5 Smart Ways To Keep The Weight Off This Holiday

The holidays can be a challenging time to stay lean and fit.

It’s been shown that over 90% of people gain weight during the period between Thanksgiving and New Years, with the average gain being about 8 pounds.

Not only does weight gain negatively affect your health and how you look, it sets you further back when starting that New Years weight loss challenge.

The simple way to limit these negative effects is to prevent them in the first place.

Setting a strategy going into the holidays can be a hugely beneficial way to get through them with minimum damage.

And it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself or skip out on the fun.

Try these simple tips to maintain your weight and health this year.

1. Get Your Workout In Early

It’s easy to skip your workout at the end of the year with all of the responsibilities that add up. Prevent that by getting your workout in early.

There have been added benefits shown for your circadian rhythm by getting a workout in before 9am too.

Plus, you’ll ramp up your energy expenditure and burn through calories throughout the day.

And, you won’t have to worry about mustering up energy at the end of the day to finish a workout.

Do it early.

Especially before days with big meals like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.

2. Try Intermittent Fasting

Limiting your eating to a small 8 hour window, like between noon and 7pm has been shown to have many health benefits, especially for longevity.

But it also has one powerful effect on weight gain - reducing caloric consumption.

If you simply skip a meal like breakfast, and stick with just 2 meals per day (or even 1 like Coach Al Kavadlo does), you can easily reduce the amount of calories you take in each day.

Try this especially on days when you know you’ll consume a lot of calories later in the day, like on Christmas.

Skipping a meal is an easy way to reduce calories and maintain your weight

3. Walk More And After Meals

Walking after you eat has been shown to help with digestion and also brings extra movement into your day.

Modern life often relegates us to sedentary positions without much need for movement throughout the day.  We can even get all of our holiday shopping done with the click of a button online.

If you take a short 10 minute walk after dinner you can help improve digestion while adding steps to your day.

In fact, shoot for a minimum of 10,000 steps each day during the holidays to keep your daily movement up.

It’s easy to skip out on movement with the shorter days and extra responsibilities.

Walk more, especially after meals.

4. Control Your Portions & Eat More Protein

The simple reason why we gain weight is because we consume more calories than we burn. If you want to maintain your weight over the holidays you need to expend as many calories as you take in.

That’s why tips 1 and 3 are focused on keeping your movement up during this time to burn those calories.

But you can also prevent weight gain by limiting what you take in.

Now, no one wants to be too strict with themself during a time when everyone is having fun and enjoying themselves.

So, just control what you eat. Want to eat the cake? Do it, just have half a slice. Want the egg nog?  Drink it, but only one glass.

If you can control your portions you can still enjoy everything the holidays bring.

A bonus tip is to eat more protein than you do carbs. Protein will satiate you and make you feel full, limiting your urge to binge on the junk.

Simply, eat more protein, cut down on the other stuff.

5. Stay Consistent

The recipe for success with any plan or program is consistency. So, if you really want to stay lean and fit this holiday you have to commit to the plan.

Stay consistent with your daily movement and workouts. Try to move every day and workout at least 3 times per week.

Stay consistent with your diet. If you’re going to intermittent fast, do it regularly. It won’t do much if you do it once between Thanksgiving and New Years.

It’s ok to skip a workout or binge once in a while, but if you stay consistent 80-90% of the time, you will have no issue with weight gain this holiday season.

Final Thoughts

The holidays are supposed to be fun and enjoyable, but often they’re stressful and unhealthy.

With some simple planning and commitment, you can endure the holidays with minimal changes to your health and waistline.

We have all binged at one point during the holidays, and realized shortly after that it was rarely worth it.

It disrupts your mood, your sleep, and your health.

Commit to staying consistent this holiday with these simple tips to keep the weight off this year.