Tricks To Keep You Lean Over The Holidays

Maintaining is a Key Principle

Getting lean and staying lean have one thing in common, and that’s consistency. Without it, there’s no momentum and you easily fail yourself again. Who wants to lose a couple pounds just to gain back five!?!?

“If You Fail to Plan, You Plan to Fail”

Ever heard that one? It’s a time worn statement, but it’s still just about the best advice you will ever hear when it comes to getting a healthy body both internally and externally. Many people allow themselves to be thrown off their regular eating schedule and training regimine by life’s little happenings. They completely veer off their usual diet and start eating foods they would not normally eat simply because “it’s the holidays” just to starve themselves the next day out of guilt. Now your body is really out of whack!

Many people fail to plan and knowingly plan to fail especially over the holidays. Most of them expect to let their diet slide and skip workouts because they are just too busy with holiday cooking, shopping, and visiting friends and family. They expect to eat more, to exercise less and to just gain weight saying that they will lose it after the New Year, and so begins another New Year’s resolution. As a result, they don’t even make the effort around holiday time. Don’t get me wrong, I love a holiday cupcake as much as the next person (probably more!), but if you don’t keep your guard up during the holidays your relegate your New Year’s resolution to being one of merely clawing your way back to the starting line rather than actually getting ahead.

‘Tis the Season to Get Chubby

Rather than expecting to slide backwards while watching the yule log burn, expect to progress! Plan your schedule in advance, keep your standards high and don’t keep foods in the house that will sabotage your efforts. Create a new mindset not to give in to temptations on a daily or even weekly basis. Set up goals and workouts on paper or on a calendar, and if you really struggle to hold to them, set it up with a friend or trainer so you are held accountable to that time frame, and schedule workouts, cardio and all things you need to do for YOU to have success.

Overcome the Bah Humbugs of Dieting with a Little Cheat

I’m a foodie. A real food LOVER. So I fully understand how tempting it is to go crazy over the Holidays. And I know that eating the horrible (yet wonderfully delicious) snacks of the season can help put you in the holiday spirit. So I’ve got a trick to help you stay faithful to your diet – cheat on it!

But just a bit.

The two things that work best for me are, I workout first thing in the morning before anything else can pop up and interrupt that time for me, and having that special “treat day” once per week where I can relax and have my foodie fun! Now I’m not talking about an all out feast where you can’t control yourself, I’m talking about 1 choosen day to have a little thing here and there throughout that one day, such as a French toast for breakfast or, a burger at lunch, maybe some candy at the movies later with friends or, family. It keeps me on the path to hitting my goal knowing I have that one day for some treats that I love. We all know we can’t eat those junk foods everyday for losing weight or achieving weight loss goals, but there is no reason we have to banish those foods forever. Having them here and there keeps our sanity and quite honestly, no one gains weight from a single treat… it’s the overindulgence of food, even healthy food.

Always Anticipate What’s Coming

As you would with a work meeting, a trip or going to the dentist, you plan for it and write it down. Do the same with workouts and cardio sessions. Put them on your calendar on any and all days and the times you can fit them in. By doing so, you won’t be caught unprepared. This way you can plan to be in shape over the holidays, AND you can plan to BE better, look better, and be healthier far into the New Year! You must plan if you expect success.

Remember, you have to keep your metabolic engine revving all the time by eating consistently and working out. Once you have your metabolism running it’s fairly easy to keep it going. But once you lose it, it’s very difficult to get it going again because you must overcome the gluttony and/ or laziness you took on.

Do you tend to skip meals to “save room” for the big feast later that day thinking this is a good idea? It’s not because it’s almost for sure that you’ll binge and eat 3 times your normal calories and that will just set you back for days if not weeks.

Adhearing to the consistency of your health routine is the only way to win your battle of the bulge and assure your success. Continue with your pattern of eating small, frequent meals all year around.

Set Some Training and Fitness Goals BEFORE the Holiday Period

Don’t just set your fitness or weight loss goal after the holidays. It should be a continuous on-going process that you set and work towards throughout not only the year but the rest of your life. Some people like to set a health goals and set a date to achieve it by, which is great, I’m one of those people, as some of us need dates to reach our goal by in order to stay on track… but what happens when you reach that goal? Do you go back to your old habits? No. You have to adopt this new way of living to maintain it as well. It becomes your new lifestyle. Finding the balance is now key. Find at least 3-4 days a week that you can devote a set amount of time to the workouts and cardio you need to do to stay fit.

Start By Setting Your New Goal Or Challenge

· Set a goal to lose the last 5 lbs you’ve always wanted to lose or, the 25 lbs. you wanted to lose but haven’t got around to doing yet NOW.

· Set the goal to gain 10 lbs of solid muscle NOW.

· Set the goal to have a lower resting heart rate (by being consistant with a training regimine and increasing your intensity and duration w/cardio).

· Put pictures up on your fridge, closet or bathroom mirror for motivation and as a reminder of what you want to achieve.

· Clean out your kitchen! Clear out the pantry, freezer and fridge of any foods or snacks that will hinder your progress.

· Find some low calorie things you enjoy such as sugar free jello, low carb protein bars (Quest Low Carb Protein Bars), a low carb pudding mix (CNP Protein Dessert Pudding) or, unsweetened cocoa powder to put in your oatmeal or protein shake to quell that chocolate craving or need for a treat.

· COMMIT to 3-4 days a week of training and/or cardio sessions to achieve and eventually maintain your goals.