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Ten Tips To Help You Avoid Holiday Weight Gain
By Lynn Bode
This holiday season don’t be trendy – avoid
the Seasonal Seven (the average weight most Americans gain
between Thanksgiving and New Year’s). That’s
one trend you don’t want to participate in!
Since the holidays are traditionally a time for fun and indulgence,
you probably prefer not to think about fitness between Thanksgiving
and the New Year. You want to enjoy yourself. Don’t worry! The
festivities don’t have to be eliminated or avoided. You can
have a fabulous time while also maintaining your weight and your fitness
regimen.
The secret to achieving a holiday season that is both full of fun
and also includes fitness is found in moderation. There are two typical
approaches to the seasonal festivities:
- Throw all
healthy habits out the window and indulge in every guilty pleasure
- Starve and
binge approach (for example, you eat nothing all day long to allow
yourself to overindulge in party food).
Of course, neither approach is successful at maintaining
a healthy, fit lifestyle throughout the holiday season.
As mentioned above, the key is found in moderation. With
a moderate approach both to what you eat (or don’t
eat) and how much exercise you do (or don’t do), you
can avoid packing on extra weight AND also partake in all
the fun of the season. So this season, get a head start
on the New Year instead of starting January with extra pounds
to lose.
Here are some tips to help you:
-
Create a plan ahead of time. Before the holidays sneak
up on you, create a plan for incorporating fitness and
good nutrition into your daily routine. Evaluate your
holiday and then determine how much time you will realistically
have available to devote to working out and/or eating
healthy meals.
-
Don’t put your fitness goals on hold until the
New Year. If you can’t exercise as often during
this time period as you normally do, adjust appropriately.
Don’t use the excuse that since you don’t
have time for your full workout you just won’t
workout at all. Instead accept your limited availability
and simply reduce the frequency and/or duration of your
exercise. It’s much better to cut your fitness
time in half than to completely eliminate it.
-
On the day of a party, be sure to eat regularly all
day long. If the party is in the evening, eat breakfast,
lunch and a snack before hand (just as you would on
any other day). Once you are at the party, go ahead
and indulge in some of the fun, delicious foods. Since
you have eaten meals earlier in the day, you probably
will find that you aren’t tempted to go overboard
and eat everything in sight. However, if you starve
all day long attempting to save up all your calories
for the party, you will be so famished by the time it
begins that it will be difficult not to overeat.
-
Schedule your workouts. Mark them on the calendar and
set-aside time to complete them. Consider them as important
as any other appointment or event you have marked on
your calendar.
-
When at a party, start by eating some of the healthy
offerings. For example, vegetable sticks (without dip),
fruit pieces, plain chicken pieces, etc. Then move on
to some of the less healthy (but yummy) offerings. You
will be less likely to overindulge on these foods if
you have already filled-up on some of the healthier
items. Yet, you will not feel deprived or unsatisfied.
-
On days that you really lack motivation or simply do
not have time for your complete exercise routine, commit
to do just 10 minutes of exercise. You’ll probably
end up doing more than that once you get started. Even
if you only end up completing 10 minutes, that is still
a lot better than zero minutes.
-
When presented with a large variety of food options,
it’s tempting to want to eat everything. Rather
than eating one large slice of chocolate cake or a huge
plate of meatballs, select a sampling of bite size pieces
of several of the desert or appetizer offerings. This
way you get the enjoyment of trying many different foods
without overeating.
-
Exercise at home. You’ll be more inclined to
follow-through on your exercise commitment if you don’t
have to drive somewhere to do your workout. Plus, you
won’t waste any time on driving, parking, the
locker room or waiting to use equipment. Working out
at home requires very little equipment (even can be
equipment-free) and is quite inexpensive.
-
Avoid wasting calories on alcoholic beverages. The
average alcoholic drink contains 150-200 calories per
glass. Indulge in just 2-3 drinks and you’ve drunk
the equivalent calories of an entire meal. If you partake
in these beverages, choose wisely. For example, instead
of having a full glass of wine, try mixing half a glass
of wine with sparkling water or with a diet cola. This
will help cut your calories in half.
-
When running errands or shopping, be sure to pack some
healthy snacks to have on-hand. Then after you work-up
a big appetite, you won’t be tempted to grab something
at the mall food court or the fast food restaurant on
the way home.
Hopefully, these tips will help you find a balance between
staying fit and also enjoying the fun of the season. For
additional fitness tips, visit www.workoutsforyou.com. Remember,
moderation is the key. Have a great holiday season!
Lynn Bode is passionate about helping people get fit and healthy.
For more than seven years she has been helping individuals of various
fitness levels get in shape. She even offers her personal training
services online through her company, WorkoutsForYou.com.
Workouts For You provides even the busiest of people affordable, personalized
exercise programs for weight loss and strength training (via the Internet).
The programs can be done on their schedule and in the comfort of their
own home (or gym or on-the-road). Visit www.workoutsforyou.com
for a FREE fitness evaluation.
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