How to Manage Your Weight During the Holidays Without Falling Off Track
As we approach the holiday season, remember to take time for yourself and your health. Weight management during the holidays can be challenging with added commitments like family gatherings, school events, and social celebrations, but maintaining consistency with your habits can make a significant difference. With all these events happening it is easy to be tempted to gain more time by skipping your workouts. If you want to stay in control of your weight, don’t give in! We all know that it is already going to be extremely difficult to stay on track with proper nutrition, so why would we want to give up the only other thing that gives us a chance to keep our weight in check?
Aside from needing the exercise to help balance the potential extra eating, think about this: the average holiday season, from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, is around 35 days long. This is more than enough time to adjust to a new habit of not exercising. So now not only will we have lost a month of working out, but it will take at least an additional month to rebuild the habit back into our lifestyle. Also, endurance and stamina adaptations your body develops from exercising will decondition at a faster rate than it took to develop after 1 week of inactivity. So not only will you be trying to rebuild the habit into your lifestyle, the exercise will be more difficult than it was when you stopped. If sticking with the usual routine isn’t going to work, try to at least get something in at home. Another thing to do is when out shopping for gifts is to commit to doing some laps in the store or mall before starting the actual shopping. Also if you find yourself waiting for your children’s concert or athletic event to start, try getting some walking in with some of the other parents.
The key thing to remember is that if you want to continue your weight loss plan or maintain the success you have already achieved this year, you have to keep the lifestyle that got you there.