'Tis the Season to Gain Weight

Here we go!  Let the turkey start cooking and the jingle bells start ringing!  Its Holiday Time!  That means majority of American's will toss out their health concerns and gobble up sugary treats and full of fat favorites! 

Did you know that the average weight gain between Thanksgiving and New Years, which is only 36 days this year, is ONE to TWO pounds!  While that may seem like a little, its actually a lot!  Take a look at the palm of your hand!  Now, imagine it full of fat!

Thanksgiving and Christmas make it extremely hard to stick with weight loss goals.  Its so much easier to get caught up in the festivities than it is to avoid all of the decadent food and drinks.  Exercise becomes a struggle as the weather gets colder and holiday travel makes it equally hard to eat healthy, sleep right and maintain stress levels!  All of these obstacles could affect weeks or even months of weight loss progress.  They make it vitally important for you to approach the holidays with a weight loss plan that you can manage long term.  If you don't,  the odds will be against you! 

Instead of stunting and confusing your bodies healthy lifestyle, try to maintain healthy eating habits during the holiday season!  In doing so, you will maintain and even blood sugar level, you will keep your blood pressure at a healthy level and keep your cholesterol at a healthy level!  Choose to eat every three to four hours.  Try not to indulge in salty snacks and make lower fat choices!  Find balance by consuming smaller portions!  Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated and energized! 

Not only is keeping what goes into your body in check, its important the physical activity your body receives!  Get 30-60 minutes of cardio into your day first thing in the morning!  If you wait, you may be distracted later in the day!  Lower your stress!  Make realistic expectations and goals for this holiday season!  You don't have to do it all!!

What About the Holidays Causes Weight Gain?

This might seem like a no-brainer. Obviously, people gain weight over the holidays because they eat more. But that doesn’t answer the really important question: why are the holidays such a flurry of overeating?

• Social pressure: The holidays are a socially sanctioned time to relax, stop caring about health, and eat what you want. But people still feel a little guilty about this, so they’ll pressure you to join in so they can feel better about their own indulgences. This study also shows how people eating with a group tend to match their intake to the group “average,” so even if nobody’s pressuring you about it, there’s a constant psychological cue to overeat at every meal.

• Stress: Holiday commitments mean stress, stress means comfort eating, and nobody comfort-eats celery sticks. Cortisol (the stress hormone) also promotes weight gain, especially the dreaded “belly fat.”

• Broken routines: Traveling means you spend a lot of time sitting, you get thrown off your regular exercise routine, and you aren’t always in control of your food.

• Emotional associations. Maybe it’s no struggle for you to pass up any random candy on the street, but if Grandma made it just for you, it gets a lot harder, especially if you have fond memories of eating it in years past.

All of these facts about the holiday season represent cues to overeat. If you don’t deliberately try to respond in a different way, you’ll end up following the cues and overeating. But if you’re trying to stay healthy, you don’t want to just passively accept and follow these cues. Instead, you want to make smart choices, enjoying treats when they’re worth it and passing them up when they’re not. So your job for the holidays is to plan, prioritize, and act accordingly.

And finally!  Give a gift of health this season!  Do you have a friend or family member that would benefit from personal training?  Ask me about my refer a friend program!  I'd love to help!