5 Holiday Weight Loss Tips
For most people, this time of year is a joyous season where family and friends come together to celebrate. For many, the season begins with a Thanksgiving day feast and then turns into shopping with going out to eat at favorite restaurants. The after that the weeks for the biggest holiday of the year, Christmas Day are filled with additional shopping, eating out, microwavable meals, and of course, plenty of work, church, family mini-holiday parties.
This time of year is filled with joy and fun, and often accompanied with food. If you are trying to lose weight, or simply just keep yourself from gaining weight, here are five tips to help you keep weight off during the season (it should also help with New Year’s resolutions).
1. Make a plan
This is the only real time consuming item on this list, but is probably the most valuable. Making a plan, perhaps even writing it down, will provide you the greatest potential outcome. The plan should identify what you will do in various, predictable, circumstances such as:
- Thanksgiving dinner
- Work/Church/Social parties and celebrations
- Christmas Dinner
- New Year’s Party/celebrations
- Eating out
- Eating at home (by yourself or with family)
The plan should identify the foods you will permit yourself to consume under specific circumstances and in the volumes you are allowing yourself to eat the food. It should detail how you will respond to other people when asked why you are eating/not eating certain foods, or quantities of food.
2. Talk with someone about your plan – get them on board
After making a plan, tell someone who will help you succeed. This may be a family member, spouse, friend, or perhaps a health coach. This should be someone who will help encourage your successes, and lift you up. It should not be someone who doesn’t believe you’ll succeed, or someone who will likely would cause more harm than good by showing a lack of interest, or support. In short, be accountable to more than just yourself. Be accountable to someone you trust and will help you.
3. Set food aside for later
This should be a part of your plan. When eating out, or preparing food for yourself, decide how much you will eat before hand and set food aside at the beginning of the meal for later. So if you are at a restaurant, ask your waiter to provide a box at the beginning of your meal and set aside the food you will take home for later. The same concept can be used at home
4. Drink water, not carbonation or alcohol beverages
Everyone enjoys a good drink once in a while. However, there is a time and place, and if you want to lose weight or keep it off, carbonation and alcoholic beverages are typically not your friend
Your body needs to be well hydrated. G
ood hydration helps with increas.ing the body’s ability to process consumed food. Alcohol and Carbonation aid in the dehydration of the body. Additionally, most alcoholic and carbonated beverages have unnecessary calories which then requires your body to work more to remove.
If you think of your body as a machine, it needs fuel and lubrication to run. Your fuel should be appropriate for optimal output. The liquid you consume should aid in the natural ability for the body to function as a well oiled machine. You would not want to put bad fuel, or the wrong fuel, into your automobile otherwise it will stop working. Similar, the proper lubrication is necessary to keep your car running at peak performance. Bad lubrication, or incorrect lubrication will also result in your car not running. Your body is very similar.
Also, alcohol reduces the ability for a person to make fully rational decisions. When losing weight or trying to maintain current weight, alcoholic beverages may inhibit your pre-made plans for how to handle yourself in certain circumstances.
5. Eat smaller meals, more frequently
Keeping with the analogy of your body as an engine, the fuel you put into your body must be purposeful. If you eat the wrong food, your body will not process it in an undesirable method. A vehicle has a method for using only the gas/petrol necessary to move the vehicle forward at the desired rate of speed. There are protections to keep too much fuel from entering and causing problems. Your body has a similar method, but we don’t like it – its called cellulite. If you put too much food into your body, your body will process some, remove some, and store some.
Putting the right amount of food into your body, enough to tell your brain that your stomach is not empty (notice I didn’t say your stomach is full, or overly full – there is a difference), your internal engine will process the fuel more efficiently. Doing this more frequently throughout the day will allow your body to process the fuel more efficiently and effectively. Then keeping with the previous tip, keeping your body lubricated well enough throughout the day will help the natural process of digestion and energizing your body.
Use these 5 holiday weight loss tips this season
The 5 holiday weight loss tips above will help you be more 
successful at either losing weight or keeping undesirable weight off. If you’d like to learn more about a complete health solution that should help you learn more habits of health to help you achieve the healthy weight you desire, take a look at our review of Simple 2 Lose and Take Shape for Life.