remember that as soon as you leave the party reality sets in. You’re back to real life and you’re going to be thinking about your health goals. Whatever is being felt in the moment of blandness at the holiday event will soon pass, and you’ll be happy you stayed the course the next day or after you leave.

Overall, flexible dieting is the way to go. Enjoy the holiday foods, just be mindful of how much you’re eating and how this will effect your diet the whole week or next few days. If you need to pull out your app and record it all, do it. If you’re cooking and you have the ability to add healthy ingredients, just do it. Your family will still love the food, and most won’t even notice. It might even taste better! Keep working out, and don’t go off the rails just because you ate your heart out the day before. Enjoy your family and enjoy the holidays!