Plan for a healthy holiday

How do we keep holiday weight gain at bay? The simple answer is to move more, eat less (or better)! However, nothing is very simple right now. Will your gym be open? Will you want to go if it is? Can you make it there, with kids e-learning and their sports and you working from home? Can you find a virtual class that fits your schedule? Is it too cold for outdoor classes?

We are living in a very strange time where we don’t know what life will look like week-to-week. How do you plan to be successful if you don’t know what to plan for? My advice is to plan for the worst and hope for the best.

Let’s figure out how you can exercise if you are unable to do it outside or in a gym setting, you have no equipment at home, and you can’t find any organized classes that fit your schedule. How can you keep yourself motivated?

Here’s how:

Make a plan and put it in writing. What you will do each day, and how and when will you do it. The more details you put down, the better. Add it to the family calendar, right next to your zoom meetings, etc. This is just as important as all those other things because it will help you be healthy, happy and able to handle whatever life throws at you.

Here is a very general at-home program example, and how to lay it out for the week:

• Monday 6:00 am: 30-minute Bodyweight HIIT Circuit

• Tuesday 5:30 am: 45-minute Bodyweight Strength video on YouTube

• Wednesday 6:00 am: 30-minute yoga video on YouTube

• Thursday: 5:30 pm: 60-minute walk with the family, bundle up!

• Friday 6:00 am: 30-minute Bodyweight HIIT Circuit

• Saturday 8:00 am: 45-minute Bodyweight Strength video on YouTube

• Sunday 4:00 pm: 60-minute walk with the family, bundle up!

Here is an example of a Bodyweight HIIT Circuit that you could incorporate:

Warm-up by completing some stairs, bodyweight squats, and marching in place. Complete each set (1) as many times through as you can in 5 minutes, then move on to the next (2), etc.

1a. 10 lunges each leg 1b. 20 jumping jacks (or modified jumping jacks) *repeat for 5 minutes 2a. 7 push-ups 2b. 10 squat jumps (or squats) * 3a. 10 situps 3b. 15 plank jacks (in a plank position, jump feet out and in) * 4a. 10 tricep dips 4b. 5 burpees (or walking burpees) * 5a. 10 ab bicycles each leg 5b. 10 mountain climbers each leg *

Other ways to burn calories

Other than full-blown scheduled workouts that are important for your health, there are lots of ways you can incorporate movement throughout your day, as well. Exercising for one hour and then sitting for eight hours straight is not a great ratio. Not everyone has a job where they can get up, or walk away from their work for a few minutes every hour.

How about walking around the house, or the office or your workspace while you are on phone calls? Could you do five push-ups or burpees each hour (ish) when you have a lapse? Could you take the stairs instead of the elevator? How about calf raises at your desk? Squats while you brush your teeth? You get the idea. These all seem like such little things that you may wonder why you would bother. However, it is almost always the little things adding up that get us our results.

Molly Nevins, ACSM HSF, is a longtime contributor to Healthy & Fit Magazine. Check out her Facebook page at: facebook.com/molly.fit