The holidays are here. On one hand we are joyous and happy; on the other the stress starts to bubble up from our gut to our head and back to the gut again.
I say enough.
Enough worrying about what we eat. Enough about when we eat it. Enough fretting about scheduling workouts. And enough stressing about skipping them.
While there is no “Get Out of Jail Free” card for three pieces of pie and four trips back to the buffet, we all need a break from the pressure of perfection. “All things in moderation” is the key. This includes food, drink and, especially, stress.
Holidays are for relaxing, enjoying special foods, visiting friends and family, reconnecting and reassessing the old year while looking forward to the new one.
Myths abound about weight gain and the frantic dissolution of our exercise intentions. Don’t buy them. Let’s instead look at options that are more about the quality of life than the quantity of stuff and stuffing.
The amount of weight the typical adult gains over the holidays has been exaggerated. According to a New England Journal of Medicine study published in 2000, the usual gain is just over a pound. The people who tended to gain more are those who are already in the obese category. The big problem is the failure to lose that pound-plus in the new year. After a decade or two of accumulating a little and letting it stay year after year, the pounds add up.
Keep moving
The No. 1 way to keep creeping weight from moving in permanently is to be active. All year long.
“People who reported being much more active maintained their weight and even lost weight during the holidays. Those who reported less activity gained the most,” wrote Dr. Jack Yanovski, head of the Unit on Growth and Obesity for the National Institutes of Health, in a report last month.
Start your day with some simple stretches, get your friends together for a walk around the mall, do push-ups and crunches during TV commercials, walk the concourse at the airport and be aware of creeping stress so that mindless eating does not become an established pattern.
And don’t neglect your sleep. “People often turn to food for energy when what they really need is rest,” says Suzanne Schlosberg, freelance fitness writer and author of such books as “The Ultimate Workout Log” and “Fitness for Dummies.”
The meal plan
When it comes to dining, don’t save up all day before a big celebratory dinner or party, says Tara McLaughlin, president of Strategic Health Initiatives in Denver. “I am thinking that maybe four to five small meals throughout the day is a good plan,” she says. “Then we won’t feel as inclined to eat so much at one sitting, and we can more thoroughly enjoy family and the food at the table.”
If smaller meals eaten throughout the day are not possible then try small plates, serving spoons, and bowls. “Just doubling the size of someone’s bowl increased how much people took by 31 percent,” said researcher Brian Wansink, who led a study published in September, 2006 in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine. “We also saw that giving people a scoop that was a little bit larger increased things by about 14.5 percent.”
Linda J. Buch is a certified fitness trainer in Denver; linda@LJbalance.com
