Tips To Avoid Gaining Weight During The Holiday Season

It's that magical time of the year again, the holiday season. It's also that time of the year that sends a lot of us scrambling to lose weight in January with a New Year's resolution to lose the excess pounds put on from the holiday season!

During the spring and summer months, most people have motivation to lose weight and get in great shape. This is mostly due in part to the clothes that will be worn during these months, more activities to do, going down to the beach, etc. That's fine. However, losing weight and improving your overall health is something that should be approached on a permanent basis....not on a every-now-and-then basis.

Is there a way to enjoy the holiday season, but still lose and/or maintain weight, prevent putting on extra weight, and finally come up with a different New Year's resolution for once? Here are 7 tips to avoid gaining weight during the holiday season:

1. Portion, portion, portion: It is VERY easy to load up your plate with grandma's Thanksgiving meal. Get yourself small portions of food and avoid that large turkey drumstick or mega slice of apple pie...no matter how tempting!

2. Keep from being hungry: On the day (and any other day for that matter) of holiday feasts, eat several small healthy meals through out the day (starting with breakfast....never skip breakfast). This will keep you from being excessively hungry during large feasts and therefore will help you avoid overeating.

3. Don't put off goals to New Year's: Why wait until New Year's to start losing or maintaining your weight? Start now. By starting now, you will find it more easier to avoid overeating and being lazy during this time of year.

4. Exercise at home: It's real easy to get lazy during the winter months. Therefore, it can become a daunting task to have to get out of your nice warm bed, get dress, and drive on snowy roads to get to the gym. By exercising at home, you eliminate that possible setback. It can be more motivating, more efficient (since most of us have busy lives nowadays), and obviously more inexpensive. There are a ton of things you can do at home.
5. Avoid the "It's Just One Day" mindset: Trust me, I was a suspect with that type of mindset early on. Thanksgiving dinner would approach, and I would be like, "oh it's just one day, what the hell, I'll just go crazy and eat until I drop......and then go back to eating healthy." Or, I'll say, "I'll eat whatever I want today, and then just exercise really, really hard tomorrow!" What happened with me, and I'm sure with other's, is after eating like a crazy man, I felt guilty the next day....and eventually just gave up on eating healthy until guess when......yup, that's right.....New Year's!

6. Sampling: This is basically the same as portioning as mentioned on #1, but with desserts. Desserts has always been my achilles heel with the holidays. Holiday cookies, applie pie, sweet potato pie, pumpkin pie, cake, oh my! Usually, I would get full slices and servings of EACH!!! This is obviously a recipe for disaster. Instead, the best thing to do is get small samplings of a few desserts. That way you get to enjoy your favorite desserts without over induldging.

7. Watch the alcohol: This is a very, very, very easy way to gain weight during the holiday season. Alchohol beverages contain a considerable amount of calories....and it's also easy to consume a considerable amount of alchohol through out the holiday season. The end result is a lot of excess empty (no nutritional value.....except red wine) calories. Drink alcohol in moderation to avoid loading up on the calories.

Those are some simple tips to avoid gaining weight during the holiday season, and also to allow yourself to come up with a new New Year's resolution for once. I tell you what, with the way the economy is going, my resolution is definitely going to have something to do with finances!!! lol

Do you have some tips to avoid gaining weight during the holidays you would like to share? Comment below......

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