The Fastest Ways To Shed Those Holiday Pounds
What is the fastest way to shed Holiday pounds? Good question. Like everything, losing that Holiday weight comes with a little bit of time, commitment, and attention! All those brownies, cookies, and extra scoops of Christmas jam on our breakfast toast start to pile up after day 25 of the Holiday celebration and cheer. Sometimes we don’t even notice when the weight starts to creep up, layer by layer, as we continue to eat so much sugar and heavy-calorie beverages into the New Year.
Loss of Holiday weight starts with commitment to a workout routine, a healthy diet, and consistency! Stop eating brownies and cakes because they’re available, and starting adding in healthy choice to your diet, like smoothies, an apple, or edamame as a snack. Stick to a normal workout routine with higher reps, a focus on core and abs to crunch into any squishy enemies, and some additional cardio at slower rates or intervals to burn fat. Build your Holiday health plan with a mindful eye towards balance; balance that guide you with realistic expectations and variety throughout your Holiday health and fitness escapade! Track your weight through the Holiday escapade, too. In order to find balance, you’ll need to be organized about your health, fitness, and diet. Pay a bit more attention to your body and your mind during your Holiday body burn recovery plan! Growth doesn’t have to be grand. Weight loss doesn’t come quickly and all at once. It comes with small, intentional changes to our regular routine.
We’ve compiled a list of ways to shed those Holiday pounds as quickly as it is possible! Your energy will hopefully sky-rocket and the scale numbers will start to drop. Best of luck shopping for your Holiday weight-loss plan, and good luck with the journey!
Pick a treat and leave the rest
If you’re a sweets gal or guy, you don’t have to give up sweet altogether to maintain your healthy weight. Simply pick one a day to have, or even every other day during the Holiday season. Although the treats might add up in number, this is better than trying to eat all of them at once.
Slow down your eating
Slow down!
Enjoy your treat of choice each day by chewing one bite at a time, slowly. The treat isn’t going anywhere, and you’re not starving. You’re full of all the Holiday love and cheer. Set the treat aside to socialize. Give yourself some rules: don’t eat another bite until you talk to Aunt Ashley, or chew slowly enough so you can still focus on the conversation occurring in front of you.
Whatever you can do to slow down your digestion, do it. Chewing more slowly will help you feel full faster. This way, you won’t want an excess 5 sugar cookies and 2 hot chocolates!
Eat smaller meals, snack more
If you eat less, you can breathe more! Shrink the portions of each Holiday meal. This way, you can still enjoy the food you want, but you won’t be stuffing yourself each time you sit down to enjoy good food and drink! If you’re like me and you can’t handle waiting for hours between meals, snack on something filling and healthy! Hummus and carrots or walnuts and apple slices are a great source of Vitamin E, good fats, and protein, and can fill you up just enough to last until the next food endeavor. The smaller portions you eat, the less you will be hungry. If you can apply the eating slow method as well, you can get full faster on smaller amounts!
Walk or run regularly
Get. In. Those. Steps. No matter where you are, inside or outside, get in your steps! The less horizontal you are during the Holidays, the better! If you can add a bit more to your routine, like a 20 minute spin on the bike, or a 20 minute cardio-dance work out, do it! The little bit extra is what is needed to burn that extra Holiday weight by increasing your blood flow, heart, rate, and getting your body moving. If you walk on the regular, count your steps. Know what you do regularly, and build on it. If you run on the regular, count your kilometers, and build on it.
Get sleep
Make sure you’re getting enough sleep to fuel your day! If you’re not sleeping enough, then you’ll sleep in later and go to sleep later. Try and get in 7 and a half to 8 and a quarter hours a night.
The restless sleep or lack of sleep cycle only encourages late-night snacking and larger meals in the morning. Try and get to bed early so you can rise with the sun and get to your morning routine and other to-do items that will leave you feeling less stressed out and less likely to stress-eat or binge on Holiday treats. Keep rested, keep well, and you will be much more in-tune with your balanced plan and hopefully won’t cheat as much as you would normally with less sleep and more stress!
Drink more water
Water will open up your stomach and flush anything toxic out. You will feel fuller faster and feel much more cleansed with every glass of water that you drink. Medical research shows that 8 glasses of water daily will help you increase productivity, stay hydrated, and replenish your organs. The more water you drink during the Holidays, the better able your body will be able to burn fat and digest complex carbs and sugary treats more easily. This is especially true for meat-eaters. Meat may stay in the intestines for 24-72 hours, depending on what type of meat you eat. In particular, red meat takes 1-3 days to digest because of fat content and high protein, according to Lisa Cicciarello Andrews of University of Cincinnati.
Listen to your body, your brain will send you cues if you need more water. With all the salt and sugar digested during the Holidays, the best and most nourishing thing you can do for your body is flush out that toxins with a few glasses of water.
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