Keep the holidays from overwhelming you... Seek balance
Published: Thursday, November 30, 2006
Some calm, reason and a "get out of jail free" card are in order. We can adjust our exercise and schedule and diet regimen without feeling like we have to beach ourselves on the shores of a reservoir in January. Here's a plan:
Squeeze in some exercise
Throughout the holidays, walk more.
Wear your sneakers to the mall, walk through and check out the stores before shopping; take after-dinner walks with your guests; park far from the shopping area (like you can find a spot up front anyway) and walk a few more blocks to the shops. At the office, organize walks at lunch with co-workers.
Movement gives us a sense of control and helps us maintain some of our conditioning. Walking also provides some stress control. Post-holiday, when you get back to your normal routine, you won't feel so defeated.
If you can continue to get to the gym on a regular schedule, but want to feel less rushed, intensify what you do rather than skipping exercises.
For cardiovascular exercise, drop your time from 30 to 20 minutes by adding sprints and increasing difficulty. On a treadmill, pump up the incline; on the bicycles or cross trainers, increase the resistance.
When weight lifting, set up circuits where you move quickly from one exercise to the next. This can cut your strength-training time in half. Another technique for compressing and intensifying a strength workout is to set up pyramid sets, where three or four sets of the same exercise are performed until the muscle fatigues, one set following the other, but with slight weight increases or decreases.
Don't strive for perfection. Instead of trying to maintain your preholiday health routine, stay flexible.
Plan on maintaining an 80 percent schedule instead of 100 percent. Give yourself permission to have fun and to enjoy these annual indulgences.
Food, glorious food
"Nothing exceeds like excess," observed Al Pacino's character in the movie "Scarface." This applies to the excessive eating and drinking, as well as obsessing about it.
"Deprivation does not work for making changes to your diet in general, but during the holidays, this is a particularly disastrous strategy," says Bonnie Jortberg, a registered dietitian in the department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. "Survey your favorite holiday foods and decide ahead of time which foods you really like and eat only during the holidays."
Suzanne Schlosberg, contributing editor to Health magazine, and lifestyle coach Kate Larsen of Minneapolis offer the following ideas and suggestions:
1. Don't deny yourself or skip meals. If you watch others enjoying food and drink while you are nibbling on a rice cake, you will overindulge later. Go ahead and enjoy small portions of all the goodies.
It's also unwise to skip meals to save up for the big feast. This will lead to waistband misery. Eat some healthy foods before the party.
2. Avoid temptation. The office is a web of food traps during holidays. Anything we don't want in the house, we bring to work. Be sure to take a healthier alternative to work so that high-
calorie snack breaks are minimized.
3. Take smaller portions, eat slowly, and stop when satisfied. Try smaller helpings of a variety of foods. Try some foods that are unfamiliar so that you will concentrate on flavor rather than just wolfing it all down in one gulp. Enjoy conversation while eating, like speaking a complete sentence between bites. Finally, when you are full, stop. This is not as easy as it sounds, but if you eat half of what is on your plate and take a short break, you may be surprised to find you don't want any more food.
4. Go easy on the alcohol. Alcohol stimulates the appetite and numbs your reserve. Alcohol is metabolized in the liver. Once the liver is engaged, blood sugar drops, which stimulates hunger.
5. Get your sleep. Shopping, travel, social engagements, family stress - too often all of this exhaustion comes across as a need for calories when what is really needed is rest.
6. Celebrate the holiday spirit. Pay more attention to relationships with friends and family than to food. Stay involved in social interactions and conversations so that mindless munching doesn't become the focal point.
After the holidays, you should be able to look back and reflect on the fun. Did you enjoy or just survive? We can always get back on a healthful eating and exercise schedule. Time spent feeling guilty and miserable is lost forever.
You say you want a resolution?
Statistically, "losing weight and getting in shape" is America's No.1 resolution. And, for about three weeks, nothing gets in the way of our efforts for a new and improved self. Then Girl Scouts show up with cookies, Valentines appear with candy, the gym membership card is lost, exercise videos/DVDs gather dust, and diet/exercise books become drink coasters. How can we keep this from happening again in 2007?
The body is a ruthless accountant and never fails to count every calorie. The solution is to examine your eating habits for one week.
Write down what you are eating as you are eating and see where the problems occur. Are you eating too little for breakfast? Skipping lunch? Just filling the hole in your appetite with whatever is handy? One pound equals 3,500 calories. Eliminate 250 calories per day of something nutritionally suspicious, and you are on your way to losing as much as a pound a week. If you consume more fruits, vegetables, grains and beans, lean meats and fish, your body will be more in balance nutritionally. Also, drink water to stay properly hydrated and alert.
Newton was right. "A body in motion tends to stay in motion; a body at rest tends to stay at rest." If you are uncomfortable making a financial commitment to home equipment or gym fees, start by altering you schedule at home and work.
Are you into a TV-watching routine that keeps you sedentary all night long? Try moving during the commercials by doing push-ups, crunches, and lunges, walking in place or dancing to the music. Look for ways to add more walking to your day. Buy a pedometer, clip it on, and aim for 10,000 steps per day. This could mean an additional caloric expenditure of 250-350 calories.
Find something fun to do. There is more to life than treadmills and step classes. Try snowshoeing, learn to samba, take a martial arts class, do anything but the same old stuff.
It takes about 21 days to change a habit and about four to six weeks to make it a lifestyle change. Keep your goals both attainable and focused. Maintain a list of the changes you want to make and why they are important. Look at it every day to help make exercise and diet more of a priority, and harder to dismiss for "lack of time."
Tips on staying fit
The American Council on Exercise offers tips on how to avoid the typical weight gain and stress associated with the busy holiday season.
1. Take time for yourself. Although spending time with friends and family is essential, it's also important to carve out some relaxation time - even if it's five minutes - for yourself. Try practicing deep breathing when you feel stressed out.
2. Don't set unrealistic exercise goals. Aim to exercise 30 minutes a day instead of an hour; it's OK to divide it up into eight- to 10-minute intervals throughout the day.
3. Enlist the support of a friend or family member. Walking and talking with a friend can be a great way to socialize, burn extra calories and reduce your stress level. Working out with a partner has been consistently shown to help individuals stick with their workout.
4. Create new, more active traditions. Instead of throwing a dessert or cocktail party, try ice- skating or Nordic walking with ski poles.
5. Don't try to stick to an overly restrictive diet . If you enjoy your favorite foods in small portions, you'll feel more satisfied.
6. Drink plenty of water. Although the cold weather may make you less inclined to grab a glass of water, it is just as important in the winter as it is during the summer. Water helps counter the dehydrating effects of travel or drinking alcoholic beverages, and it also may help satiate your appetite because thirst often is mistaken for hunger.
7. Spread out meals. Don't feel like you have to eat everything at once. Try eating dinner early and then taking a walk before sitting down for dessert.
8. Avoid or limit liquid calories. Many popular holiday beverages contain stimulants (e.g. alcohol or caffeine) that will only cause you potentially more grief in the end by adding to your feelings of stress and increase your blood sugar levels causing you to eat more. Try having a glass of sparkling water after a glass of wine or cup of eggnog.
9. Don't aim for perfection, and enjoy the imperfections. There is no such thing as the perfect party or the perfect decorations or the perfect way to spend the holidays.
10. Make your workouts a priority. Try to exercise first thing in the morning before other demands sidetrack you. Individuals with an early morning exercise routine tend to be more consistent when pressed for time.
More resources
"The Step Diet Book," James Hill, Ph.D., et al, (2004, Workman Publishing, $22.95).
The "Diet Simple" books by Katherine Tallmadge, M.A. R.A. (2002, 2004, LifeLine Press, $14.95)
Websites for networking, tools and support: livehealthier.com ; weightwatchers.com ; sparkpeople.com