Holiday Weight Loss and Health

Jump ahead to December 31^st for a moment. You get to the end of the night, and you may find yourself making a New Year’s Resolution. You might share it with others as well or write it down. A common one that I hear is “I am going to lose 20 pounds.” This is a good start, and next year we will talk about how to accomplish this successfully.

Today, let’s start with how to take steps now to change that goal from 20 lbs to 10 or 5 or even 0! Much of this success relies on what you do and what you consume during the holidays.

Try the following steps TODAY!

Step 1: What is your goal that you will accomplish within the next 30 days? Try to make it specific, measurable, and achievable. For example, in the next 30 days I will improve my health and begin on my body composition improvement by drinking 8 glasses of water per day. Write it down where you can see it every day.

Step 2: On a scale of 1-10, how confident are you that you are 100% committed to achieving this goal in the face of all obstacles? If you are at a 9-10, we’re good to go! If you are at a 1-5, list out your obstacles and solutions to overcome them.  

Step 3: Obtain credible knowledge to help you with your goals. We have a whole team of fitness experts here to help. Post your questions by leaving us a comment! 

Here are a few links to help you get started:

How much should you eat?

Healthy holiday recipes for the family

Gluten free recipes

Vegan recipes

Holiday Tips & Tricks

Have a favorite site or tip to share? Share it with us by leaving a comment! Have goals? Have questions? Want to share a story? We’d love to read it! Leave us a comment for all of these things as well!

Holiday Eating Tips

It is November and that means our next 8 weeks will be filled with good times, family, friends and a lot of food.  All of those things can be great in moderation but when you have party after party and event after event the calories will add up.  Here are my success strategies to your Holiday eating, and drinking!

1. Be realistic, don't try to lose weight during the holidays
2. Make a realistic goal to maintain your weight or workout 3x per week
3. Don't skip meals, you will be starving and then overeat
4. Pre-eat, when your heading to an event have some healthy veggies and protein at home ahead of time to limit the unhealthy calories at the event
5. Throw away or give a way leftovers, if they are in your house you will eat them
6. When filling up your plate don't forget to add the veggies
7. Focus on eating while sitting down with a plate, grazing over the buffet line can be dangerous
8. Be careful with alcohol, it can lower you inhibitions and create you to overeat
9. Alcohol is also a lot of empty unneeded calories, have a glass of water in between each drink
10.  If you overeat one meal don't let it ruin your day, get back on track with the next meal
11. Take the focus off food, volunteer at a shelter, feed my starving children or a church to spend time with family
12. Plan group activities like a lighted holiday walking tour or window shopping at a local mall
13. Make items you can't eat like a gingerbread house, snowflakes, decorations and ornaments
14. When eating at a potluck bring a healthy dish
15. Always eat all your food on a plate and don't let the food on your plate touch, you can only have so much that way
16. Stay on top of sleep and your workouts, when your not sleeping well or in your normal workout routine you will want to eat more
17. When your ''bored eating'' clean, take the dog for a walk, brush your teeth, drink some water or chew a piece of gum
18. Don't over restrict yourself, you will crash and burn at some point if you do
19. Make a goal for January 1st and stick to it, don't let your holiday eating continue into the New Year
20. Have a great holiday season and spend some time with those you care about

Here are some tricks to help make your holiday favorites a little more healthy

1. Refrigerate your gravy and after it cools skim some or a lot of the fat off the top to reduce the amount of total fat
2. In your dressing use less bread and more onions, garlic, celery and other vegetables, add fruits like cranberries and apples to sweeten and moisten with low sodium broth and applesauce
3. Skip the dark meat and skin on the turkey
4. Cook your green bean casserole with potatoes instead of cream soup and top with almonds instead of  fried onions
5. When making mashed potatoes avoid a ton of whole milk and butter and substitute with chicken broth, garlic, garlic powder and rice milk
6. Make your own graham cracker crust for desserts to lower calories
7. Look for other healthy recipes online, some website I use are http://skinnyms.com/ and http://healthylivinghowto.com/  here are two I found from the Mayo Clinic

• Quick Holiday Nog — Four bananas, 1-1/2 cups skim milk or soymilk, 1-1/2 cups plain nonfat yogurt, 1/4 teaspoon rum extract, and ground nutmeg. Blend all ingredients except nutmeg. Puree until smooth. Top with nutmeg.


• Desserts — Make a crust less pumpkin pie. Substitute two egg whites for each whole egg in baked recipes. Replace heavy cream with evaporated skim milk in cheesecakes and cream pies. Top cakes with fresh fruit, fruit sauce, or a sprinkle of powdered sugar instead of fattening frosting.

I hope you were able to find a few pointers to help in your holiday success, if you have other good ones let us know or leave a comment below!

Preparing for fall fitness, physique, and bodybuilding competitions

Competitors know that you are judged on your physique. Judging sheets often show comments like "bigger shoulders," "work on your abs," etc. Competitors work year around in the gym on improving, yet sometimes that one trouble area won't seem to build muscle or lean out.

There are many reasons for this, and sometimes this is due to a muscle imbalance. Many fitness and bodybuilding programs target the big muscles with movements like lateral shoulder raises, squats, and lunges. However, you also need good muscle activation and use of your stabilizing muscles in order to get the desired result from your lunges.

Here are a few videos that show gluteal (or "butt") activation exercises. Try adding a few at the beginning of your program (before you do those squats) today. See what you find over the next several weeks of incorporating these exercises and share your findings with us.

 

What kind of fitness classes take place at OSR?

Here's a quick of our small group Pilates equipment class and Personal Training at OSR Physical Therapy. Some classes and privates still have openings-contact us to check availability!

In the meantime, here's a quick tip on how to get the most of your crunches at home!

Would you like to share a question, observation, or idea? Leave us a comment!