Avoiding the "Holiday 5"

Americans have a very hard time keeping their weight under control around the holidays. The current weight gain statistics have the average somewhere around a staggering 5-8 pounds in less than a month! Starting at Thanksgiving, we indulge through New Year's Eve night, and wake up on the first of the year feeling terrible (and most likely hungover). Why does this happen? Most people see the holidays and the food and inactivity that comes with them as out of their control, or too hard to change. Soon, they've gained the unfortunate "Holiday 5" and resort to crash dieting practices.

Here are some easy ways to keep your weight, sanity, and most importantly HEALTH in check this holiday season.

1. Keep up with your workouts. Keeping your body moving will do wonders when your nutrition isn't what it normally is, and exercise has a way of promoting better nutritional decisions throughout the day. Plus, there's nothing like killing it at the gym to make you feel like you've really earned having a few of grandma's famous cookies, am I right?
2. Set a water goal for the day that you must meet before you indulge in any alcohol! Alcohol dehydrates you, so you can better avoid a terrible hangover by being hydrated before having any, as opposed to having to play catch-up later. For example, if I am going to have a glass of wine with dinner or dessert, I will only do so if I've gotten my daily gallon in for the day!
3. Limit alcoholic beverages per gathering. If you have Christmas Eve, Christmas day dinner, and an ugly sweater party to hit three days in a row, chances are there will be alcohol, sweets, breads...etc. All you need is a small plan for what you're going to have and when. This is NOT to say don't enjoy and indulge with family and friends; rather that you don't need to have 4 glasses of wine every day and night for a week! In addition to the calories from alcohol itself, you're less in control over what you eat while you're drinking.
4. Bring healthy snack foods with you to replace cookies, fudge, and other sweets that may be out. Cut up some veggies or bring a bag of berries with you so you can make the healthier choice and not feel guilty when you want to get seconds at dinner! Plus, snacking on veggies will fill you with fiber, which has been proven to keep your cravings in check.
5. Don't arrive to the gathering hungry! Eat a small meal or snack before heading out, and you'll be less likely to binge on what's in front of you later. A problem that many people have is holding out on what they eat throughout the day leading up to an event, so by the time they get there they're ravenous! Eat multiple small healthy meals throughout the day and keep your metabolism in check.
6. Distract yourself from the food table. Join a conversation or set up a puzzle table with people in another room so you aren't all standing over the food, and chances are you'll enjoy talking so much that you won't feel the need to add food to the equation!
7. Eat more slowly. Studies have shown that when people try and cram their meal into a shorter time frame, like saying "I'll only eat for a half an hour and then I'm done" eat MORE because they eat more quickly and their bodies aren't able to identify with being full as quickly. A great way to start is by putting your utensil down in between each bite.
8. Skip the sauces. Adding gravy, butter, and extra chocolate sauce to your already higher calorie meals is a recipe for feeling guilty and sluggish later. You can easily cut out 500 calories per day by simply not adding anything to what you have on your plate! Yes you're already indulging, but that doesn't mean you have to force yourself into eating everything you possibly can.
9. Start an active holiday tradition like a family walk after dinner, or a game of twister while you're waiting for the food to finish cooking. Getting everyone off of the couch and burning some calories will make everyone feel better and more in control.
10. Use smaller plates. Simply having less area to fill will force you to not only eat less, but choose your foods more wisely!

I hope you all have Happy Healthy Holidays!

♥MK

Beat the Bloat!

We've all been there; had a little too much to eat and drink, not enough sleep, and even though a ton of FUN, we're feeling the effects of whichever event or holiday we just celebrated.
So now what? Instead of standing and staring at our watery faces and bellies in the mirror (guilty), here are some tips to get you over the water-retention hump and on your way back to your pre-holiday body!

1. Drink more water! Seems counter-intuitive right? But drinking more water allows your body to excrete more water through excretion, thereby ridding you of the water "retention". In addition, water helps to flush your kidneys, digestive system, and hydrate your body, thereby allowing your metabolism to function more effectively. Especially if you've overindulged a bit in the sweets department, you may notice your skin tone and complexion suffer as a result. Want to know what helps clear skin up? WATER. Alright I think you get it.
2. Get your sweat on! Sweating is a way of "evaporative cooling" which allows your body to regulate its own temperature. In order to sweat, your metabolism is most likely in a higher than normal state since a higher metabolism usually results in a higher resting body temperature. Not only does sweating get your heart rate up, but it helps you get rid of sodium that is also being retained under your skin. Ever wondered why your sweat tastes salty? You were retaining sodium! A great way to sweat a little harder is to sit in the sauna. Use caution when using a sauna however, because you will also sweat out some essential vitamins and electrolytes, so supplement with a daily vitamin and bring water in there with you!
3. Lower your sodium intake for a day or two! Replace it with other spices such as garlic, ginger, black pepper, etc...Mrs. Dash has a great line of sodium-free spices!
4. De-stress! Take a long soak in an epsom salt bath, burn a soothing candle, have a Netflix marathon...whatever it is that gets your mind to stop racing. When your stress levels are high, so are your cortisol (stress hormone) levels, and higher cortisol levels are correlated with higher water retention, specifically in the "midsection".
5. Eat/drink more fiber! Fiber cleanses your intestinal tract and keeps things running smoothly, further aiding in the removal of any excess fluid!
6. Cut out alcohol. Alcohol is a diuretic, meaning it causes you to urinate, often excreting more water than the beverage itself contains. This puts your body in a dehydrated state, and a dehydrated body desperately tries to hold on to any water you give it...leading to bloating!
7. Last but certainly not least, don't go to extremes with your diet! Get back on track, but don't cut out huge chunks of calories or only drink vegetables in order to slim down quickly. Your body is already trying to combat something "not right", so don't make it try to understand yet another change! Just take a deep breath, give yourself a break, and start fresh!

Here's an illustration of what my post-Thanksgiving "transformation" looked like. No I didn't look terrible on the left, but my face says it all; I was unbelievably uncomfortable (stomach discomfort/rumbling, constant feeling of fullness...etc.)
All I did was hit the gym, increase my veggie and water intake a bit, and get back to my "normal" daily meals pre-feast. Two days later, back to normal!

Myth of "toning"

The number one thing I have clients tell me they want to get out of their training sessions: get more "toned".
While this has become an everyday word in the fitness world, it is misleading.

First of all, your muscles either shrink (from inactivity) or grow (from resistance training). Decreasing overall body fat percentage will lead to more defined muscles, because your muscles will be more apparent when they have less fat covering them. This is not "toning"; you are just exposing the muscle that you already have.
In addition, your muscle shape is largely genetically-based. You're born with it. That doesn't mean there's no hope for you, it just means that doing 1,000 crunches everyday isn't going to give you differently SHAPED abs. That's why when some people have abs they are a "six-pack" and others have more of a hard, flat stomach with little cross-cutting. Either way, you won't see definition through your midsection unless the body fat that is there decreases.

Another really important clarification: your body doesn't spot reduce. Doing ab exercises everyday doesn't mean that your body is going to use that calorie deficit you put it in to reduce your abdominal body fat. Your body is (unfortunately) going to do whatever the hell it wants. Again, largely because of genetics. So even if you're doing more crunches than you are lunges, your body may lose fat from your legs before it does your abdomen...and for your workout buddy it could be the exact opposite! This is why it's so important to focus on overall muscle building and fat loss, not "toning".

Knowing this, it's best to focus on HOW to lose that body fat, build muscle, and uncover those shapely muscles you already have, or are currently working to develop.
8-12 reps is ideal for muscle growth (aka "hypertrophy"), although there are many different opinions on rep ranges. One thing fitness professionals do agree on, though, is that the high rep, low weight or even body weight workouts that claim they will help you "tone"...are BS. What is doing 25 crunches, 20 air squats, 15 burpees, and 10 pushups going to do for you? CARDIO, that's what.You may feel tired after completing one of these fad Pinterest-y workouts, but it's not going to do much for your muscle shape or size.
Generally, I do either 3 sets of 10 reps, 3 sets of 8, 4 sets of 8, or 4 sets of 6. This obviously varies depending on the exercises being performed.
If you're looking to decrease body fat, HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is a great way to go because it is a more intense, but shorter workout that utilizes both oxidative and anaerobic/ATP-PCr systems. (This is generally done in repeating intervals of 30 seconds high intensity and 1:30 of moderate intensity for about 20 minutes.)

THINK FAT LOSS, NOT WEIGHT LOSS!

A myth that goes hand in hand with this, is that women who lift weights will get "bulky" and look "manly". This is just. not. true. Seriously ladies...DO NOT BE AFRAID OF THE WEIGHT ROOM! Weights are going to give you those "toned" muscles, sexy curves, and ABS. Women just don't have the hormones necessary to bulk up like men do who lift unless they are eating a HUGE surplus of calories in order to purposefully gain that weight.

I did this in only 10 months by lifting heavy A$$ weights and barely doing any cardio. Just cleaned up my diet, and hit the weight room! I promise...weights are your friend.


♥MK