As you’ve probably noticed we’ve been talking about Cheat Meals and Cheat Days a lot lately here on the blog and in our emails.

”Tis the season to be Cheating” with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the Holiday Season right around the corner already. It’s hard to believe another year’s gone by. I feel like I just put away the Christmas lights a couple months ago and I’m digging them back out again.

I’m even more blown away that just one year ago today we lost one of my greatest mentors, Wendy Chant. Crazy how time flies.

To celebrate Wendy’s life, we’re doing exactly what she would want us to do. GIVING you a cool free plan to follow for next week’s Thanksgiving American Holiday.

We figured we would end this series with a bang. After all, she’s the mastermind behind it all; Macro-Patterning, Cheating, Strategic Metabolic Manipulation, Science based Fat Loss…you name it and she had you covered.

The following holiday plan is a simple guide Wendy created so you can strategically splurge on Thanksgiving Day or at any of your holiday events this year without the worry of gaining any fat.

Most people experience a weight loss of 2 pounds or more when this plan is followed exactly.

If you’ve never used or followed our famous meal plans, here are a few quick guidelines for you.

1. Consume 5 to 6 small meals daily.
2. Make sure every meal contains a lean protein source and a fibrous veggie.
3. Consume 1 tablespoon of friendly fat in 2 of your daily meals.
4. Only consume starches with your meals as indicated on the plan below.
5. Women drink at least 80 ounces of water daily, men drink at least 100 ounces.

Ok…here’s the plan to follow along with the basics above.

• Saturday, November 20th
  Baseline Day (2 starchy carb with protein meals before 3pm)

• Sunday November 21st
  Baseline Day (2 starchy carb with protein meals before 3pm)

• Monday, November 22nd thru Wednesday, November 24th   –
  Deplete Days (no starches)…which means under 20 grams total carbs per day. Count ALL carbs on these days to prime your body for the holiday cheating festivities.

• Thanksgiving Day – CHEAT!!!
  This plan works best if you have small amounts of food every few hours once you rise, until your big meal then OVEREAT!

Don’t binge or stuff, but indulge in all your favorite foods guilt free. Don’t hold back or be afraid to get full, just make sure you don’t go crazy.

This will force your body into an anabolic response and ultimately help you lose weight. You might even break into a mild sweat or get hot from the calorie overload.

Friday, November 26th  – The Day After: This day is the most important part of the Holiday Plan.  – DEPLETE.

You must make this a deplete day (under 20 grams of impact carbs) and cardio activity is suggested first thing in the morning for 45 minutes to one hour if you are capable.

Here’s a great plan to follow to burn maximum fat and calories while depleting glycogen at the same time.

• Warm- up 5 to 10 minutes
• Go all out for 1 minute straight and recover for 1 minute (repeat 5 times for a total of 10 minutes)
• Perform Aerobic/Endurance (steady state – low intensity) cardio for 20 to 40 minutes
• Cool down 5 minutes

If you know that you cannot deplete or at least Carb-down (have one starch with breakfast) the day after Thanksgiving, then this plan will probably not work to lose weight.

I personally find that Carbing-down is best the day after a Cheat Day because my appetite is usually higher, especially after cardio.

• Saturday, November 27th  – Do a Baseline Day (2 starches with protein meals before 3pm) along with your other normal meals, OR take in zero starches until your last meal and have whatever starches you want (with protein of course).

You choose – if you are new to our strategies then we suggest a Baseline Day.

• Sunday, November 28th - Back to whatever plan you are on.

You can also re-arrange this and apply it to ANY holiday, event, or special occasion.

Following a plan like this is what can make fat loss fun for the holidays and most importantly help keep you on track.

Speaking of making fat loss fun and applying this strategy for the holidays, my buddy Joel just extended his Cheat Your Way THIN (Special Holiday Edition) HALF off sale until midnight tonight.

If you grab it now, he’s giving away a detailed Holiday Cheating Calendar that lays out every holiday as a fat burning cheat day.

You also get our GL-12 Minute Holiday Workout Bonus. Complete with 12-minute workouts so you can get it done fast while dealing with your hectic holiday schedule. Just email us your receipt (support (at) getleanin12.com) after you click the link below and grab your copy of this killer system.

Did I mention, you have a no questions asked sixty day (a full 2 months) money back guarantee on this puppy? THIS is a no-brainer:

==> Holiday Cheating Calendar + Cheat Your Way THIN (Holiday Edition) <== Click here

This is THE perfect recipe for you to enjoy all your holidays this year while still shedding those unwanted layers of goo.

Make it a great day and have an awesome fat burning Thanksgiving!

Your friends and coaches,

Shaun and Karen

If you’re anything like us, you just spent about 3 or 4 weeks consistently eating more calorie dense foods than any other time of the year because it’s the holiday season. I’m not just talking about the actual day of the holiday either. My wife and I must have had a good 7 to 10 days in December where we made a decision to enjoy our family, friends, and a lot of really good food. We don’t feel guilty and either should you if you did the same thing.

After all, this is what the holidays and December is all about. It’s a great time to recharge your mental and physical battery while embracing quality relationships and enjoying some of the best food of the year. We also use this time to take 7 to 14 days off exercising as well. It’s a perfect time to ‘reset’ your metabolism. This is a necessary part of any life-long fitness program for your body’s ability to adequately recover, prevent burnout, and keep your body responding to the fat burning process the other 11 months of the year.

So let’s talk about a strategy you can use for the next 7 to 10 days to burn a LOT of body fat.

If you’re anything like us and you gained a little or a lot of fat during December, there’s no need to fret because Your Body is Actually Primed To Burn A Bunch Of Fat After the Holidays.

When you use things like our macro-patterning nutrition for prolonged periods of time your Leptin levels drop and your thyroid output slows. Remember, Leptin controls whether your body burns fat or stores fat. You can still burn fat when Leptin levels are low, but it makes it more difficult.

The exact opposite is also true. After a period of high calorie eating like the holidays, Leptin levels are “high” which means your body will burn fat a LOT easier than normal if you know what to do.

This creates the perfect storm for a 7 to 10 day strategic diet to work wonders. This is a 7 to 10 day strategic low calorie burst to trick your body and get a huge jumpstart for 2010.

I want to give credit where credit is due. This is a modified version of Wendy’s famous 7-Day Diet or Deplete Week. It’s simply short bursts of low calorie dieting while depleting carbs.

You can get your calories down to a low level with great results as long as you do it for short periods of time like 7-10 days. I only recommend doing this 1 time per year and you should never do our famous 7-Day Diet or Deplete Week more than 3 times per year.

So What Does This Hybrid of the 7-Day diet and Low Calorie Bursting Look Like?

Here’s a list to get you started.

1) A Low Calorie Protein Source (egg whites, chicken breast, turkey breast, whey protein powder)
2) Greens (Asparagus, Cucumbers, Broccoli, Lettuce, Spinach, etc.)
3) Lots of vitamins, anti-oxidants, and a fish oil supplement
4) Vinegar and Oil
5) Plenty of filtered water

The number one key to this strategy is to make sure you take in enough protein to preserve lean muscle mass and enough greens along with SMALL amounts of healthy fats and oils (no nuts or peanut butter) to add enough calories. You should shoot for 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight or 1.5 grams if you’re a little more advanced and already active. This does NOT have to be an exact science, but counting protein grams will really help you succeed on this plan.

The goal is to keep calories as low as possible while meeting your protein requirements and adding in green vegetables to keep you feeling full. It is possible to lose 10 to 15 pounds in 10 days with the majority being body fat!

By following this plan, you automatically cut out starches as well, so carbs are automatically super low during this 7 to 10 day burst.

10 Boring Days Of Food

My wife Karen and I are getting ready to do this crash diet on nothing but scrambled egg whites with broccoli or spinach, Chicken breast salads with vinegar and oil, and whey protein shakes.

I know this sounds like a very bland approach, but we like to keep it simple and maximize results. After all, its only 7 to 10 days.

A Couple Important Things To Consider

1. This type of diet is not easy or fun!

Makes no mistake about it…this diet requires sacrifice and discipline. I do extremely well with macro-patterning, but I struggle and tend to get very cranky towards the end of this 7 to 10 day burst.

2. Minimize exercise

Drop your cardio and just focus on a few resistance workouts during this diet. Believe me, you will not have the energy to do cardio with this level of calorie deficit. Even if you are tough enough to hit cardio during this 7 to 10 day period, don’t do it. It will sabotage your results.

A final note. After your finished with this strategic burst, make sure you go right back into Wendy’s macro-pattering nutrition.

After finishing this low calorie burst, my wife Karen and I usually carb down Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. We carb up or cheat on Wednesday (Date Night) and Saturday nights, and do a baseline day on Sundays. This is a great life-long maintenance plan.

Here’s to staying lean for life in 2010. Good luck and let us know how this works for you!

Shaun & The GL-12 Team

P.S. The only way to stay on track and build fat loss habits for 2010 is to follow a proven plan and be held accountable. Our Free CD and Lean For Life Boot Camp provide both.

www.GetLeanIn12.com/fat-loss-secret