Top 6 Eating Tips For The Run Up To Christmas

I usually preface my blogs with some sort of intro, but these tips are pretty self-explanatory, so let's get to 'em:

1. Don't Fast Before Big Meals

Many people make the mistake of avoiding food altogether on days where they know that they're going to a holiday party or a big dinner.  It's a huge mistake.  First, you're far more liable to overeat if you haven't had anything in your stomach, so you're making a bad thing worse.  Second, when you don't eat regularly, your body enters fasting mode, lowering your metabolism and ensuring that you store much of your next meal as fat.

2. Drink Your H2O

Most people don't drink enough water.  Even fewer do it during the holidays.  Water is so crucial to everything your body does, and better yet, it helps fill your stomach and prevent overeating.

3. DON'T Drink Your Boose

It doesn't matter if it's beer, wine, cocktails or anything else, alcohol is an absolute no-no for slim waists.  Alcohol will help you put on body weight in so many different ways...

   -It's calorie dense

   -It's NOT satiating

   -You eat worse foods with it

   -It slows your body's fat burning mechanisms

As tempting as it is to carry around a drink at the holiday party, don't do it - unless it's water.

4. Eat Before Parties And Get-Togethers

Have something healthy to eat before you go to a party.  Try to include choices that are high in protein and fiber.  Veggies are always a great choice for food to eat before a party.  Just avoid the high-calorie dips - why everyone has to have their food dipped in some other food, I'll never know.  What I do know, those dips and sauces aren't going to do anything positive for your body composition.

5. Don't Snack On Little Treats

Make sure you know when you're going to eat and eat then.  Most parties - heck, most offices - have some sort of fatty, sugary treat sitting around just waiting to make your pants tighter.  Most holiday treats are 100 calories apiece - MINIMUM.  If you munch on just a couple of them a couple times a day.  It adds up to an average of 619 extra calories eaten each day during the holidays by your average American.

6. Moderation, Moderation, Moderation

At this point it may sound like I'm telling you to eat nothing but steamed veggies and chicken breast over the holidays.  Nope.  The key is, as always, moderation.  You should never, NEVER, binge on food.  I talked about this awhile ago, but "living a little" shouldn't involve doing something blatantly unhealthy, which binge eating most certainly is.  Give yourself a treat, but remember that your stomach is not as big as much of what we eat during the holidays.  It's amazing what a difference lowering your portion sizes can make.

3 Holiday Fitness Tips

The holidays are known for wreaking havoc on our bodies, and to put a stop to it, you need a concrete plan.  It's an easy time of the year to find excuses to eat lousy food and not workout.  Today, I'm going to focus on the working out with these three tips:

1. Book It

If you just treat exercise as something you'll "get around to," you're never going to get around to it.  Few people treat exercise as an appointment, but that's what it needs to become, even over the holidays.  

Not exercising has two main negatives.  First, you don't burn calories, leading to weight gain.  Second, you lose lean muscle mass, leading to a lower metabolism and again, more weight gain.  This is what makes figuring it out in January such a poor option - you've already cost yourself some very valuable weeks.

So make an appointment to exercise at least twice a week, preferably three times.  I STRONGLY recommend doing it in the morning, as the longer you go in your day without exercise, the more excuses you'll have to avoid doing it.

2. Shoot For A Number

Even though holiday schedules can be hectic, there are always little bits of daylight in every schedule, be it for a minute or five.  You have to seize on those moments.

Your body really doesn't much care whether it's done 100 squats in a five minute window or over the course of the entire day.  If you have a day where time is really tight, set a goal of exercise repetitions to complete over the course of a day.  Ten reps here and ten reps there take virtually no time but add up to big numbers at the end of the day.

Example: 

Squats - 200

Pushups - 100

DB or Band Rows - 100

This will easily keep you strong, or even help you gain strength over the holidays.  Keep in mind, however, that this is for very busy days.  Even though you're getting in your work, the optimal hormonal environment for fat loss is present only during periods of short rest.  Long rest periods can be just as beneficial for maintaining strength, but in terms of fat loss, really emphasize this strategy if things are truly hectic on a given day.

3. Don't Make Time For The Health Club

The holidays are a time when one of the most common images I can think of are crowded parking lots.  The last thing you need at this time of the year is more hustle and bustle.  Not wanting to find the time to go to the gym, find parking, battle for equipment (especially machines, which you should NOT be using, by the way) and all the other stuff that goes along with the health club "experience" becomes an easy excuse.

Workout from home, or find a workout buddy and go do something outside together.  I know that it's cold out - but it'll actually feel nice once you get moving (just ask the women in my Edmonds boot camp - after just a set or two, they're usually begging to open the windows and let in a little crisp air).

There you go.  Simple stuff, here.  Don't "get around" to exercise.  Find the little breaks in your day and do a few reps of exercise.  Don't worry about the health club.  Make sure you put it to use.

-Mark

aimfitcamp.com

Don't Eat a Lot to Live a Little

You've heard it before, right?

"C'mon, it's the holidays - live a little!"

Maybe you've heard it; maybe you've even said it.

I know I've said it to myself before.  But it's such a flawed way of looking at life.  You don't have to binge in order to enjoy Thanksgiving or any other time of the year.

But that's the kind of thinking that the statement enables - you're only living if you're doing something bad for you.  The holidays really bring this to the forefront.  You should be enjoying the holidays, but how did enjoying the company of family and friends get mixed up with binge eating and drinking.

Do your best to make the holidays about the people you love, not food.  You can enjoy their company without doing the things that cause most Americans to gain five to ten pounds over the holidays.  Of course you can enjoy some turkey, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce on Thursday - I know I will.  But the point is that you don't eat until you're so stuffed you can barely move.  It's not healthy.  In spite of our cultural denial, it IS binge eating.  

Treat yourself to some of the foods you want this holiday season, but be reasonable in the coming weeks.

-Mark

aimfitcamp.com

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like... Fall

Well, I had to contend with rain while going to my early morning fitcamp for the first time in months.

It's looking like fall is beginning, and for too many Americans, that means it's time to pack on the pounds.

This time of the year brings lousy weather, short days, and the holidays - all major foes to anyone who's looking to lose weight (or maintain it, for that matter). Fall and winter bring out the excuse-maker in just about everyone. Who wants to exercise when you could get a little extra sleep, right?

The fact is that the deck is stacked against you from the middle of September until daylight savings rolls around in March (or sometimes longer than that), especially when you live in a place like Seattle.

It takes a lot of effort and a lot of planning if you are to spell the coming months, but it's more than doable.

One of the biggest things I preach is paying proper respect to your goal setting. If you only give a cursory thought as to why you want to lose weight, it's far easier to make excuses when it comes to Halloween candy, Thanksgiving dessert and all those Christmas parties. When you go through the process of writing down what you want, when you want it, why you want it and how you're going to get there, you've got ammunition against that little voice that tells you it's okay to skip a workout. But you have to ask yourself those questions seriously. You must spend some time with your thoughts and ponder why your goals are important to you.

Once you've taken your goal setting seriously, you need to take your efforts to get to your goals seriously, as well.

Though you should be doing it year 'round, make a point of penciling in your exercise just as you would with any other appointment. Don't just exercise when you think you have time - make time! Having structure to your fitness is key to getting results, and it's why having something there to keep you accountable is important. The women in my fitcamps are making a great choice to take control of their goals - they're making them a priority and keeping themselves accountable to their fitness appointments.

When springtime rolls around, you can be in better shape than you are right now - but don't carry the "one day at a time" mentality with you. Make your plans to get in shape (or stay in shape) now!