Avoiding the Holiday Pounds

  MSN had a great article on How to Stay Slim During the Holidays.  Then I read a great suggestion about High Intensity Interval Training or HIIT.    

     1.  Break up Your Exercise – yes, you are supposed to exercise an hour a day but it doesn’t have to be an hour all at once.   It can be 10 minutes here, fifteen minutes there.  Park your car far from the front door, go up and down the stairs a few extra times.  Go for a 15 minute walk if you don’t have time for a longer walk.   

     2.  Exercise with a friend – more fun to go for a walk or to the gym with a friend.      

        3.   HIIT – Geralyn Coopersmith, global director of performance and fitness training at NIKE, Inc.  recommends HIIT. (BHG.com).  She notes that this type of training burns more calories and more fat.  A study of women working out 3 times a week, 20 minutes at a time using HIIT, burned more calories and more fat than women who worked out twice as long but at a slow and steady pace.  Her HIIT for a stationary bicycle is:

• 5 minute warm up
• One minute sprint
• Two minute recovery
• One minute sprint
• Two minute recovery
• One minute sprint
• Two minute recovery
• One minute sprint
• Recovery

                I tried the HIIT workout on a stationary bike and it was great.  Definitely felt the calories burn off during the sprints.     

    4.  Dance to some holiday music – dancing is great exercise and can burn off some calories.    
  5.   Stay hydrated – if you are thirsty you are becoming dehydrated.  

     6.  Focus on veggies/fruit – at a party, load up on the celery, lettuce, cucumbers and for fruit the grapes, melons.  A Los Angeles nutritionist, Jackie Keller, tells celebrities to pile their ‘plate high with asparagus and green beans a few days before a “be-seen “event.  They’re high in filling fiber but less likely to expand your stomach”.   

     7.   Treat yourself - it is the holidays and it is OK to enjoy the food and fun.  At a resort this week, the first dinner out, I ordered whatever I wanted.  Yes, the meal was high in calories, but oh so good.  The next night I had a lighter meal, good but not quite so calorie laden. 

Sources:   How to Stay Slim During the Holidays. ,   “Get Intense”,  Dec. 2014,  BHG.com,  Image Source: HIIT