Sticking to your health and fitness goals during the holiday season always seems impossible. You’ll just make a New Year Resolution and start dieting and working out again later. Sounds like a great idea, right? WRONG. The festive fifteen gained throughout the holiday season will be a lot harder to lose than to add on. Don’t be the Grinch and avoid all things Christmas. Instead, form certain habits that will allow you to indulge in those yummy Christmas goodies without going up a size—or two or three….
1.Weigh yourself each week
Weighing yourself at the beginning and end of the week will serve as a guide throughout the holiday season. Your initial weight will be the baseline that you should try to stay at once the holidays end. If your weight fluctuates above this baseline during your weekly weighing’s, you’ll be able to adjust your eating and workouts accordingly. This method will basically stop you from gaining weight before it’s too late.
2. Go to sleep early and workout in the morning
This 6-week winter break is the perfect time to adjust those screwed up sleep cycles. Instead of catching up on sleep by sleeping in until noon, try going to bed early and waking up early. If you wake up early, you can workout in the morning, which is proven by the journal of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise to reduce cravings for high-fat foods later in the day. During the holidays, most students will get lazy and start skipping out on workouts to hang out with their family and townie friends that they haven’t seen all semester. By getting your workout done in the morning, you won’t have to worry about FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Because lets face it, nothing THAT exciting ever really happens in the morning anyways.
3. Exercise your willpower
Think of willpower as a muscle. The more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes. Practice willpower in all aspects of your life and you’ll inevitably also become more inclined/able to turn down those high calorie holiday deserts or free samples in the mall. Just say no!
4. Avoid binge eating
Don’t fast during the day as an “excuse” to over-indulge at a holiday party later that night. This guarantees that you’ll pig out and cancel out all of the calories that you “saved up.” If you go into the party starving, you’ll lose site of what a calorie even is and just stuff your face. High calorie foods you wouldn’t even normally like would become appealing. According to dietician Tanya Zuckerbrot, the best way to avoid over-indulging is to “…eat your three squares and a couple of snacks. Aim for lots of fruits and veggies, whole grains, and lean protein.”
5. Recognize your sweet tooth
Don’t attempt to completely deprive yourselves of all holiday sweets. This will just make you salty about people that ARE enjoying holiday goodies—as they should! Be a responsible eater and try the “three-bite rule.” This will satisfy your sweet tooth, while ensuring that you don’t overdue it on the sweets.
6. Drink peppermint tea
Switch out your high-calorie Starbucks holiday drink with peppermint tea. Not only is peppermint festive, but it is also known for soothing your stomach and reducing gas.
7. Avoid stress-eating
Don’t let your stress trick you into over-eating. Practice a quick 20 second mindfulness exercise before serving yourself, and chances are you’ll realize that you don’t actually want to eat all of that food! Stress is a sneaky little bitch, so it is important to go into mealtimes feeling calm.
8. Don’t eat leftovers
From family holiday parties to Secret Santa girls’ nights to a fancy dinner out, you will almost always have leftover food during the holidays. The best way to avoid overindulging in these foods is to send the leftovers home with friends. So, even though you got to enjoy the food once, you won’t be able to go overboard the next day with all of the leftovers. “Out of sight, out of mind!”