Holiday Pounds? Tips to Get Back on Track at Her Active Life

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Holiday Pounds? Tips to Get Back on Track

Posted December 31, 2007 at 06:00 PM by Shannon Clark

Section: Her Fitness, Her Health, Her Nutrition, Healthy Eating

Christmas Cookies With the holidays now past, you may be stepping on the scale and finding the number a little higher than usual. Rather than letting this send you into a spiral of despair, take hold of how you react - a moderate amount of holiday weight gain is nothing to be stressed over.

Want to get back on track? Here’s what you need to do.

First, Realize Some Of It Is Only Water

This is going to be particularly the case if you had been restricting your eating before the holiday started, maybe hoping to ward off weight gain before it began. However, when you’re dieting like this, your body starts to run low on stored muscle glycogen (the storage form of carbohydrates in the body). The more depleted these stores get, the less water you retain.

Upon eating a great deal more carbohydrates than normal (which you likely did over the holiday season), your body will retain a great deal more water as well. This in itself can easily add 5-10 pounds over the course of a two day, all out, high carbohydrate feast.

Luckily for you, if you return to your normal eating habits, within a few days this water weight will be gone and you will find that scale digit dropping, as well as the bloating you might have experienced.

Don’t Go Cardio Crazy

While your first thought might be to head over to the treadmill and put in a good two hours of frenetic sprinting, please refrain from doing so.

While you can, and should, do some cardio, why not start on the weights? Make this New Year’s resolution to get on a good strength-training program. This type of fitness training will increase your metabolism, change your body, and offer you strength and long-term health benefits.

Give Yourself Time - Avoid Panicking

The less you panic, the less stress you will feel and the less likely you’ll start emotional eating or lose enthusiasm for fitness. Keep in mind that you can’t lose weight or tone up in a day, but if stick with better eating habits, and stay motivated to avoid missing your workouts, you’ll be back to fighting form in no time!

So, whether you’ve gained 2, 5, or 10 pounds this holiday season, don’t fret. Instead, stay positive and enjoy exercise and healthy eating. Soon, you’ll be back to your old, lower-stress, fit ‘n’ sassy self again.