Last Updated on January 23, 2019 by FS Studios Personal Training
Eat, Exercise and Be Merry!
Give the gift of health to yourself this Christmas. You’ve been exercising and eating better all year so here’s your reward: Healthy eating and exercise tips for the holidays to keep you trim and toned from now until the New Year. Let’s start with healthy holiday eating tips.
Holiday Eating Tips
Tip #1: Keep your fluids up. Staying hydrated and getting your 8-10 glasses of water evenly throughout the day helps you avoid overeating and makes you less prone to downing too much alcohol and eggnog that’ll have your waistline expanding in no time.
Tip #2: Couple your consistent water intake with consistent meals throughout the day. During the holidays, many of us tend to skip meals and starve until the big evening dinner. This can lead to a slow metabolism during the day, overeating at dinner and a subsequent sleigh ride to the store to buy a bigger belt. Get every meal in during the holidays (even if you have to snack on leftovers) and you’ll be able to maintain, slim and trim your physique and spend that Christmas dough on something you really want.
Tip #3: Settle before seconds. Round out your healthy day of eating with some down time after dinner. Resist a second visit to the table before the food from your first serving has had a chance to settle. Many nutrition specialists outline that it takes our body at least 10-20 minutes to register how much we’ve eaten. Give your body a breather after your first serving and you’ll probably find there’s no need for seconds. Now that you’ve got your eating wrapped up tight, let’s look at how to supplement it with some exercise tips.
Holiday Exercise Tips
Tip#1: Shorten your workouts. That’s right! Making your workouts 15-20% shorter will give you the exercise benefits, the release you need and help you avoid burning out from too much activity during this busy time of year. The body responds really well to a transient decrease in activity during a busier and more stressful time of year such as Christmas. Cutting things back a bit should help you shed some fat and maintain your energy. Now remember, we’re saying shorten your workouts, don’t skip them.
Tip#2: The holidays are also a great time of year to exercise in the morning. Getting your workout done earlier will boost your metabolism for the rest of the day and get your energy up to help you better deal with everything under the Christmas tree and then some. It will also keep you out of the gym after work when the 4-6 pm holiday rush hits.
Tip #3: If you can’t get to the gym at all, try getting your workout done in a “holiday time pocket”. Though the holidays are a busy time, there are often little 20-minute or half hour time pockets you can take advantage of for a quick workout at home or at the office. Here’s a sample routine you can do in a just a 6 by 6 foot space. Try 3 sets of 20 jumping jacks, high knees and squats. Follow that with 3 sets of 10 push ups, 12 stationary lunges on each leg, 12 single leg hip lifts and 20 crunches. There you have it, a time pocket workout you can conveniently sneak in between the Christmas hustle and bustle.
Have a happy and healthy holidays by using these exercise and eating tips and you’ll find yourself making fresh, New Years resolutions instead of perhaps repeating those of years gone by come 2019.
