10 Fit Tips for the Holidays

10 Fit Tips for the Holidays

By Donna Richardson Joyner, creator of Body Gospel^®

The holidays are a time of excess—lots of parties and lots of spending. But it isn't just the credit card debt that many people are trying to shed in the New Year. It's also those excess pounds! With all the family gatherings, office parties, and Christmas celebrations, it can be easy to gain 5 to 10 pounds between Thanksgiving and January.

Don't fret. Here are my Festive and Fit tips that will have you fabulous and fit during the holidays and looking and feeling great into the New Year:

Fitness Tips:

1. When you're out at a holiday party, don't just dance for one song—stay on the dance floor and be a dancing machine. Extra points for doing the moonwalk in your "'Tis the Season" stilettos!
2. Before shopping at the mall, put on your comfortable shoes so when you get there you can walk a couple of laps around the mall then purchase your goodies. Warning: sprint through the food court so that you won't stop to smell the combination of pizza, chicken, chili dogs, and cinnamon rolls.
3. Ignore valet parking and don't waste your time driving around for 20 minutes for a close parking spot. Park and walk. Once inside, make a conscious choice to take the stairs. If you do take the stairs, you have the right to give a judgmental slow shake of the head directed at the people riding the escalator.
4. For those who love Christmas caroling, add some movement. Sing, move, and get your groove on. If you want to turn the speed up a notch, I suggest working out to A Chipmunk Christmas.
5. Give your loved ones gifts that will keep their hearts healthy and their buns blessed. For example: Body Gospel fitness program, walking shoes, a pair of weights, or sessions with a trainer. That will beat a fruitcake, a pair of fuzzy slippers, or a Chia Pet^® any day of the week!

Nutrition Tips:

1. Eat a healthy snack before you leave the house to go to a holiday party or the grocery store. If you don't, you could find yourself filling your basket or your tummy with stuff you would normally pass up.
2. Make sure when you leave for the party you're not empty-handed. Keep your hands full with holding a purse, camera, cell phone . . . anything that will keep you from holding food or a drink—unless it's water.
3. When you do eat at the gathering, grab a small plate; think small portions; and once you have your plate of food, stay far away from the table of temptation. And that doesn't mean pile the food onto the small plate. Here's a rule: If you're holding a salad plate at the height of your stomach and food is rubbing against your chin . . . you've got way too much!
4. Just politely say no to Aunt Betty when she wants to load you down with doggie bags of leftover ham, macaroni and cheese, and sweet potato pie. But say yes if she asks if she's prying about wanting to know when you're going to get married and have children.
5. Remember to hydrate and keep in mind that certain drinks (especially caffeinated and alcoholic ones) will dehydrate you. So drink up, yes, but make it H₂0. Scope out the bathrooms so that you won't risk making that uncomfortable wandering search while doing the "Potty Shuffle."

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Eat More, Lose More. (Really?)

Eat More, Lose More. (Really?)

By Justine Holberg

You work out practically every day and you're feeling good because you've lost some weight. Until a week or so passes and you can't get the scale to budge. It's like an invisible wrench has been thrown into the works. Now what?

You start second-guessing everything you're doing:

• Maybe I'm eating too much?
• Should I work out harder?
• Do I have to live on parsley and hot water?

So you restrategize. You slash calories and step up the intensity of your workouts. Unfortunately, after another week, you're still not losing. Now you want to give up altogether. But before you throw in the towel, ask yourself this:

Am I eating enough?

Contrary to popular belief, sometimes you have to eat more to lose weight. While that may sound counterintuitive, it often does the trick. Here's why:

1. Metabolism is the key to weight loss. If you don't eat enough, or often enough, your metabolism slows to a crawl and weight loss becomes more difficult, especially when you're exercising. That's why skipping meals isn't a good idea if the goal is to shed pounds.
   
   Tip: Always eat breakfast to kick-start metabolism and try eating mini-meals throughout the day to keep your metabolism fired up.
2. To keep your metabolism up, you MUST eat. Conventional wisdom dictates that when you first start dieting, the less you eat, the better. While it's true that you often should eat less, eating too little can backfire over time. As your body composition changes, your body will think it's starving, which can make it hold on to fat. (The process actually has to do with excessive release of a hormone called cortisol, but you don't need to know the details, so we'll just call it fat.) To avoid this, most experts agree that over time, you shouldn't eat fewer than 1,200 calories per day for women, 1,500 for men. If your daily diet consists of fewer calories than that, consider eating more.
   
   Tip: Keep a food diary to track calories.
3. You need more calories when you work out. If you're exercising while following a low-calorie eating plan, you'll need to take into account the calories you're burning. That's because it's now easier to enter starvation mode. Let's say you're burning 400 calories and only eating 1,200 to 1,300 calories per day. This means you're really only taking in 800 to 900 calories per day before you begin to calculate how your body composition is changing. Muscle burns more calories at rest than fat does, so as your body changes, you need to eat more to keep the weight loss coming.
   
   Tip: Drink an after-workout recovery drink like P90X Results and Recovery Formula^®. After hard workouts, its calories are utilized so quickly by your body, some people refer to them as "free calories." They aren't, but they will ensure your muscles, hence, your metabolism will recover quickly.

And remember this:

Figuring out to what to eat, how much to eat, and when to eat isn't easy. That's why people often refer to losing weight as a journey. It takes a few different paths to get there. Sometimes you have to adjust your ratio of protein, fat, and carbs to start losing again. Or adjust your calorie level, which can include eating more to lose weight.

Tip: Use the Team Beachbody^® Meal Planner. It can make figuring out your calories much, much easier. You can personalize an eating plan that takes your workouts into consideration.

Finally, if you're still on the fence about needing to eat more to lose weight. You might be thinking, "How come I know some really skinny people who barely eat?"

The answer is this: You can eventually lose weight by not eating. It's called starving. Reduce calories enough and your body will start breaking down its muscle tissue, and this will result in weight loss. However, it makes your body increase its emergency hormonal responses, which also causes your body to be stressed and hang onto fat, making it.very easy to gain the weight back again.

So I hope you take this thought away with you today: The idea is to keep your metabolism revving and running. This will help you get healthy and stay strong. Eat the right amount of food to help your body continuously burn calories, and you're more likely to shed those unwanted pounds.

No Time to Work Out? 7 Ways to Find the Time

No Time to Work Out? 7 Ways to Find the Time

Monica Ciociola

The perceived lack of time is one of the main reasons people on the Message Boards give for not exercising regularly. Even those of you who have discovered the wonders of in-home fitness still find it difficult to juggle work, family, and fitness—especially during the holiday season. We hear you asking for help, and here are 7 smart ways to find more time for your workouts.

• Shop online. Now that you can basically order anything and everything over the Internet and have it delivered, consider doing your holiday shopping this way. Most major retailers have online stores, and provide gift-wrapping services along with shipping options. So there's no need to go to the mall or the post office.
• Farm out some chores. Try dropping off your laundry—especially if you're already going to the laundromat. You'll find that it doesn't cost that much more.
• Wake up 30 minutes earlier. Work out before heading to the office. A little trick for waking up faster is to touch your toes as soon as you open your eyes, bringing blood to you head so you feel alert more quickly. After your workout, you'll be more energized for the day ahead and hardly notice the lost sleep. Working out in the morning as opposed to midday or at night also saves you the double cost of showering, getting dressed, and making yourself beautiful.
• Make it a family affair. Mike Y. and his wife Christine and daughter Samantha made shedding pounds with the Power 90® program a family activity. By working out together at 5:30 AM each day, before getting ready for work and school, they managed to get in both some family time and exercise. They became Success Stories and were invited to Hawaii to star in the Power 90 TV show. It may be a little more difficult for you right now, with everyone's schedule crammed with holiday events, but working out together as a family ensures a built-in support system, and that support is crucial when you're trying to keep your fitness goals on track.
• Prepare meals in advance. Try to get most of your meal preparation for the week done over the weekend. That means washing all your lettuce, veggies, herbs, fish, and poultry up front, and stocking complete salads-in-a-bag to take to work. You can also prepare individual slices of poultry and fish and a variety of veggies for dinner. Also make vats of soup, pasta, and brown rice that you'll be able to microwave throughout the week. Filling up on healthy meals and having low-fat, good-for-you snacks readily available at work will reduce the temptation to sample the goodies at the office—the gingerbread cookies, chocolates, and inevitable fruitcakes.
• Take your DVDs with you. If you're traveling over the holidays, make sure you pack your favorite fitness DVDs along with your laptop so you can work out wherever you are, whether it's at your in-laws', your friend's house, or in a hotel room.
• Pop in a 20-minute workout. Beachbody® makes some superfast and effective workouts for when you're seriously short on time. Try the Turbo Jam® 20-Minute Workout for an excellent calorie-blasting session and the Great Body Guaranteed!™ collection to focus on specific trouble areas in even less than 10 minutes. Look out for Tony Horton's all-new 10-Minute Trainer program launching in January—just give Tony 10 minutes and he'll give you incredible results! No more excuses—now you can always find the time to squeeze in a 10-minute workout . . . And the rewards stretch far beyond that to stronger bones and muscles, a sharper mind, and a lower risk of cancer and diabetes. And remember, working out reduces stress. You'll enjoy the holidays much more if you're healthy and energized.