Follow These Tips To Avoid Getting Fat This Holiday Season
That time of year is upon us again. The holiday season full of fun and cheer but also makes it difficult to avoid getting fat. You worked hard to keep your body in top shape throughout the summer and now you’re worried that after a couple of weeks into the holiday season you will be rummaging through your closet to find your “fat” pants.
Well, this year doesn’t have to be like your previous experiences. By reviewing a few tips explored in this article, you can choose the ones that would best curb your holiday binging habits. When going to holiday parties and festivities you can be occupied by good company instead of worrying about how to avoid getting fat. With a little will power, determination, and distraction, you will be breezing through the holiday season enjoying healthy portions of your holiday favorites while maintaining the figure you worked so hard for.
# 1 – Mental Fitness: With the added responsibilities of holiday decorating and shopping, our stress levels can increase which can put us at risk for binge eating. Consider the following to keep stress and fatigue at bay, maximize your energy, and improve your mood:
- Get a good night’s sleep, preferably 7 – 8 hours.
- Continue with your exercise routine. Set a goal for 30 minutes of exercise each day.
#2 – Cut Back On Your Alcohol Consumption: Whether its social drinking or drinking in response to holiday stressors, too many drinks can make us reach for those festive goodies when we don’t really want to, persuading us to make choices that don’t coincide with our plan to avoid getting fat.
#3 – Keep Your Hands Occupied: Is difficult to say no to the delectable treats coming your way, but if you have your hands full with a plate of fresh cut vegetables you won’t be able to give in.
#4 – Use Your Positive Coping Techniques When Feeling Overwhelmed: Stay focused on what is happening in the present, don’t be hard on yourself if you briefly get off track. For example, if you find yourself indulging in unhealthy finger foods in the mid-afternoon then make a plan, rather promise, to yourself that your dinner will consist of lean protein and healthy vegetables. Don’t get discouraged and think that you are a failure, we are all human, it happens. Turn your cheek, tell yourself “yes I made a mistake, but I’m not a failure and I’m not going to quit,” and move on. Remember tip #1 – mental fitness.
#5 – Recognize Your Successes and Possible Areas for Improvement: It takes a strong person to avoid the temptations of holiday treats so praise yourself for giving it your best shot. If it applies, think about what you learned about yourself and your holiday binging habits and create solutions for how you can handle the situation better next time.
#6 – Be Sure to Eat before Celebrations: Making a plan to skip a meal or two to save your appetite isn’t an effective way to avoid getting fat. Not having a fulfilling meal earlier in the day can lead to binging behavior later on. By simply having a breakfast that is reasonably sized with lean protein, you can keep hunger and cravings away.
#7 – Choose Smaller Plates: When our brain sees a big, empty space on our plates it automatically associates this to having less food available. Smaller plates require smaller portions, choose an 8 to 10 inch plate rather than a 12 + inch plate.
This is a hot topic for the upcoming holiday season as so many of us are trying to avoid getting fat. This list of tips is not an all-inclusive, but hopefully you take away a few ideas that can be beneficial to you. Better yet, maybe these ideas sparked your creative side, motivating you to conjure up your own personalized tips.
I really love your fitness blog and articles on fitness and nutrition. Consider me your regular reader from now on. Waiting for more new articles, fitness tips, recipes and exercise.
I love your idea of choosing smaller plates to avoid a lot of fat. I think all your tips are really helpful to us. BTW, I checked other articles on your blog, you are really good at fitness and food planning. I really love to see more things coming from you, thank you!
Most people, including me, make the mistake you described in the 6th point in every holidays. We try to avoid a meal at noon and later that day be the victim of binge eating. This will lead to an unhealthy behaviour. Eating a breakfast full of protein and veggies is the best option to avoid this problem.
This holidays, I’m gonna try your tips for sure. We can identify our mistakes this year and we can correct them next year. Being mentally fit during the holidays is very important so I’ll follow your tips for that. Thanks.
The 4th point is really motivating one. Tell yourself that you are not a loser and not going to quit. Keep trying to stick to your food chart. Every person makes mistakes once or twice, but that is not the end of the fight. Thanks for the motivation.
Replace junk food and fat with fresh veggies will help you a lot during the holiday season. I also wanna add a little thing in your list. Drinking a lot of water a day will also help you to balance your fitness and health. Thank you.
I totally agree with you here. All your tips are very true and helpful if we follow them. Last year I did a mistake of alcohol consumption very often and it created a lot of trouble for me. Thanks for motivating me.
Exactly! Holiday season makes everyone fat because of the sweets and binge eating. It’ll be very difficult for me to follow my diet plan as well as exercise schedule during holidays. So I think your tips will be useful for me. Thanks.
I’m facing the same problem every year during the holidays. But this year I’ll follow your tips and try to make my holiday season great! Happy and healthy holidays 🙂
Mental fitness is also important with physical fitness. The lack of mental fitness will turn into binge eating, I’ve been victim of binge eating many times. So getting good sleep, diet and few exercises is the best things you can do to maintain mental fitness.