 Morris County NJ Personal Trainer/ Nutritionist Shows You How To Survive Holiday Weight Gain!Here are six simple steps you can take to keep those extra holiday pounds off. As difficult as it is to resist all the temptations around you, there are several simple steps you can take to keep those extra holiday pounds off. Ready?
By: Shapes R In Fitness LLC 
Jose Here we go again! It’s that time of the year where we find ourselves attending an endless amount of parties and social gatherings, as we enjoy the company of family and friends surrounded by an enormous amount of food--The Holidays! By the time the holiday season is over, our scales reveal the painful truth of our additional weight gain. Thus, the cycle begins as we start the New Year overweight! In order to avoid this vicious cycle from occurring, I like to prepare my clients with a game plan. A month before the commencement of the holiday season, the game plan for each of my clients is to just keep at their current weight instead of focusing on losing weight. As difficult as it is to resist all the temptations around you, there are several simple steps you can take to keep those extra holiday pounds off. 1. Say “No” Politely! There have been numerous times when I felt obligated to eat just because people kept putting food in front of me and not because I was hungry. I have learned to say “No” politely in several different ways –“No thank you, I’ve had enough. Everything was delicious” or “I couldn’t eat another bite. Everything was wonderful.” Just try it! You’ll find that saying “no” isn’t as difficult as you thought it was after all. 2. Functionally Train Your Body Functional training emphasizes the use of full body compound movements to stimulate the fat burning and muscle building elements of your workout while providing a lot of fun and interesting new exercises for you to incorporate. 3. Never Go to a Party Hungry I always tell my client to eat before they go to a party. Eat a healthy snack such as a serving of a favorite fruit, fat-free or low-fat yogurt, whole grain granola bar, etc. Therefore, when they arrive at the party, they won’t be carving hors d’oeuvres. 4. Watch the Drinks Alcohol calories are lethal in that there are about 15 calories per gram of alcohol. So before you ask for your favorite drink, do the math. When restricting your alcohol intake to one or two servings, you also need to restrict the type of alcohol as well. For example, instead of drinking high fat eggnog, have a light beer or wine instead. Afterwards, stick with calorie-free drinks such as water, unsweetened ice tea, hot tea or coffee. 5. Focus on Socializing Don’t linger around the food table when you are at a party, focus your energies on making conversation with the other guests instead of focusing on food. Conversation has “no” calories. 6. Portion Control Your Food Throughout the Day Eating six servings of fruits before your holiday party is a great way to help fill up your stomach instead of your caloric level. Compared to snacking on chips, crackers and cookies; gram for gram, fruits and vegetables contain fewer calories and a lot more nutrients. In addition, the fiber in fruits and vegetables fills you up faster than snack foods. Make a pact with yourself that you will eat your “six-a-day” Holiday Foods You Need To Avoid: 1, Worst Holiday Drink: Eggnog At 350 calories and 19 grams of fat, eggnog—even without the alcohol—is on my “naughty list” because it consists of milk, cream and eggs. 2. Worst Holiday Entrée: Prime Rib This particular cut of meat comes from one of the fattiest parts of the cow, since it is obvious by the thick rim of fat you must saw through in order to get to the meat. Remember, you can pretty much guarantee that any time you see the word “prime; on a menu, you’ll be ordering an extra 50 to 100 extra calories easily. Beef tenderloin is just as tasty with just a small fraction of the calories and fat. 3. Worst Holiday Appetizer: Parmesan Breadsticks I consider Parmesan Breadsticks the worst offender. They seem innocuous and are a lot less messier to eat compared to other party foods. But think twice before you pick up one of these soft-baked breadsticks. Each breadstick contain between a 190 to 230 calories with 9.4 grams of fat. Just eating two breadsticks will do more caloric damage than eating a grilled cheese sandwich. 4. Worst Holiday Dessert: Pecan Pie a la Mode Although part of the 810 calories and 65 grams of fat comes from the healthy nuts it contains, the reality is that most of it comes from the corn syrup and sugar filling. Angel food cake is a better choice after eating a heavy meal since it’s made from egg whites and is virtually fat-free. Better yet, eat fruit! My Top 4 Healthy Holiday Drink Choices: • Dry champagne (look for wines labeled “brut”) • Dry white wine (sauvignon blanc, chardonnay) • Dry red wine (syrah, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon) • Light beer (such as Amstel Light) Top Holiday Entrée: Roasted Chicken with Lemons and Thyme I found this entrée choice from the Sephardic Jewish Cuisine during my trip to Spain a month ago. A simple seasoning consisting of lemon, paprika and thyme gives the chicken a Mediterranean flavor. The high-temperature roasting ensures a beautifully browned skin on the chicken. Topped with gravy, easily made form the drippings, makes this dish as a suitable weeknight family meal or as the centerpiece to a small dinner party. Top Holiday Appetizer: Pico de Gallo with Pita: This appetizer packs a lot of flavor while being a low fat choice. In addition, the tomatoes making up this appetizer are a very good source of Vitamins A and C. Recipe: Combine: 6 diced plum tomatoes ½ a cup of diced onions 3 tablespoons of chopped cilantro ½ a minced fresh jalapeno 1 minced clove of garlic Juice from a lime Add a dash of cumin seeds, salt and pepper to taste. Serve with baked pita chips. Make your own pita chips by splitting whole wheat pita rounds in half, resulting in two rounds each. Cut these rounds into six wedges. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 150 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 to 15 minutes until crispy. Peach and Blueberry Cobbler: With only 182 calories per serving: 8 g of fat (3 g mono), 11 mg cholesterol, 26 g carbohydrates, 3 g protein, 3 g fiber, 212 mg sodium and 140 mg potassium. It is quite clear why this dessert made my favorite choice for a holiday dessert. To learn more about the recipe and ingredients for this dessert, visit my recipe page at http://www.shapesrin.com/ So as you can see, living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t mean giving up on eating or enjoying the holidays. It all depends on you and the choices you make. Just stick with making healthy choices! Enjoy! Visit us At: http://shapesrin.com/ Join Over 12K followers At: http://twitter.com/ # # # Jose Fuentes/Master Trainer President Of Shapes R In LLC Founded On April 2003.The #1 Shed And Shred Personal Training System In NJ! With Over 2k success stories and life styles changed documented. His clients claimed he is a champion in getting results! www.shapesrin.com Photo: https://www.prlog.org/ End
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