So it is that time of year again!! Halloween was just the beginning, now comes all the Thanksgiving Parties, the Christmas Parties, and too top it all off The New Year Parties. It is the Holiday Season, and if you are not equipped with an eating game plan you are going to get blind sided by about 5 to 8 pounds of extra weight. 5-8 pounds is how much weight people usually pack on during this time of the season. That is why you need a game plan to help you through this glutenous season.
Lets face it, parties and family gatherings are fun…well at least parties are. But when you mix fun with delicious food, then you have a recipe for a weight loss disaster. So you need to switch up your game plan a little bit, most the year you are probably focusing on how to lose weight, but during the holiday season you need to focus on how to not gain weight. Weight management! The holidays are way to fun to dismiss, and it will only cause you frustration and disappointment if you decide not to eat these delicious foods. You main goal should be to keep your weight stable through these times.
Don’t get me wrong, if you are strong enough to get through the holiday season and still lose weight, then go for it!! But the average person usually throws all their discipline away during the holiday season, and binges on eggnog, turkey, mash potatoes, and pie. I am trying to give the average person a new way to look at things, a strategy to their Holiday Eating.
Here are a few Holiday Eating tips:
- Continue to workout. Okay, so the first tip has nothing to do with eating, but this is very important, you need to stay active during this time of the season. Resist the urge to go into hibernation.
- Don’t Starve Yourself. What I mean by these is…do not starve yourself before you go to a party or a family dinner. Make sure to eat little snacks before you arrive to the party to help curb your cravings. Eating small snacks can help you from cutting loose.
- Portions. Eat rational portions, you do not need to fill your plate up so full it needs a wide load sign to get through the crowd. Your stomach is not meant to eat that much food.
- Eat Slowly. Allow your body to know it has eaten food. So many times we inhale the first plate of food, and then after the second or third serving our bodies finally catch up, and we feel terrible. Eating slowly will help your body know when it is full and when you need to stop eating.
- Know The Consequences. You know that 5 to 8 pounds you have been working to get off all year, well if you gain it all back, you will have to lose it all over again the next year. It is a terrible cycle to get in.
Hopefully these Holiday Eating Tips can prevent you from gaining weight during the holiday season.
So what are some of the benefits that swimming provides for you? Swimming is great for your ligaments and joints, but unlike running where there is a lot of wear and tear on your joints, swimming has no impact. Swimming also has incredible health benefits for your heart and lungs. I like to hike a lot, but nothing has prepared my lungs and heart better for a hike like swimming has. The endurance that you get from swimming is amazing, thus making swimming an incredible exercise. Swimming also provides a full body workout. Your whole body is engaged in every stroke and kick, targeting every major muscle group of your body. The water provides resistance for your muscles, so you do get a great workout.
I want to talk to you about Interval Training. Interval Training contains both high bursts of energy and recovery times. There are many different ways people use interval training, some people do long bursts of energy and short recovery times, some people do shorter bursts of energy and longer recovery times, both are affective. No matter which form of interval training you chose, the goal is always to get your heart rate up with high bursts of energy and then bring your heart rate down with the recovery time, do it over and over again for around 20-30 minutes.
Which brings us to our second way to burn fat quickly. Muscle training! I am not talking about getting huge and bulky, so if your a woman or a man afraid to bulk up? Do not worry. Resistance training is a very important key to burning fat, because building lean muscle is the fastest way to burn fat. You do not have to use heavy weight or even use weights at all. Resistance training involves chin-ups, push-ups, lunges and squats; all those exercises can be done without weights. If you do end up using weights, you do not have to pick heavy weights. Chose weights that you can control, many people try to whip out reps like they were in a race…but slow and steady wins this race. For example, going down with a bicep curl is just as important as going up with a curl. There are times for pumping out reps, but slow and controlled repetitions will help your body burn more fat during and even after the workout is finished.
