Choose to Lose: A Plan to Look and Feel Great this Holiday Season

I’m sitting at the Auckland Airport waiting for my flight to L.A. I have a fourteen hour lay over. When I return home our family will  officially begin our holiday season. First up, we celebrate All Saints Day which we do with costumes and candy much like the other holiday but with lots of personal family traditions. We wrap the candy in foil and hide it in a completely dark room or outside and then hunt for it with flashlights. So candy is not banned at our house but we also don't start eating it on Halloween and keep eating it until New Years. If moderation and avioding weight gain is your goal I'll give you a few ideas to help you be successful.

So here's a few exercise and diet tips that my personal training clients have used to avoid holiday weight gain.  I hope they will also help you prepare for the upcoming holiday season. First of all, diet is everything so don’t let Halloween candy linger around your house. If you’re tempted do the math and I think you’ll be surprised how just a little trip down childhood memory lane via your hand in that candy dish can add up. It will be very difficult to exercise those indiscretions away. At least, don’t do it mindlessly. If it’s part of a legitimate special occasion you are allowing yourself that’s one thing but if you aren’t even really enjoying it put it down, put it in the trash or give it away. If fear of tooth decay and adding pounds don’t move you remember sugar is implicated in wrinkle formation as well. Some party.

If your goal is to drop body fat, research shows that a combination of cardio and resistance training is best. In one study, when overweight research subjects tried a 1500 calorie diet alone for twelve weeks they lost between 20-22 pounds of fat with seven of every ten pounds coming from fat. Those that added aerobic exercise to the same diet lost the same amount but eight out of every ten pounds were from fat. The best results came from those who added both aerobic and resistance training. They lost the same 20-22 pounds but virtually all of it came from fat. Better clothes fit and inches lost were obviously also most dramatic for this group. 

These results may in part have been due to the length of time the exercise stimuated the metabolism. Generally, a 30 minute aerobics session will leave the metabolism stimuated for an additional 30 minutes after exercise. Resistance training on the other hand will cause metabolism to be significantly elevated 90 minutes after the exercise session concludes. This can be extended as long as 72 hours when a certain technique is used that I’ll tell you about next time!

Let's look at how this effects your waistline. Studies show that exercisers who combine aerobic and resistance training lose almost three times more subcutaneous abdominal fat  and thirteen times more of the inflamation causing visceral fat than those who do aerobics alone. Your health as well as your appearance will benefit from adding variety to your workouts by combining aerobics and weight training to your healthy diet.

Give some thought to your holiday traditions as far as food and exercise are concerned. You don’t have to continue to hand down any detrimental habits to your children just because they were handed down to you. An after dinner Thanksgiving walk to see which neighbors already have their Christmas lights up has more potential to create great memories than passing around a box of chocolates. Play some football instead of just watching it. If that's too rough use a frisbee instead. Just play and move and have some active fun. 

Mentally we can justify lots of exceptions but our bodies do not. Calories in and calories out continues whatever the calendar may say. Certainly enjoy the day. Even indulge a little. But when it is moderate, purposeful, and coached with fun activity it will in the end be more beneficial to you and a better heritage for your children.