Staying On Track Into The Holiday Season

Staying On Track Into The Holiday Season

November 12, 2017 // Wellness

Strategies For Prioritizing Health Principles While Enjoying Holiday Festivities & Celebrations.

Holidays are approaching in the next few weeks. This is the time of the year where most health pursuits subside and poor habits overtake our lives.

With this theme in mind, this article series is curated towards strategies and options available to help you maintain control and prioritize health principles while enjoying the celebrations and indulgences.

Why [Lack of] Sleep Can Make You Fat

“The connection between sleep and weight gain is hard to ignore. Research published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that people who are sleep deprived are a third more likely to gain 33 pounds over the next 16 years than those who receive just seven hours of sleep per night.”

In this excellent article by health expert Adam Bornstein, you’ll learn how being sleep deprived affects your hunger levels through two main hormones: Gherlin and Leptin. Being sleep deprived has been shown to increase appetite and decrease satisfaction from eating, with both factors contributing to weight gain.

The Take-Away: Stress is high at the end of the year. Make it a non-negoritable priority to sleep uninterrupted for 7 hours to preserve hormonal balance.

25 Ways To Eat Well On-The-Go

Traveling for work? Going on vacation? Running your kids from soccer game to violin practice? Being away from home is one of the most common nutrition challenges.

Precision Nutrition put together a beautiful infographic with 25 great strategies for eating on the run.

The Take-Away: Aim for better instead of perfect. The idea is to avoid the “F*ck It” trap of giving up completely.

My 2 Favorite
Winter Cardio Workouts

I am very picky when it comes to doing traditional cardio workouts.The thought of running in place on a moving belt or spinning the hamster wheel in cycling class highlights my desire for either time-efficient or easy indoor cardio workouts.

During the holiday season, time slips away from most people.
When you feel overwhelmed, call upon the infamous Treadmill Pushes to give you many benefits of intense exercise in less than 2 minutes.

How-To:
Push the treadmill belt as fast as you can for 15 seconds.
Rest 15 seconds.
Repeat 4 (or more) times.

That’s it!

My second favorite cardio workout is the easy, peasy Incline Treadmill Walking. This exercise is great for someone tired and low energy because of the low-intensity.

How-To:
Set the treadmill to the highest grade/incline (10-15)
Set the speed to a mild walking pace (2.0-3.0)
Walk with a short stride without holding on for 20-45 mins.

Easy, Peasy.

The Take-Away: There is always a way to sneak in a little exercise to keep everything under control.

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