Eating healthy starts before the holidays

The battle of the bulge starts this Thursday at the Thanksgiving table and then the assault is continued with Christmas coming around the corner. How can we win this battle?

Fitness trainer George Arceo has his own weight training business and is a personal trainer in Pahrump who concentrates on building muscle.

He runs the "Body by George" program and trains at Custom Health and Fitness. He is a certified personal trainer who has been doing business for the past 14 years in Pahrump. He works with young teens all the way up to senior citizens and is an expert on losing the calories through resistance and strength conditioning.

"Look at your daily meals leading up to Thanksgiving as practice," Arceo said. "A lot of people doom themselves to failure when they don't eat before the big meal. People literally starve themselves before Thanksgiving dinner and that's not helping at all. People then tend to overstuff themselves and eat even more."

Arceo pushes regular meals and some snacking as a normal routine.

"Build a solid routine of eating the right foods before the holidays," he said. "So that when the holidays come, your body is prepared. Practice makes perfect and you then have the stamina to not eat wrong."

He gave this example. An athlete trains and trains for a big event, whatever the sport is. He prepares his body for the big event.

"Eating is the same way, we must train our bodies to eat well," Arceo said.

"That training comes with practice. That means good eating habits and no starving yourself before the big meal."

Part of that training is making healthy choices and to do that you must do the research.

"You need to know that pumpkin pie has less calories than the apple or that the white meat is less calories than the dark, or that the green bean casserole is better than the sweet potato pie," he said. "That takes research and the willingness to put the time into it."

He says eaters then must make choices.

"Make the healthy choices," the trainer said. "Sweets kill many people off. Go with smaller portions, this means a small slice of the pie, not two."

Arceo says he doesn't necessarily say no to all sweets, but he does choose natural sweets over artificial.

"Those foods that are naturally sweet are better for you," Arceo said. "Of course, if we don't practice, then most of us will fail. We tend to triple our intake and sometimes take in some 3,000 calories in one meal during Thanksgiving."

This is why he says practicing good eating habits helps during the holidays more than anything.

"I have done the research on the foods," he said. "Once you look it up, you will remember it. It then becomes part of your game plan. Your routine sets limits. This can be set by a strict amount of calories, say 1,200 but it doesn't have to be. This must become a lifestyle that you create if you want to succeed."

Arceo reminds us that they have not invented the super workout that takes all the calories off in one day.

"You put all the calories into your system in one day," he said. "But it usually takes more than one day for all those calories to come off."

According to Arceo, for every pound, you must burn 3,500 calories. This means if you take in 1,500 calories a day and burn 2,000 a day with a deficit of 500 calories, then it will take you a week to burn off that one pound.

-Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @vernheepvt