Fighting The Holiday Fat

The Holidays are here, family parties, office parties, parties etc etc. These tips will help you avoid packing on the pounds during the Holidays…

1) Drink water before any party or family function. Drinking 4-5 glasses of water gives your stomach the illusion of feeling full and decreases your appetite.

2) Eat a heavy protein meal with veggies before you attend any party. This ensures your hunger has been satisfied and you will eat less junk at your future destination.

3) Portion control, a serving size should be able to fit in the palm of your hand. Try it all but in moderation!

4) Consumption order: As you sit down with your heaping plate eat your salad, vegetables and protein first. You will quickly begin to feel full and are less likely to finish the remaining high glycemic carbs on your plate.

5) Pick your poison: If you are going to eat big leave the alcohol out of the equation. Or viscus versus. The more you eat the more alcohol you can consume. Dangerous combo!!

6) Leave the leftovers. Moms and Grandmothers love to send us home with cookies, pies and leftovers. Say thank you but no thank you. Leave it!!!

7) Increase your Omega-3’s. If you know you are going to consume additional calories increase your omega-3 intake as much as 8-10,000mg per day via fish oil or flaxseed oil for optimal fat burning.

8) Brush your teeth right after you eat or keep minty sugarless gum in your pocket. Will help keep you from binging on more food.

9) Split desert with your partner or a family member. If no one to split with take half a serving.

10) Exercise on the day of a Holiday party: If you want to eat poorly then you need to earn it. Get your ass in the gym and get a hard HIIT cardio session and intense leg workout. Make those less than healthy foods work for you. Be the boss!!!

11) Do not starve yourself all day before a party. Get up, exercise and eat healthy all day. Do not send your body into shock by starving, then packing in tons of food, high in simple sugars sending it into storage mode. Keep it consistent!!

12) Choose lifting over cardio. The average moderately intense hour long lifting session can burn twice as many calories as a low intensity hour long cardio session over the course of the day. HIT THE WEIGHTS!!