How To Be Healthy On The 4th Of July

When it comes to health and fitness, the mental side of health is just as important as the physical. All too often do I see or hear of people who want to try and be healthy all of the time, even holidays. Though commitment is necessary for body transformation and health boosting, it is also twisted and sick; you need to be able to enjoy what’s around you. Don’t torment yourself; if you feel like eating 3 hot dogs, 2 hamburgers, half a bag of chips and drinking more than 2 drinks, please do.

However, if you are going to celebrate this holiday, or any, you need to make sure the celebration ends when the holiday ends. Throwing out any leftovers is crucial to getting back on the healthy lifestyle track. If it is out of sight and home, you’ll have a higher chance of getting back on your goal path by the next day. 

Once these foods are introduced into our diet again, it can be hard to turn our willpower back on. So a complete removal is entirely necessary. (If you want to know more, pick up Dr. David Kessler’s “The End to Overeating.”) Many need a specific strategy to avoid this from occurring. The key is to get back to your healthy lifestyle as soon as possible. Do not let the holiday spill over.

There is actually quite a bit of physiology behind this. When we put high-fat, high-salt, and high-sugar foods in our body, the response is not “I have had enough, thanks” but something like “MORE!” Eating high fat, sugar, and salt foods tends to produce a nearly insatiable appetite for more of the same. This appetite will spill over into the next day, and the next, until you put an end to it by eating healthy again.

Once you let the 4th of July become the 5th, 6th, and 7th, the next thing you know you’ll find yourself at the nearest McDonald's by Monday the 9th.

You’re getting home late from work on that first workday after the holiday and you’re starving. On the way home you always pass a McDonald's a couple miles up the road. You crave those fats, salts, and sugars because that’s all you’ve been consuming for the past five days and because the drive-thru is so convenient compared to making your own meals, you decide to go in.

The next thing you know, you’ve reversed weeks of hard work because your momentum shifted to an unhealthy lifestyle because of one holiday binge. Please don’t let this happen to you because it will if you don’t follow this advice!

Happy 4th Of July!