I love what Kori Lyn Angers brings to the fitness and health table: motivation, determination and consistency.
She is amazing! She was featured once before as a guest blogger and she makes a return visit with this post on how to deal with the holidays and keep on your fitness routine.
Fitness Rules for the Holidays
By Kori Lyn Angers (Nov 2014)
For most of us, the holiday season is when we take on considerably more than we can handle ..kick a sprint to travel, bake, cook, organize, shop, attend to loved ones . . . . Oh yeah, and look good and enjoy ourselves somewhere in there, too.
The best way to deal with the Holiday Season is to look it in the eye for the monster that it is – then make friends with it and play nice. We cannot pretend that we are going to not eat any cookies, drink any eggnog or forego that late-night slice of pumpkin pie. We cannot fool ourselves that we are going to hit our bed time and our two-and-a-half-hour training sessions every day, skip those holiday parties and extended shopping trips to find that perfect gift.
The best way to handle this is come to terms: There will be workouts missed and diets botched here and there. But do not throw in the towel all together. It’s best to use this season as a maintenance phase, keep what you have worked so hard for, yet add a little fun and frolic here and there.
Priorities:
1) Get your sleep!
Sleep resets your hormones and keeps your emotions, hunger, and decision-making skills in check. With some quality sleep, you will be less likely to lose control with your diet. And it’s likely that you’ll have energy to fit in a workout.
Sleep Rules:
Shoot for seven to nine hours per night.
No alcohol three hours before bed.
Last caffeinated beverage six hours before bed.
2) Hydrate.
Keep drinking water. Keep a bottle in your car, desk, bag. The faster pace of this season and the likelihood of additional caffeine or alcohol intake increases the risk of dehydration. Even mild dehydration can lead to low energy and bouts of mid-day fatigue. This can be mistaken for hunger. Dehydration leaves your skin looking faded and can increase the appearance of wrinkles and cellulite. Ugh!
Bonus: Some studies have shown that drinking cold water increases thermogenesis (helps burn extra calories and fat) by 10-15 cals per 12 ounces.
Water Rules:
8-10 glasses a day
1 big glass upon waking
1 big glass before “eating events”
1 glass after each alcoholic beverage
1 big glass before bed
3) Nutrition: Keep it clean in-between.
Know when and where you are most likely to indulge. Take these moments and enjoy them. But in all the meals surrounding the festivities, keep as clean as you can. Differentiate between what you REALLY want and that random box of stale donuts someone brought to the potluck.
Nutrition Rules:
Keep all your healthy foods on hand (veggies, lean protein, nuts, fruit)
Make decisions ahead of time about which “cheater items” you want to allow, and when to say no.
4) Limit Booze.
Notice the word “Limit.” 😉 Put a mental number on the amount you will drink – at home? At a work event? Don’t go over that number.
Tips and tricks for limiting your booze-based calorie intake:
Order a drink that you don’t really love; one that you can sip slowly, rather than suck down.
Get to the bar first and ask the bartender to make you a “mocktail” every other drink (but don’t tell your friends.) This way you can be sipping on something and be clear of peer pressure.
Have a healthy snack before parties (Greek yogurt, a protein shake, an apple), so you do not show up too hungry and to keep from getting too drunk, too quickly.
4) Maintenance workouts: Keep your workouts short and sweet.
Opt for intensity over volume. Kick in a 20 minute interval workout rather than skipping out altogether because you can’t fit in a long run. If you are away from the gym, there are plenty of ways to get your resistance on using your own body weight. Classics like push-ups, pull-ups, squats, lunges, done at a slow pace (3 counts down, hold for 1 at the bottom and 3 counts back up, do 2 sets of 10-20)… kick anybody’s butt.
Here’s the minimum requirement for maintenance:
Cardio: 3x per week, at least 20 min per bout.
Strength can be maintained by doing resistance training 1x per week.
The holidays are a good time to mix it up, too. If you have the chance, snow- shoeing, cross-country skiing, alpine skiing, and skating are all great workouts that take you out of the usual grind and will refresh your mind.
How are you staying fit this holiday season? Share your own tips in the comments!
Kori Lyn Angers
Kori Lyn (Malyszek) Angers, BS Exercise Science, CSCS, USAW, FMS, Precision Nutrition, is a strength and conditioning expert dedicated to the science behind movement and achieving full performance.
Kori Lyn is a master instructor, Tier 4 personal trainer, club manager, and fitness education coordinator at multinational peak-performance fitness center Equinox. Kori Lyn has over a decade of experience with the celebrity clientele, the NFL, the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, Major Soccer League, individual Olympians, injured athletes, non-professional-athlete rehab patients, health and fitness enthusiasts, and others.
Kori earned a B.S. Degree in Kinesiology/Exercise Science from Cal State Fullerton, Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry from UC Davis and a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry from UC
Irvine. For more information, please visit http://fitbykori.com.
As a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, Kori Lyn has achieved the highest level of strength coach in the country, and is certified by the association that governs all professional and collegiate sports.
Follow Kori Lyn Angers on these social platforms:
My gratitude and appreciation to Kori Lyn Angers for this post. She is definitely highly qualified to write about this and I take her tips very seriously!
Stevie Wilson,
LA-Story.com
DEALS and STEALS
I am required to tell you that I am an “affiliate” with these brands. I curate deals that offer bonuses, bargains and great products –and some are very specifically for this site to feature to YOU!
The amount I make has yet to be determined that despite people going to visit the links (and it’s in the thousands every month), I have yet to have anyone buy anything from them.
Subscribe to RSS headline updates from:
Powered by FeedBurner
If you are going to feature content from LA-Story.com including podcasts or videos including the accompanying text, please respect copyright provisions. We require a notation of content origination (meaning credit tag), a linkback to the specific page & please email the link to stevie@la-story.com before the piece goes live.
LA-Story.com, LA-Story Recessionista, Celebrity Stylescope, Celebrity Style Slam Trademark/Copyright: KBP Inc./TNBT Inc 2007-16
The cocktail mixed with mocktail as a practice makes a better evening. I made bitters which are both yummy and medicinal. Sipping bitters and fizzy water helps prepare the digestion for the meal. All these are good suggestions, but the alcohol is the one so prevalent that it is hard to avoid without a plan.