Preparing for the holidays

Well Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming upon us very quickly and with those holidays, comes the four F’s and they are, family fun and festivities and one other things…lots of food. Now don’t get me wrong, eating with your family and your loved ones is a great thing and I am not trying to keep you from enjoying your time with them however, here are a few things that I want to share with you.

1) Statistics show that the average person after high school graduation gains about 1 pound per year and most of that weight is put on around the holidays. If you don’t believe me count the number of years from the time you were 18 until now. Now step on a scale. Read it and weep! Now this does not go for every person but for the average person it works.
2) Statistics show that more heart attacks and strokes occur during the holiday times
3) The average person consumes enough food so that if they were to try and work it off they would have to burn 5000 calories and that is only thanksgiving dinner
4) There are more turkeys killed at Thanksgiving than at any other time in the year (poor turkeys what did they do to us)
5) The average retailer looks for this time of the year because 40% of their revenue is made in just this next two months (amazing the deals you can get. Just goes to show you that during the year everything is marked up big time)
6) The average consumer does the majority of their purchases in retail stores in these next two months
7) The average man, if they are like me, spend less than 10 minutes doing their Christmas shopping (probably not true, but I know I do)
8) As we become lazier internet sales increase exponentially and every year.
9) Fast food restaurants located in malls do 60% of their business in just these next two months
10) The Green Bay Packers will repeat as Super bowl Champions next year 2012 (Just had to throw that in, sorry my New York friends, still love ya though)

Getting serious again, here are some helpful tips to keep those unwanted extra pounds off during the holidays.

1) When you go to do your shopping, walk and at a faster pace than normal. Get your heart rate up a little and why not kill two birds with one stone. Get your exercise in and shop at the same time. This will add new meaning to the term “shop till you drop”.
2) Be very mindful of what you are consuming daily and try this. Before eating or after eating instead of sitting around, immediately get some exercise
3) Remember you want to burn off at least what you have eaten
4) Stay away from the excess alcohol. I did not say do not drink. I said stay away from too much drinking
5) After your Thanksgiving and Christmas meals go for a fast pace walk and take your family and friends with you and enjoy each other’s company as you sweat those unwanted extra pounds away
6) If you find yourself at a mall park further away than you would normally. This will force you to at least walk a few extra steps before you walk into that fast food restaurant and order those cheeseburgers.
7) Watch your soda consumption. Soda is not filling and it was designed that way purposely. You need to be very mindful of this.
8) When you are watching television during the holidays at every commercial drop to the floor and do some sit-ups and or push-ups. You only need to do 10 reps each commercial and no you don’t need to drink a gallon of water after each set.

Here is a true story, one that just happened to me a few weeks ago. I had a person join membership at my gym. Now this person is grossly overweight and it is very noticeable. Every Tuesday they would get weighed in at Weight Watchers and she noticed that her weight was beginning to go up even more and just walking up the stairs was impossible. Well I started her on a low intense workout that even after 10 minutes on the treadmill she was done and she kept this workout up for the whole week. The next week she goes back to weight watchers and I just knew she was going to like the results. Well she comes back to me and tells me that she gains 2 pounds. TWO POUNDS! I thought to myself, “How can that be. She must be doing something and not telling me”.

Well for the next few weeks as I intensified her workout and she kept coming back to me and telling me that she was gaining weight. After a month of this I asked her to come into my office and have a little chat with me. As soon as she sat down, she started to cry and she told me that she has been working so hard and she asks me why she can’t lose any weight. I knew in my heart of hearts that she had to be doing something because she was so heavy that just walking in a circle should help her lose a few 20 pounds. I was getting as frustrated as she was until one day as we were talking she noticed that I was drinking some tea. She asked me how many cups of tea I drank a day and I told her that the tea I make in the morning lasts me all day and that is about 16oz. I followed up with my question to her, “So how much tea do you drink?” She them tells me that she drinks at least a gallon of coffee in the morning and a second gallon in the afternoon.

I looked at her and I think steam began to come out of me ears. I then asked her when she drinks this coffee and she tells me about an hour before she goes to weight watchers but after she works out. If my gym were on the third floor of a building I would have jumped out the window! There was the problem. She was sabotaging her own efforts. I told her this and now two weeks later she is down 30 pounds. Hello! How could she not know that? Well it doesn’t matter case solved.

Anyway back to the thought at hand…this year let’s be very mindful of our eating habits and let’s keep exercise at the forefront of our minds. Remember this… exercise makes the body and mind happy.