Holiday Weight Management: Stay Slim During The Holidays
As the holidays come around, whether it's Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years, Memorial Day or even Valentine's, when you know there's even a slight chance that cake, ice cream, chocolate and fried foods (yes, fried turkey included) will be involved in your day, you may start to feel some anxiety with regard to how you'll make it through with your diet and weight management intact.
For many of us, the holidays tend to be difficult because food is everywhere and it seems as though temptation is lurking around every corner.
To add insult to injury, people give you more fattening food as gifts and you can't just turn it down.
Can you? So how do you get through the holidays with your body weight in place? If you know a few key tips, holiday weight management is much easier than you may think.
1) Design An Effective Workout Program: Since you likely won't be spending quite as much time at the gym during the holidays, you want to make sure that every minute that you are in the gym counts double time.
Consider doing full body workouts rather than just legs on Monday, chest - Tuesday, and back on Wednesday and so on.
Also, instead of isolated movements, try compound movements.
For example, instead of a bicep curl, do an underhand row.
If you're already active, you can also add in some cardio intervals.
Using the treadmill, elliptical, or even jump rope can get your cardio going.
If you're not yet active, long walks will get you on the road to weight management.
2) Pre-Plan Which Meals You'll Indulge In: I know how it goes - you start off with good intentions but somewhere between just one sip of eggnog and a slice of pecan pie, caution gets thrown to the wind and the next thing you know, it's January 2nd and you're looking down at the scale in horror, your weight management plan has been thrown out the window.
If you're serious about surviving the holidays, take the time to pre-plan the meals you will indulge in.
Having a light, healthy snack and a large glass of water before you get to the holiday party makes gorging turn into nibbling and keeps you from packing on unwanted pounds and will assist in your weight management plans.
The point is to have a plan.
3) Relax and Enjoy: Holiday guests, cooking large meals, the shopping - crowds, long lines - all add up to a certain level of unwelcome anxiety around the holidays.
This tends to lead to binge eating (and drinking) to "cure" those holiday jitters.
But that's not what the holidays are about and it does nothing to help your weight management plan or keep you slim and trim over the season.
Let's try to remember that the holidays are about giving thanks for what we have - our family, friends, health, etc.
- not about gifts or extravagance.
Keeping that in mind will help us to say calm, focused and happy and fend off excess pounds.
So keep these points in mind as you navigate through the holidays.
As long as you are well prepared and stay active, you will be able to manage your weight and who knows, probably lose a few pounds.
For many of us, the holidays tend to be difficult because food is everywhere and it seems as though temptation is lurking around every corner.
To add insult to injury, people give you more fattening food as gifts and you can't just turn it down.
Can you? So how do you get through the holidays with your body weight in place? If you know a few key tips, holiday weight management is much easier than you may think.
1) Design An Effective Workout Program: Since you likely won't be spending quite as much time at the gym during the holidays, you want to make sure that every minute that you are in the gym counts double time.
Consider doing full body workouts rather than just legs on Monday, chest - Tuesday, and back on Wednesday and so on.
Also, instead of isolated movements, try compound movements.
For example, instead of a bicep curl, do an underhand row.
If you're already active, you can also add in some cardio intervals.
Using the treadmill, elliptical, or even jump rope can get your cardio going.
If you're not yet active, long walks will get you on the road to weight management.
2) Pre-Plan Which Meals You'll Indulge In: I know how it goes - you start off with good intentions but somewhere between just one sip of eggnog and a slice of pecan pie, caution gets thrown to the wind and the next thing you know, it's January 2nd and you're looking down at the scale in horror, your weight management plan has been thrown out the window.
If you're serious about surviving the holidays, take the time to pre-plan the meals you will indulge in.
Having a light, healthy snack and a large glass of water before you get to the holiday party makes gorging turn into nibbling and keeps you from packing on unwanted pounds and will assist in your weight management plans.
The point is to have a plan.
3) Relax and Enjoy: Holiday guests, cooking large meals, the shopping - crowds, long lines - all add up to a certain level of unwelcome anxiety around the holidays.
This tends to lead to binge eating (and drinking) to "cure" those holiday jitters.
But that's not what the holidays are about and it does nothing to help your weight management plan or keep you slim and trim over the season.
Let's try to remember that the holidays are about giving thanks for what we have - our family, friends, health, etc.
- not about gifts or extravagance.
Keeping that in mind will help us to say calm, focused and happy and fend off excess pounds.
So keep these points in mind as you navigate through the holidays.
As long as you are well prepared and stay active, you will be able to manage your weight and who knows, probably lose a few pounds.
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