ONELIFE FITNESS: Ten Tips for a Healthy Holiday

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bethd

by Beth Douglas

The holidays are here and shopping, parties, gifts, alcohol,  yummy food and no time to hit the gym can really affect health and fitness goals.

How can we stay on the right track? The following are my top ten tips for staying on track during the holidays:

  1. Don’t wait until the New Year to start a new fitness program.  When we delay a health and fitness program we tend to gorge (filling our bodies with the things we feel we will be deprived of after our program starts).  This is a big mistake, especially when 90% of us never get started.  Start today and get a head start!
  2.  Accountability: find someone to hold you accountable.   A workout partner, or better yet a personal trainer, someone who will keep you on track until fitness habits are formed.  
  3.  Plan your workout days and times. Get specific! How many workouts can you commit to before  01/01/2016?   3 days a week x5 weeks = 15 workouts.  Now figure out the days, times and/or classes that you are going to commit to and write them down as if they are appointments on your calendar.  
  4.  Stay active!  Take 10,000 steps a day.  (There are many step trackers that will keep track of this for you)
  5.  Think before you eat. What am I going to be doing for the next 3 hours?  Does it require energy?  You may need fuel (food).  If you are going to be sedentary lay off the fuel, don’t let your tank overflow. Overflow = FAT
  6.  Know your BMR and don’t go under it, you are setting yourself up for failure.  Everything you do - sleeping to eating a bowl of rocky road ice cream — burns calories.  Likewise, every bodily function, i.e., digestion, blood circulation, and breathing, takes effort.  The energy, or calories  your body burns just to keep you alive is called your basal metabolic rate (BMR). Also known as your resting metabolic rate,  it reflects how many calories you would burn if you did nothing but lay on the floor all day.
  7.  Plan your food.  Create a daily menu that meets your caloric needs.  If you are in a deficit and are trying to lose weight, make sure your calories are quality calories and fall into your BMR needs.  If you go over, you need to find a way to burn them off before you go to bed.  Start tomorrow feeling good about yesterday!
  8.  Tracking calories: calories in and calories out.  You can do this with DotFit or My Fitness Pal.  Having a calorie tracker to track the calories you've burned is a huge help. This lets you know how many calories you actually burn.   I love using mine and it keeps me on track!
  9.  Have emergency food on hand. Prepare some healthy snacks and put them in front of the cabinets and refrigerator.  This way, when you’re caught off guard they are the first thing you see.
  10.  Don’t beat yourself up when you have a bad day.  Use it as a learning experience, what went wrong?  How can you avoid it happening again?  YOU DID NOT FAIL, YOU LEARNED!

And lastly, my  all time favorite quote is great advice when it come to any of your goals.

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”  - Mark Twain

Beth Douglas is the general manager at OneLife Fitness in Gainesville. You can email Beth any questions about your health and fitness goals at beth@onelifefitness.com.