Staying Fit During The Holidays

It begins around Thanksgiving. Family and friends get together, It’s time for Football and thanksgiving feasts. Foods you may not have had all year suddenly surface, It’s the chance to have some of Mom’s special stuffing, Grandma’s pies. You can’t resist, and Diet Rite encourages you to partake.

Think of it. A day off from work! Family, meals you haven’t had in ages, made by people you love and who loves you. Good vibes with people you haven’t seen in a while, who would ask you not to partake? Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year…

The holidays are here and along with the countless celebrations and non-stop feasts, comes the additional weight, the increasing waistline the regrets we carry into the New Year. Fortunately, Diet Rite System is here to help you during this holiday season and beyond.

Crafting the best diet plan to lose weight means knowing what your triggers are. Do you often reach for that second glass of wine when you’re feeling super stressed out?

Are you more likely to gravitate towards the cookie tray instead? Knowing where your weaknesses lie will help you understand how to curb your triggers Joining an online community has always worked for us, so if you’re searching for your best online weight loss program, it’s helpful to understand what makes you tick. We’ve outlined some key tips below that will help you understand your areas of weakness and address them properly.

Develop a plan, execute and hydrate.

The holidays can be a real land mine in terms of disrupting your best exercise and weight-control intentions. Start each day with a game plan, just like a great coach going into a big game.

First, track your food intake and activity level. Doing so makes you aware of the number of calories in certain foods. Even if you decide to eat higher-calorie options, you will probably eat smaller portions and make other adjustments to stay within your daily caloric goals. Diet Rite is developing a method for our members to help you accomplish this… Stay Tuned

Also, stay hydrated. Your brain can sometimes confuse thirst with hunger. A large glass of water before a meal (and especially before considering seconds) can help lessen the amount of food you consume. Drink six to eight glasses of water per day, and be sure to have two big glasses of water before the big, calorie-rich meals.

Stay Active.

We all know exercise is good for you. From boosting your mood, your self-esteem, your overall health to improving your sex life. According to the Mayo Clinic, staying physically active will improve your life.

It can seem impossible to eat healthily and exercise during the holiday season. Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, There are so many celebrations, and the overwhelming mindset is to relax, eat and enjoy yourself. The amount of weight gained is disregarded, until after the New Year. However, the added weight can have an impact on our short- and long-term health and well-being. One of the best ways to prevent holiday weight gain is to stay physically active. Exercise helps to counterbalance the inevitable added calorie intake and improve insulin sensitivity. In other words, the exercise burns the calories in all those sugar cookies and helps our body utilize the glucose flooding our systems. There are also additional fringe benefits. Exercise boosts our energy levels and helps to reduce the stress and anxiety that may often coincide with the season. Exercise is defined as any movement that makes your muscles work and requires your body to burn calories. There are many types of physical activity, including swimming, running, jogging, walking, and dancing, to name a few. Being active has been shown to have many health benefits, both physically and mentally. It may even help you live longer. In addition to staying active, try to avoid sitting for prolonged periods of time, such as when watching football games or eating. Remember: Too much sitting is hazardous to your health. Research shows that getting up for just five minutes every 30 to 60 minutes and performing light activity reduces the risk of diabetes and other heart disease risk factors.

Choose Non-Food Related Holiday Activities

One of the reasons why we find it so difficult to stick with our weight loss goals during the holidays is that everything seems to revolve around food! The truth is, there are plenty of other fun wintertime activities that you can partake in that don’t involve calorie-laden treats Why not get out and explore the winter wonderland. Wholesome and fun activities like ice-skating or skiing are always welcome, Ice skating is a fun and engaging exercise that will encourage you to stick with your fitness regimen long-term and help you achieve fitness goals fast. Besides the fun factor, health and fitness benefits of ice skating will improve muscle mass and strength, accelerate weight loss, increase bone density, and maintain joint health.
The lower body and core muscles benefit more than any other muscle group during ice skating. Hamstrings, hips, calves, quadriceps, and core muscles, like pelvic floor muscles, back muscles, and the gluteus maximus, increase in mass and are strengthened and toned, even during leisurely skating. This provides numerous health benefits specific to the improvement of each of these muscle groups.

Cross Country Skiing

As one of the top Nordic sports, cross-country skiing involves traveling across large, snow-covered terrain, mostly using your body’s own strength and strides rather than the gravity used when going downhill. For this reason, as well as a few others, cross-country skiing can be an excellent form of physical fitness. We haven’t tried Cross Country Skiing yet. Living in an urban area like New York City, one simply Don skis and take off across Columbus Circle lol. But it does look like a lot of fun. It sort of reminds me of almost being on an elliptical machine which seems lower impact on your knees. We will attempt this at a later date and will write about the experience. If anyone has tried this and has any recommendations, We love to hear them. Simply leave a comment at the bottom and we will try it and let you and all our readers know how it turns out. Remember, we planked and we rowed and it did not go well, but we discovered that starting in the basic position was really great and we like and recommend it! That’s what makes Diet Rite better than most online weight loss programs. We try everything we recommend from eating to exercise. We don’t try to talk at you, making ourselves seem like experts who read everything and try nothing. We talk to you, like a friend you can chat with about the different things you encounter during your journey

Benefits of Cross Country Skiing

• You get a full-body workout. Skiing combines both a lower body and upper body workout, while simultaneously working both the “pulling” and “pushing” muscles of each region..
• It Burns lots of calories. Skiing burns more calories than any other form of exercise or sport
• Improves cardiovascular endurance and health. Cross-country skiing is an excellent aerobic workout, and because no single muscle group is over-stressed, the activity can be sustained for hours on end. Maintaining an elevated heart rate during exercise..
• You have a higher level of physical fitness. Skiers are about 40 percent fitter than physically fit individuals, suggesting that the full-body workout provided by cross-country skiing is uniquely effective.

This is a great way to avoid being sedentary and consuming extra calories you will find difficult to burn off. This is also a great way to enjoy the health and fitness benefits of holiday activities while staying active. You can even get out with the family for a day of fun and exercise, not to mention family bonding.

Practice Mindful Eating

People are often in a rush during the holiday season, which frequently leads to multitasking during meals. Studies show that those who eat while distracted are more likely to overeat. This is because they’re unable to pay attention to their body’s fullness signals To prevent this, eat mindfully and minimize distractions, including work and electronics. Try to chew slowly and thoroughly, which will allow you to better recognize your body’s fullness signals and consume fewer calories. It can also be helpful to take a few deep breaths before you start eating. This can induce relaxation and help you keep your full attention on your plate, rather than your to-do list. Several studies show that those who engage in mindful eating practices are less likely to gain weight. What exactly is mindful eating? Mindful eating is not a diet. It uses a form of meditation called mindfulness, which helps you acknowledge and manage your emotions and physical sensations. Using this approach will help you reach a state of full awareness of your experiences, cravings, and physical cues when eating. Mindful eating allows you to become aware of the positive and nurturing opportunities that are available through food selection and preparation by respecting your inner wisdom. It practices using all of your senses, choosing food that is both satisfying to you and nourishing to your body. Along with acknowledging responses to food (likes, dislikes, or neutral) without judgment, you become aware of physical hunger and satiety cues to guide your decisions to begin and end eating.

Eating mindfully involves:

• There are varying degrees of awareness surrounding the experience of food
• Accepting that everyone’s eating experiences are unique
• Directing your attention to eating on a moment-by-moment basis
• Recognizing how you make choices that support health and well-being
• To promote balance, choice, wisdom, and acceptance.

Join An Online Community For Support

There’s a lot of power in numbers, and nobody knows this more than a good online weight loss program! If you want to really maximize your chances for success, find the best online weight loss program for you. You can do this by looking at what each weight loss program has to offer and selecting the one that works best with your lifestyle and desired goals.

This is where knowing your triggers and weaknesses is really important. We find that our weight loss program is most effective when our members are totally engaged. Engagement is participating, leaving comments on blogs and articles, and sharing your thoughts. This is where we learn and inspire others, as well as being inspired by others as well. Don’t be afraid to try on the Diet Rite System you will find that it works best for you.

Practice Portion Control

The holidays are one of those times when we feel free to let it all hang out, and a lot of times that means giving in to massive portions because we’re feeling festive. If you wouldn’t eat a portion that size during a regular Tuesday, don’t do it on Christmas. We know that it’s tempting to load up on everything under the sun because it’s all so delicious but stick to your favorites. You’ll feel much better later and be proud of yourself for sticking with your diet. You’ll also avoid any unpleasant effects like heartburn or stomachaches from overindulging. Read our article on Portion Control to learn more.

Control What You Can 

As we mentioned earlier, there are plenty of things that you can’t control during the holiday season, but a few things that you can. If you are going to a communal event, you can control what you bring. Others might use loads of butter, sauce, and sugar to make their recipes sing, but you don’t have to. Some of our favorite substitutions are apple sauce for butter and maple syrup for unrefined sugar. These sneaky substitutes will strip away some calories from your dish and give your friends and family a healthy little kick too! There is a lot of things that you can’t control during the holidays, but you can certainly be the master over what you put into your food. These tiny substitutes will save you big amounts of calories!

Avoid Stressful Overeating

Keeping up with the demands of the holidays can be stressful. Individuals under stress commonly have high levels of cortisol, a hormone that’s released in response to stress. Chronically high cortisol levels may cause weight gain, as they have been linked to greater food intake. Additionally, a stressful lifestyle may cause more cravings for junk food. For these reasons, it’s important to keep stress levels under control in general but especially during the holidays, when you might be busy and surrounded by unhealthy foods. There are many techniques available that can help you reduce stress. Some options include exercise, meditation, yoga, and deep breathing, and long conversations with friends or family.

Knowing what your triggers are, and how stress contributes to overeating, will help you manage stressful situations in a way that does not automatically make you reach for foods you know you should avoid. Book 4 of our e-book series will give you other tips to avoid stress and stressful eating. Check it out!

Cut Back On Alcohol

Alcohol is full of empty calories, so that second glass of Chardonnay could be setting you back far more than you initially anticipated. Not only does alcohol contain lots of calories, it also inhibits you. This could and will affect you especially when you are making food choices when under the influence!

How do you ring the holidays in without expanding your waistline? We love the simple trick of alternating one alcoholic drink with a glass of water. This way, you’re hydrated and in full control of all of your faculties. You’ll make better decisions about what you’re consuming and remember every second of the holiday fun.

It’s also important to remember portion control when it comes to alcohol. Generally, holiday libations are served in massive glasses, and one cup could contain several servings. Stick to reasonable sizes and don’t assume that you should overindulge simply because it’s the holidays. Moderation is the key!

How To Craft A Successful Weight Loss Program

Your weight loss program depends largely on what your triggers are, and what you hope to accomplish. In order to be successful, a good weight loss program needs to be logical and easy to stick with. We like our online weight loss program because it’s ambitious but perfectly reasonable at the same time. you know yourself best, so simply work with what you have and you’ll wind up being successful.

You don’t have to suffer dramatic weight gain during the holidays, or remorse when the holidays end. You don’t have to start the New Year with a new determination to do better. You can start right now! Just practice these simple tips and we guarantee that you will be able to keep that stubborn holiday weight off for the long run!

References
https://www.verywellfamily.com/fun-winter-activities-for-teens-2608987
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/expert-answers/weight-and-holidays/faq-20348579
https://www.dukedietandfitness.org/Portion-Control-Why-is-it-so-important
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/why-stress-causes-people-to-overeat
http://www.successhealthlifestyle.com/blog-and-articles/the-health-and-fitness-benefits-of-ice-skating/
https://www.healthfitnessrevolution.com/top-10-health-benefits-cross-country-skiing/