A 7 Step Strategy to Prevent Holiday Weight Gain
December 20, 2008 by admin · Leave a Comment
Here is a 7 step strategy that you should employ to prevent overdoing it at the dinner table this holiday season. Use the following tips to allow yourself to stay social and to be able to indulge in moderation without splitting your pants before the New Year:
1.) Start the day well hydrated
Water competes with food for space in your stomach and can help decrease your appetite. Avoid eating more as a result of being dehydrated. Start your day with at least 16 ounces of water and continue hydrating throughout the day. A great strategy to reduce the amount you eat at any holiday event is to have a glass or two of water with every plate of food.
2.) Make sure not to skip any meals
Utilize the strategy of eating meals high in lean protein and vegetables every 2-3 hours starting with breakfast. Not skipping meals will prevent the overwhelming urge to eat huge portions at your gathering. Avoid meals that are high in both fat and processed carbohydrates as they will create a hormonal environment that will induce more cravings and store the excess as more fat.
3.) Perform at least a half hour of moderate to intense exercise
Moderate to intense exercise primes your body to utilize nutrition in positive ways, by increasing insulin sensitivity and creating the need to replenish nutrients throughout your body. Making sure to perform this activity prior to your event will assure that your body will utilize the upcoming meals to replenish itself rather than store fat.
4.) Follow your exercise with a protein shake before you get ready
Having some liquid nutrition post workout is a great way to keep the metabolic furnace burning and assure that you body does not start eating away your precious muscle before the upcoming meals. Drink this immediately after your workout and get ready for your holiday event.
5.) Prioritize lean proteins and vegetables first
Now arriving at your event It is important to have a food strategy to follow. It is okay to indulge in a sweeter or more rich dish as long as your plate has its share of lean protein sources and vegetables. Make sure to eat these first THEN you can dive into that treat. This should keep you from over indulging in all the high calorie foods around.
6.) Wait at least an hour or two before second servings
I know this may be asking a lot but keeping with the strategy of spreading your meals throughout the day will normalize your blood sugar faster to prevent fat gain. Try to stay away from the sweets on later meals.
7.) Avoid empty liquid calories and alcohol
Staying away from empty liquid calories is always a good strategy. Drinking the sodas and alcoholic beverages that are often available at these events will surely spoil you fat loss efforts.
These small changes can literally save you hundreds, even thousands of calories, and more importantly will keep your body from creating extra fat-storage and set you back from achieving your health and fitness goals
3 Quick Fit Tips To Keep Your Body Fat-Free For The Holidays
December 20, 2008 by admin · Leave a Comment
Everyone is busy during the holidays. Don’t let that be an excuse to avoid your training regimen. Choose to be sedentary and you risk losing the lean muscle mass and strength you have worked so hard to build and maintain. Loss of lean muscle mass will lower your resting metabolic rate, the amount of calories you burn even when sitting around. This means that everyday you will be burning less calories while eating the same amount as always. Where do those extra calories go? Right to your fat sites! To top it off losing strength will mean that the next time you start to work out your performance will be sub par and you’ll get smacked in the face with that ugly word that no one ever wants to encounter when it comes to their training: regression! There are many clever ways to maintain or increase the number of calories you burn per day, both from exercise and from your normal daily activities, to stay slim this holiday season. Use the strategies below to maintain and/or increase your current amount of lean muscle mass and maximize your daily calorie burn to best protect yourself against holiday fat gain!
1.) Perform at least one intense strength training session per week
Studies show that performing at least one strength training workout per week is an effective way to maintain your current levels of strength and lean muscle mass. To best maintain your fitness levels shoot for at least one good strength training workout per week and prevent unwanted regressions. To best prevent weight gain, aim for three total body strength workouts per week. To maximize fat burning, perform three total body strength workouts per week and also perform three cardio interval workouts per week on non strength-training days.
2.) Sneak in Mini-Workouts
When you honestly cannot find a five to 20-minute time slot to complete an effective total body workout, look for hidden chunks of time during the day to get in a certain number of exercises that work your entire body. Got a free moment from now until you need to take the turkey out of the oven? Then, bang out 10 push-ups, 10 rows, and 20 squats. Using this method throughout the day will lead to big numbers that will burn calories and let you keep that metabolism boosting muscle.
Make sure to pick multi-joint, compound movements that hit as much of your body’s major muscle groups in the shortest amount of time possible (e.g. squats, deadlifts, lunges, push-ups, rows, etc.). Use the plan below as guide to build your own Mini-Workout. Adjust the repetition ranges accordingly based on your current strength levels. The only thing you need is your body weight and resistance bands or dumbells. Perform this plan up to three times per week, resting a day between workouts. Make sure to alternate between Plan A and Plan B for more variety. You can either hit your total by doing one exercise first (e.g. perform push-ups rest-pausing as needed until you get 100 total), or by simply employ circuit style training (e.g. 20 squats, 10 push-ups, 10 rows, repeat 10x throughout the day to hit your totals).
Your Mini-Workouts For The Holidays
Plan A-
Body weight Squats or Hip Extensions: 100-200 total
Push-ups: 50-100 total
DB/Band Rows: 50-100 total
Plan B-
Body weight Lunges or Single-Leg Hip Extensions: 50-100/total per leg
Off Chair/Couch Dips: 50-100 total
DB/Band Curls: 50-100 total
3.) Engage in more outdoor holiday activities
I have been in some pretty incredible snowball fights in my day. Though I was always having a blast while pelting my friends behind cleverly built igloos, I was never aware of how exhausting a good snowball fight can truly be until I came indoors afterwards. My snowsuit was soaked with sweat and I had spent the last 30 minutes or so in total fight or flight mode. Talk about an awesome way to burn calories without even thinking about it! Get outdoors this holidays season and throw around the pigskin or have your very own “Ice Bowl.” Once again, all these calories here and there truly do add up and could make a difference between you fitting in your pants or ripping your pants by the time the clock strikes midnight this New Year!
