Strategies To Maintain Or Lose Weight During The Holidays

The Christmas and Thanksgiving seasons are filled with endless parties and diners. Delicious food is tempting you at every turn. This doesn’t have to sabotage your healthy eating or exercising plans, however. You can fit holiday treats into your healthy eating plan and the key is to eat in moderation and balance what you consume.

The trick to avoiding holiday weight gain is to equalize the calories you eat with the calories you burn. Physical activity and watching what you eat will definitely help. Here are some tips that can give you a great start on keeping fit and healthy during the holidays.

Keep your exercise program and normal as possible. During the holidays you need to make sure your exercise plans are announced in advance. Mark the days you go to the gym or exercise in your home on your calendar. You can always find thirty minutes to do moderate exercise.

Don”t sit and watch endless hours of television. Limit the number of hours you allow your children to play computer and video games. Institute a program of walking around the block, going to a park (even if it is cold), or developing a new holiday tradition. Go sledding; ice skating, or any other appropriate activity in your area.

Play outdoor sports as a neighborhood or family or start a dance class with your family and friends.

Be physically active which will help to avoid holiday stress and keep those pounds off.

Give yourself triggers when you find that you are overeating. Watch portion sizes and try to only eat a few items from a yummy buffet table.

Drink alcohol in moderation and limit your intake of high sugary treats.

Place bowls of fresh fruit around your home and encourage your guests to eat from these fruit bowls.

Focus on socializing rather than eating and always plan ahead when you are invited to a party. The best advice is never to go to a party hungry.

Keep your mindset to maintain your current weight rather than losing weight during the holiday season. This will be much easier and causes you less stress. Move, exercise, do physical activities to burn off those holiday calories. Try to eat at least seven servings of vegetables and fruits each day and watch the intake of chips, cookies, candies, and breads. Fruits and vegetables contain fewer calories than traditional snack foods, and if you fill your refrigerator with cut up vegetables and fruits you may find that these foods actually taste better than the tradition sugary filled holiday treats.

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HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

Written by HealthStatus Team
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

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