Why We Gain Weight Over the Holidays

Why We Gain During the Holidays

1. The year-end mindset

You must be so tired and stressed by now from your work and other obligations.  It’s common for people to have the year end mindset of rewarding oneself with too much rest, vacation, shopping and food for a good year. But your health and fitness goals might be at risk if you always have this  thinking year by year, since there’s a greater tendency to avoid physical activities and to treat oneself to high-calorie foods which can lead to weight gain over time and sabotage healthy and fitness goals.

Sign up for fitness events or  races for next year so you can still continue training and burning calories during the holidays.  It is even better to train outdoors in December because of the cool weather and the limited amount of time you  can devote to exercising. Also, try to stick to your healthy eating and exercise regime as much as possible through the holiday season so its easy to get right back on track in January.

2. Giving and receiving food as presents

Aside from money, the most practical and easiest gifts to give nowadays are food.  If you receive food items like  ham or pastries, even if you try to avoid to eating these items, if you keep everything at home,  you might still end up finishing everything.

As early as now, buy fitness gifts like workout clothes, fitness and nutrition books, fitness service gift cards, or fitness equipment for your family and friends.  And as a rule, don’t give any gifts related to food. You can give the gifts ahead of time so people will become motivated to start a healthier lifestyle and even give you wellness gifts  instead of their usual sweet food treats.

3. Becoming too dependent on programmed exercises

Most exercisers become very dependent on gym facilities like exercise cardio machines and their favourite classes so when vacation comes, they find it difficult to engage in physical activity because they are used to doing it inside a gym or under the supervision of a personal trainer our instructor.

Focus on the exercises that you can do at home or even while on vacation.  As early as now, start learning how to run, jog or do brisk walking properly outdoors so whenever you’re on a vacation, you can still work out.  Buy hand exercise equipment that you can use at home or wherever you may be, like an exercise band, a lightweight body weight trainer, skipping rope, and doable exercise videos that you can always follow.

4. No planning and preparation

You can always say to yourself that you will not gain this holiday season, but studies show that lack of planning and preparation can sabotage your weight management efforts. Strength of will is not enough to survive this challenging time of the year, even the healthiest and fittest people have a hard time during holidays.

Set your goals, make a plan, and write everything down. If you want to maintain your weight, then identify the events that you might be at risk for this month.  If you have a Christmas party to attend, list down your strategies: Eat a filling snack before the dinner party,  drink only one to two glasses of wine, avoid deep-fried foods, and have just have a small piece of dessert.

At home, you should always make sure you have food with quality calories like fruits, vegetables, lean meat, seafoods, low-fat milk, brown rice, whole-grain breads and pasta for when you get hungry.

Be avoiding these common health pitfalls of the holiday season you can stay on track this season and still enjoy every minute of it!

Stay Healthy!
Andrea :)