The holiday season for some can be more challenging than wonderful. When the days grow shorter, many people slow down, are more fatigued, have a tougher time falling asleep and waking, difficulty with concentration and have intense carb cravings with related weight gain.
Although you may want to stay snuggled up in your warm bed, winter shouldn’t be a time that your fitness plans hibernate too. Especially with all of those holiday treats around. With the right attitude and mix of exercises, winter can actually be a fantastic time to mix up your workouts, get creative and even reignite your love of fitness by trying new, fun activities. Not to mention, exercise can help you beat that winter blues that is so common.
Did you know that about 50% of Americans gain 5 to 7 pounds during the holiday season? It’s shocking, but true! That’s about 500 extra calories each day from Thanksgiving to New Years. Just one slice of pie, 3 or 4 cookies, or even 2 brownies will add 500 calories to your diet.
1. Know before you go With most restaurants these days, you can go online and look at their menus. See what dishes look healthy—grilled items, salads, vegetable sides, and so forth. Decide before you go what you’ll order, and stick to your decision once you get there. Collect the menus in the restaurants you frequent […]
When calories add up, so do carbs, fats & sugars! Make sure you measure!
Let’s be honest, during cold weather months you may have slacked off on your health a tiny bit. In fact, it’s probable. Statistically, people gain weight in winter. During the spring, we make these big plans to get the extra weight off, then months go by and we still haven’t done anything to achieve this.
As simple as it may seem, water is quite possibly the single most important motivator in losing weight and keeping it off. Most of us take it for granted. We may or may not get in our required 8 glasses every day, but water may be the only true “magic potion” for permanent weight loss.
Most people agree, exercise is good for you. However, did you know that 80% of adults over the age of 25 do not regularly do it? The reasons why we aren’t exercising varies. Many of us think that exercise only consists of playing sports, lifting weights, going to the gym, or running.
You may have heard “Wellness is 80% Nutrition and 20% Exercise.” It’s important to make sure as we start our journey to health that we understand the benefits of both good nutrition and why it’s important to start to increase our activity levels, especially the healthier we get.
One of the most effective techniques for bridging the gap between mind and body is visualization. Visualization is a learning technique that has been proven to be very useful in accomplishing weight loss tasks. The idea is to, in your mind, picture yourself performing a task and/or activity to help overcome major barriers that frequently stand in the way of our weight loss goals.