A December without any holiday indulging is not a December we want to be a part of, but that doesn't mean you need to go overboard at every meal. If you want to leave space for indulgences and still stay on a healthy track, the 80/20 technique lets you do just that. It allows you the space to go out socially and enjoy a meal, and it makes the whole clean-living thing feel doable during (and long after) the holiday season.
The breakdown is simple: 80 percent of the time you focus on eating clean, good-for-you foods, and 20 percent of the time you have the freedom to indulge as you please. The math is simple: if you eat three square meals a day, three of those meals every week are your 20 percent cheat meals; if you eat five small meals a day, then seven of those small meals are up for grabs.
Jessica Alba's trainer Yumi Lee credited the 80/20 rule when it came to Jessica's ability to maintain her healthy weight. "You can't be 100 percent all of the time, but you can be 80 percent all of the time," she explains.
