3 Tips to Avoid Weight Gain During the Holidays

3 Tips to Avoid Weight Gain during the Holidays

You have been eating right and you are seeing the results of your hard work. Oh, but the holidays are upon us with the shopping, cooking, stressing, and attending parties and other festivities, any of which could derail your diet, right? Wrong! Don’t let it happen. Follow these easy tips to stay on track and keep you reveling in your success into the New Year.

Track your food

Create a food journal and have it with you at all times. If you are not already doing so, start doing this now and continue through the holidays. This will give you a baseline of your current eating habits. Continuing this through the holidays will allow you to see how much you are really consuming. A spoonful of sauce, a spoonful of gravy, a taste of eggnog: those calories can quickly add up. Having this in black and white will help you to avoid “taste testing” and nibbling diet disasters.

Wow up your workout

Okay, you know that you will be able to keep the eating in moderation, but you also know that you will not be able to resist some of the high calorie temptations. This is why you want to increase your fitness routine. You could do that by increasing the intensity or the duration of your exercise. You might even want to try a different type of cardio. This will get those calories burning as your body responds to the change. You can also get added calorie burn by doing simple things like parking further away from the mall, taking the stairs at work instead of the elevator, etc. The last thing you want to do is convince yourself that you are too busy and skip your workout.

Be prepared

Chances are you have a general idea of what to expect in the various situations that you will face over this season. That being said, staying one step ahead is an individualized thing. If the temptation might be all the junk at work for a 2 week period, make sure you bring your healthy lunch/meal and low calorie, healthy snacks. Get out of the office when you are able and take a walk. Don’t linger around the temptation. Going to a friendly gathering may be filled with tempting libations and edibles. Take a low calorie cocktail and dish and you will at least be able to eat and drink something without guilt. If the temptation might be family members urging you to eat whatever it may be that you “always loved”, be firm and tell them “no”. If this tactic would not work with your family, then have excuses prepared and practiced and use them. Do not let them convince you to go off course, at least not too much. The temptations may be plenty, but with preparation you do not have to succumb.
Sticking to these tips will get you through the holidays and keep you on your path to healthy eating. However, if you do experience a bump in the road, do not let this be a reason to stop and wait until after the holidays to try to recover. Track the mis-take in your food journal, wow up your workout even more following the mis-take, and become even more prepared to deal with difficult food situations.