The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are filled with a lot of delicious food. Some of these foods are a little hard on our waistlines. These 5 Exercise Tips for the Holiday Season will help keep weight gain to a minimum.
Everybody loves the holiday season. Why not? You get to spend extra time with loved ones and share the most heavenly foods one can imagine. While the holidays might be delectable for the taste buds, they are quite rough on our waistlines. Exercise is our secret weapon. Each time we sit down to a holiday feast we must find a way to offset the extra calories with exercise. While this sounds imposing, it really is not. Here are 5 Exercise Tips for the Holiday Season to help keep the weight gain to a minimum.
5 Exercise Tips for the Holiday Season
Allow digestion to happen first. Before you actually dive in and exercise, you have to let that holiday meal digest. Eating less helps a great deal of course, but few have the willpower to resist everything. Most of us will eat a bit more than we are used to. Allow your food to digest for at least a couple of hours before jumping into exercise.
Start slowly and finish fast. One huge mistake we make with exercise is to start like a house on fire and then hit a wall. Instead, begin your workout slowly with a nice, long stretching session. This is true no matter what level of exercise you are doing. Finishing with a flourish will give your body a huge bump in calorie burning power as well.
Take advantage of a nice long walk. Walking is the most underrated exercise there is and it is a powerful tool. When you walk after eating you are doing all the right things to keep the calories down and your joints intact. Jogging and other high impact exercises have their place, but walking is a genuinely effective option as well.
Toss the old pigskin around. The holiday season is a very good time to enjoy a little football and the whole family can participate. Pick teams for a nice game of flag football or just toss the ball around. This type of exercise is highly effective because you are burning calories while you have a good time. Exercise you enjoy is exercise you are likely to repeat. Find a sport you like and give it a shot for an after meal exercise!
Set up a volunteer opportunity. The holiday season is a wonderful time to volunteer and the need is great. What better way to burn off some calories from a holiday meal than to help out your fellow man and woman? Spend some time passing out food at a shelter, taking a kid to a ball game, or simply helping out at the local hospital. Do it as a family and you will do far more than burn a few calories, you will build memories.
More Healthy Tips for the Holidays:
How to Manage Your Weight during the Holidays
5 Ways to Stick to a Holiday Diet Plan
Holiday Diet Tips: 10 Calorie Bombs to Avoid This Holiday Season
Jamie says
Great tips! It’s important to stay on top of it all! 🙂 Thank you for sharing with us at the #HomeMattersParty
Marie says
I’m always down for playing a quick game of football with the kiddos. That is a great tip to get some exercise in during the holidays. Thanks for sharing your tips with us at Merry Monday this week!
Lee MacArthur says
I’ve taken advantage of a few of those workout before you eat meetings at the local YMCA where they charge a can or two of food for the food bank. I loved it so much because I’d get rid of my guilt associated with eating a huge meal.