With the holidays coming, large family dinners, and foods packed with calories, weight management is an important topic of discussion. Few of us gain 5-10 pounds over the holidays. But most of us will gain 1-2 pounds. This seems harmless, but it can actually have a horrible domino effect when you look at this cycle over the course of years. If you were to gain 1-2 lbs. every year during the holidays, starting at age 25, by the time you were 40 you would automatically be 15-30 pounds heavier!
The holiday pounds are the sneakiest ones because we gain them little by little and don’t always notice the overall effect on our bodies. The reason most people find themselves in this situation of 15-30 pounds overweight years later is because of two reasons:
- Overeating during the holidays. We rationalize poor eating habits because it is a “special occasion.” These rationalizations are killing your metabolism.
- Lack of exercise. You may not exercise at all during the holidays, telling yourself you need a break (and some really do–don’t get me wrong!). On the other hand, you may be someone who even exercises the morning of the big holiday meal, but you use the fact that you exercised as a rationale to overeat.
- Allowing yourself to gain the 1-2 pounds each holiday season. You may be thinking to yourself, “It’s OK, I will burn it off later.” The problem with this type of thinking is outlined below.
A Few Practical Tips
1. Eat more times a day, but smaller portions each time. Your body can only digest so much food at a time. When you eat 3 large meals a day, the typical person’s body can only break down so much of the food and the rest goes into storage. If you eat smaller meals, your body will burn through all the food and then start in on your fat stores. This is why the typical person never burns fat during the day. Eat smaller meals throughout the day to keep your metabolism high and your body burning fat. Remember, this only works if you limit how much you eat at each “meal.” We eat 4-6 times a day, but we reduce the portion size. If you keep the same portion size, you will be taking in far too many calories. And for that big holiday meal, eat a smaller amount and take some to go for later!
2. Avoid the high calorie foods all together. You don’t need them. The taste good going down, but can be contributing to the overall holiday bulge. If you are cooking, find healthy substitutions or leave out entire dishes. There are certain traditional dishes that just should be avoided. There are many healthy alternatives. We have several delicious dishes that we make every year that cut out 100′s-1,000′s of calories.
3. Do some form of exercise. We believe ALL movement is good, whatever you choose! There are benefits of all types of exercise. But if time and lack of results are the number one reason why you many not be exercising now or this holiday season, than B.U.R.S.TCore™ may be right for you.
B.U.R.S.TCore™ is a unique concept of exercise that combines both cardio and resistance training into one, compact workout. Your actual work is 3 minutes long! With rest periods, the workout takes a total of 10-12 minutes. Studies have proven that burst training is 80% more effective at burning fat and retaining lean muscle than if you were to do a long duration, low intensity type workout. Remember, all movement is good, but if you are looking to get your body into the optimal fat burning zone, check out Burst Training at www.burstclub.com.
4. If you feel like your metabolism is just not burning fat like it used to and you need some extra help, check out THIS program. It is backed by 50 years of research and has been proven effective to burn fat and inches while retaining 100% of your lean muscle. The KEY predictor for your metabolism is the amount of lean muscle you have in your body. The less lean muscle, the slower the metabolism. So the key to any weight loss, diet, or exercise program should be to help you retain 100% of your muscle mass while burning fat and losing inches.
This holiday season, break the dreaded cycle and do something great for yourself! Give yourself the gift of health, fitness, and a re-charged metabolism. This is definitely a gift that will keep on giving!
