Holiday Damage Control

Fat season.  That’s what we call it around my office.  It starts on Halloween, and it usually runs straight through January.  We are bombarded by holidays that require us to consume copious amounts of meats, pies, cookies, chocolates, and alcohol.  On top of that, for those of us living in the north, it gets dreadfully cold and painfully hard to do as much moving around as we would like to.  It is due to these conditions that it is not unlikely for an individual to gain between 5 – 10 lbs within this 3 month period.  And with that I would like to share some of my favorite tips for when it comes to coping with the inevitable “fat season”.

At the Office

Avoiding temptation at the office can be tricky.  There always seems to be extra bags of candy, and extra baskets of cookies strategically placed around your work area.  If your goal is weight loss, maintaining a steady doping of sugar into your blood stream is not going to make your efforts any easier.  

If you can avoid the sweets, then good for you, you’re stronger than most.  However I don’t feel it’s absolutely necessary to be that guy/girl in the office who wants to avoid the break room at all costs.  You could be setting yourself up for even worse disasters, especially if you’re one who tends to get more stressed around the holiday season.  If I had to pick between what’s worse for your health: a couple of cookies or being the stressed out sociopath who avoids people at all costs fearing they might shove brownies in their face, I would have to go with the latter.  Stress is going to create much stronger repercussions than a few sweets will any day.  

If you’re busy around this time of the year like I am, it will be hard to get normal workouts in.  The key is to make them brief, frequent and consistent.  Get good at the exercises that stress your entire body i.e. squats and deadlifts.  Doing a couple of sets will only take you 15 minutes and it’s much better than doing nothing at all right?

Take it to the Party

More often than not you’ll probably encounter a party or two this time of year.  Parties are another good place to find lots of fattening foods.  If you find yourself at one of these parties, my advice is to you would be to seek out the vegetable platter.  There is always one somewhere and rarely has it ever been touched.  Filling up first on fruits and vegetables is a good way to pack a little fiber into the stomach before consuming those delicious and fatty finger foods.  The fiber will not only help to fill you up, but it also soaks up some of the fat like a sponge preventing it from ever getting to those love handles.  

As far as alcohol is concerned, try to be mindful of what types of mixtures you’ll be having.  Sure, alcohol itself packs calories, but combine it with sugary tonic water or coke and it becomes a real diet killer.  As an alternative, try soda water for a less calorie dense beverage.  Since it’s a party, keep yourself mobile.  Move around, dance and mingle.  After all, that’s what the party is for.  You’re not going to burn a heck of a lot of calories, but it’s much better than being a calorie-consuming wall flower.

Around this time of year being uptight about your diet and weight is only going to cause you more trouble than it’s worth.  Beating yourself up over a couple pieces of pie or a few extra drinks during the week isn’t going to help your efforts in the long run.  The best piece of advice I can give to you is to relax and try to make a few smart choices here and there.