Guest Blogger: 5 Ways to Stay Fit this Holiday Season

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Guest Blogger: 5 Ways to Stay Fit this Holiday Season

Posted: 25 Nov 2011 02:48 PM PST

 
 

 Entry #783, November 25, 2011

After Thanksgiving, the official holiday season is here and thoughts turn towards home entertaining, holiday parties, and cooking delicious dishes. After yesterday’s delicious Thanksgiving meal, I realized I needed to hit the gym this morning, to get back on track and not let my healthy living plan go out the door!

Here’s a great article from the archives….

 Original Guest Blog Entry #34, Entry #349, December 6, 2010

I can not lie, the holidays are my favorite time of year for several reasons. I love giving, decorating, seeing everyone in a good mood, and oh yes.. the house smelling like warm sweet potato pie, bubbly macaroni and cheese, and buttery warm crescent rolls. O.k. so you are probably seeing the conclusion I am getting ready to get to? Yes, the holidays are perfect for putting on unwanted pounds!

You may need tips for staying fit during the holidays

Today, my guest blogger is Alexandra Williams, MA. She is the co-owner (with her twin sister) of Fun & Fit, a humorous fitness advice blog. I’m so excited to have Alexandra guest blog as she gives some great info. we a great sense of humor that I adore!
 

Alexandra Williams

Using her charm, wit and lovely smile, Ronique convinced me to write a guest post about that dreaded topic – staying fit over the holidays! And why do I say it’s dreaded? Because most people (yes, I mean You!) make resolutions, vows, promises and pinky swears about all the food they’re going to avoid, followed by all the walks they’re going to take. When this doesn’t happen 100%, guess what? Y’all berate yourselves. Now how is feeling bad about your so-called “failure” going to make you feel all warm and glowy about being fit and healthy?

So…here is my take on how to successfully help yourself over the holidays:

• 1. When the big holiday spread is laid out, look it over before putting any food on your plate. Decide which things you really love and just KNOW you’ll have seconds of. If it’s that sweet potato with marshmallows concoction, may I just say “Ewwwwww?” Then choose what you like fairly well, but can live with having just a single helping. For that food, take 1 less spoonful than you took last year. Then all you’re left with is the food that you HAVE to try because Aunt Smoochy made it “special” and you’ll hurt her feelings. For that stuff, just take a teaspoonful (or none, if you can get away with it) and move it around the plate a bit! Even if the stuff you picked for seconds is junk, at least you’re taking in fewer calories overall and it is just ONE DAY out of 365. Notice I am not recommending eating junk on a regular basis. Bad advice. Bad. Bad.

• 2. On the days that aren’t a food-laden holiday, but might be more of a stress, busy, leading-up-to more stress and lots of chores kind of day, there are still ways to help yourself. If you’re going shopping, take each purchase to the car, then go back to the next shop, rather than holding on to all the bags. That little bit of extra walking counts as exercise! And as you walk to the car, do a little bicep curl holding those bags. Dorky? Maybe. But having toned arms is pretty cool. I am not advocating buying more stuff just to have more to pump, although…..

Walk to the car during your holiday shopping

• 3. I hate the word self-control. Why? Because it sounds like a panty hose ad. I prefer to say “self-choice.” This is a hectic time of year and it’s not easy or fun to prepare healthful meals all the time. But you can only eat what you bring into the house, right? So whether you grab something “to-go” or do a quick and easy meal prep, decide before you buy. For example, if you know you’ll be out late shopping, pick out the night’s dinner before you head out. It’s so much easier to make good choices before you’re grumpy and tired (yeah, I’ve done mall shopping with little kids).

• 4. Consider making yourself a mental scale. When you start to get too busy or tired to take your walk (or whatever your preferred type of exercise is), ask yourself, “On a scale of 1-100 (1 being low and 100 being high), how badly do I want to give up the exercise?” Then ask yourself how you’ll feel afterward if you do the exercise. For example, “I want to make sure the couch doesn’t get lonely” ranks a 75 because you really are tired, versus “I’ll feel like the 99 cents store after I exercise.” Then it’s easier to make a conscious, deliberate choice because you’ve ranked your priorities.

• 5. Subscribe to our site, funandfit.org because we’ll be posting realistic, achievable, time-saving exercise tips and ideas throughout the holiday season. Here’s to your holiday health!

Here's to a healthy holiday!

Alexandra Williams, MA, is the co-owner (with her twin sister) of Fun & Fit, a humorous fitness advice blog. She has been teaching, presenting and writing about fitness for over 25 years (since she was 7 and 1/2)! Currently on staff in the exercise studies department at UC Santa Barbara, she is also a contributing editor and writer for IDEA Health and Fitness Association’s many publications.

For more holidays ideas on Stagetecture, click here.