Halloween is over and this officially marks the beginning of the holiday season. This is the time of year where Americans (and plenty of other people) will gorge themselves on god knows how much delicious holiday food. Turkey, stuffing, pies, cakes, cookies, cider, mulled wine, and all the other delicacies. The downside of this is that the average American will gain about one pound during the holidays and not lose it. With that in mind, you need to figure out a plan to avoid becoming a statistic in the yearly waist-expansion period. So what are your options?

Well, you could avoid all your friends and family so you can stick to a diet. This is not what I would recommend. I’m all for health, but that includes mental/emotional health. During the holidays, spending time with loved ones and their tasty treats is a big part of that. You have a busy life and probably don’t get to see these people as often as you’d like. The last thing you probably want to do is to tell them, “Sorry, guys, I won’t be able to make it to Thanksgiving because I’m trying to stay slim. See you some other time.” So let’s be realistic, you’re not going to be able to dodge the family and their tasty treats.

“But,” you might say, “what if I slim down either before the holidays or be on a diet every day during the season but Thanksgiving and Christmas?” Well, dear reader, that would be a fantastic solution. Except the problem with it can be summed up in one word: leftovers. Leftover Halloween candy, leftovers from Thanksgiving, and leftovers from Christmas. You’ll probably spend half of the entire holiday season eating leftovers. So much for your diet.

At this point, you might be thinking that all is lost. You might decide that you should just resign yourself to devouring all the food in sight and developing the waistline of St. Nicholas himself. But there’s a third option that doesn’t usually get brought up. If you came to me this time of year, I would recommend a mass gain phase. I know, you probably think this is strange. If the problem is that you’ll gain weight during the holidays, why would I have you gain weight during the holidays? I do it because if you’re going to gain weight, let’s make as much of it be muscle as possible.

The holiday season is one of the best times to do this. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first one is that the environment they’ll be in is great for it. Bulking up requires three things: the stimulus to grow, plenty of rest and recovery, and plenty of calories. Without even trying, you’ve already got two of those things covered. You’re going to be spending plenty of time watching the football games or lounging about at family/friends’ houses. You’ll also be eating your favorite holiday foods, many of which have a decent amount of protein (which is why turkeys refer to Thanksgiving as “The Annual Genocide.”) The only thing left to do is hit the gym in a way that helps you bulk.

The second reason this is a great idea is psychological. Going on a diet to lose weight during normal times is a bit stressful because it requires a decent amount of willpower. This saying no to things that you’d normally eat is already kind of hard. Now try and do that at a time of year where you travel quite a bit and are tired from that and you’re with all your loved ones to celebrate and give thanks. On top of that, this is the only time of the year where you’ll eat most of those foods. Seriously, who eats stuffing and cranberry sauce in May or pumpkin pie in July? Total weirdos, that’s who. Imagine it. It’s a frigid December evening. You’re sitting by the fire with your family wearing the most hideous sweater you could find. Your sister comes out with a plate full of gingerbread cookies she made from scratch and a mug of hot chocolate (with mini marshmallows, or course) or mulled wine. And you’re going to say to her, “No, sis, I’m on a diet.” Be serious.

So screw it. Instead of trying to fight the environment, use it to your advantage. Lots of tasty food around at all times? That’s exactly what you need when you’re getting bigger. You’ll get to enjoy all that food and family fun time. Instead of knowing that it’s wrecking your diet, you’ll be able to enjoy it because it’s actually helping it. You’ll come out of the holidays with more muscle. Then when you make your New Year’s resolution to lose weight, you’ll actually have some muscle to show off once you diet the fat off. Who can say “no” to that?