Welcome to the Nutrition Science Podcast, where we help you cut through the noise and make informed science-based decisions about nutrition and your health.

Welcome back to another episode of the Nutrition Science Podcast.

I'm your host, Dr. Adrian Chavez, and today we are going to be discussing how to stay healthy through the holiday season.

So if you're listening to this podcast when it's

being released, it is currently late November, Thanksgiving is coming up, Christmas is a month away,

New Year's is right after that, and for many people, that means lots of family gatherings,

social events, travel, parties, maybe more alcohol consumption, and being off of your

normal routine for a good part of this next month and a half, which isn't the worst thing in the

world, but the statistics show that this period of time is responsible for a large percentage

of the weight gain that occurs among adults year after year after year. The average person in America tends to gain about 1 to 2 pounds during the holiday season.

And while that doesn't sound like a lot, if you add that 1 to 2 pounds up year after year after year,

10 years from now that can lead to 20 pounds of weight gain just from the activities that occur during the holiday season. This is not to mention the rest of the year when you may have other circumstances where you're traveling or on vacation and you're out of your routine and eating more as well. So for all of these reasons, I think it is very important to be mindful of your habits during this time and try to make better choices where you can. And I know a lot of people say, oh, I just want to

be on vacation. I want to enjoy myself. I don't want to think or worry about my health or nutrition, which is fine. But here's a reality. Taking care of your health is not a part-time job. It's not something that you can do Monday, through Friday, and take off on the weekends or take off for a month and a half at the end of the year every single year. If you do that, you're not going to be

able to see the results that you. do Friday and take off on the weekends or take off for a month and a half at the end of the year every single year.

If you do that, you're not going to be able to see the results that you'd like to see with your nutrition because you're not being serious about it.

If you really care about your health and it's a priority to you, it should be something that you're paying attention to all throughout the year.

Now, does that mean that you have to stick to some rigorous routine

while you're traveling and enjoying social time? Absolutely not. What it does mean is that it's

important to maintain healthy habits and healthy lifestyle choices despite what's going on around

you because life is going to happen. There are going to be circumstances where you're extremely

busy, where you're

traveling a lot, where you maybe have less control over your nutrition or less ability to get out

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