Shaping Up After the Holidays

OK, if you’re like the rest of us, you made it through the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year holidays with 5-10 extra pounds you swore you weren’t going to put on, but ended up with anyway.  Only someone with rock-solid will power (or someone who doesn’t get invited to parties much) could have avoided it.  The point is that for the rest of us,  we’ve got a couple of extra pounds we need to get rid of as we get back into a fitness routine.

Here’s a couple of tips from my own experience:

1.  I don’t believe in “overnight transformations” and neither should you. Stay away from “lose 10 pounds overnight” types of diet or exercise plans.  You’ll wreck your health.  Set your goal to lose the extra weight over the next month – just like you put it on.

2.  New Year’s Resolutions suck. They don’t work either.  Reason?  Because even though the year is new, we’re the same person we were last year.  So don’t set yourself up for failure by setting unrealistic resolutions that are forgotten before the end of January.  Accept that you are who you are and find a way to work with that.  That way you’ll avoid feeling like a failure every time you realize that you’ve broken one of your “resolutions.”

3.  Ease it On, Easy it Off. Your extra pounds aren’t the result of  1 or 2 holiday meals.  So maybe you stuffed yourself with turkey on Thanksgiving or with ham on Christmas Day but that’s probably not the real cause of your excess weight.  Your extra pounds were more than likely caused by the constant snacking from the party trays and plates of homemade cookies that seem to be everywhere during the holidays.  This constant snacking was probably the real cause of your spreading waistline.  So now that you know, start cutting back on your snacks.  This might already be happening since the party trays have probably already disappeared from your workplace but make absolutely sure that you haven’t started replacing those snacks with ones you bring from home – or worse, those you get from the vending machine.  You gained that weight one excess calorie at a time.  You can take it off the same way.

4.  Start getting more active. So all the football bowl games, parades, and Christmas TV Specials are over.  Turn off the TV and start getting more active.  There are no more Christmas parties to go to, no more shopping to do, no more school or church programs to prepare for.  You’ve got the time.  Start getting more active.  Take a walk (bundle up if it’s cold), take down the Christmas lights, do anything to get your heart rate up a bit.  You’ll be back into your old exercise routine in no time.

Even the most die-hard exercise fanatics tend to slack off during the holidays.  You can’t help it.  There are just so many demands on your time and energy and attention coming at you from friends, work, school, church, and family.  In addition, there’s temptation to overeat, or to eat the wrong kinds of food, everywhere.   And although most of us try to maintain discipline, few of us do.

But that’s OK.  Don’t beat yourself up over it.  Just acknowledge that you’ve gotten off track and start the New Year by easing yourself back into the routine you know is best for you.   You’ll be back in “fighting form” in no time!

Hiram
Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

Technorati Tags: fitness, diet, over eating, nutrition, Christmas, holidays, exercise, tips, resolution, new year

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