The holiday season is filled with unhealthy foods that seem too good to pass up. However, weight loss doesn’t take a break during the holidays. People need to find ways how to boost weight loss for the holidays. This way, they can enjoy the season and not stress about the scale.
Learning how to boost weight loss for the holidays is a great way to make sure you won’t need to work as hard come January. There are statistics that show people want to lose weight immediately after the holiday season.
For example, 12% of gym membership sign-ups happen in January every year. That means 12% of all sign-ups throughout the year at every gym are in January. We can dive even deeper into these stats as well.
Did you know that 48% of people are making weight loss their New Year’s resolution? Almost half of the world is concerned about their weight when it comes time to look at their lives and make a change.
The desire is there, and the holidays make it even worse. The holiday season is filled with delicious foods that smell and look fantastic, and some might even be family traditions.
However, making the recipe, a tradition doesn’t mean it is inherently healthy. There are such things as cheat days, and they can easily be mapped out for the holidays.
But we can also use a two-pronged attack to make sure we don’t end up as part of those statistics. We can organize our cheat days properly, and we can learn how to boost weight loss for the holidays.
How to Boost Weight Loss for the Holidays | Plan Ahead
Obviously, the first thing we need to do is plan ahead. We will want to plan out as many healthy meals as possible for the weeks of the holidays. For example, we know Thanksgiving is an eating holiday that falls on November 24th.
We can plan to eat as healthy as possible the week of the 24th and the week after. This will allow you to cheat on Thanksgiving and not throw yourself so far off track that you find it pointless to get back on.
You can also make sure that you eat as well as possible on the holiday without passing on the stuff you love.
Fill Up on Health
Speaking of eating as well as possible on the holiday, fill up on healthy foods first. For example, we serve ourselves a plate of turkey, mashed potatoes, roasted veggies, and green bean casserole, then smother it in gravy with some cornbread on top.
Start eating the roasted veggies first, and then the green bean casserole, then the turkey, and lastly, the mashed potatoes. Ultimately, the goal is to fill yourself up before you get to the really unhealthy parts of the meal.
You will end up eating less of the unhealthy stuff and more of the healthier things.
Don’t Overeat
Learning how to boost weight loss for the holidays is not about increasing the amount of weight you lose. Instead, we are trying to find ways to make sure we stay on track with our weight loss but still enjoy the season.
We should know our limits a bit better. You know that time of the meal when you’re like, “I am getting full, but it’s so good, so I am going to finish the plate.” so we finish it all?
That is the point when you should stop eating. That’s not to say you can’t return to the plate later. Instead, use this time to get up and walk a bit. The goal should be to take a 20-minute break from eating and sitting before finishing the plate.
Increase Physical Activity
Sitting and eating is not a good way to spend any day. Learning how to boost weight loss for the holidays has some hard stuff as well. So far, everything has been pretty simple, and anyone can do them.
But this one is going to require a bit more discipline. Think about your workouts and your workout schedule. Is there a workout that can be lengthened? Is there a day when you can add another workout?
These are the questions we should be asking and answering. Increasing the workout by just 10 minutes will make a difference. You can also take your normal rest days and move them around the week of the holiday.
The goal should be to make the holiday your off day. This will increase your weight loss during the holidays and allow you to indulge a little more.
Back on Track
There is an interesting idea that habit is the best tool to use for losing weight and staying healthy. You are less likely to skip a workout if it is part of your routine and more likely to choose healthy food if it becomes a habit.
Unfortunately, we lose that habit during the holidays because of, well, life, especially life during the holiday season. We throw ourselves so far off track that we don’t bother trying to get back on track until after the holidays.
We tell ourselves it is just a few months; we can make it through and start again in the new year. But that is what leads to the statistics mentioned earlier. Instead, we should force ourselves to get completely back on track right after the holiday.
You should switch back to your normal cheat days, normal workouts, and normal routines starting November 1st, November 25th, and December 26th. This will help make sure we don’t need a reason to boost weight loss after the holidays.
Instead, we made it through the holiday season unscathed.
