With the holiday season coming, it’s easy to stress out about how you’re going to continue working toward your fitness goals and maintain your healthy diet. Much of what we do to enjoy time with friends and family during this time of year is centered around hearty eating. At Paru Fitness, we understand this and want to provide you with nutritional coaching tips to make sure that you’re still able to enjoy the holidays.

Drink water

If you’re worried about overeating during the holidays, continuing to drink water is a great way to curb your appetite. Staying hydrated is not only a great way to help ensure that you’re not eating too much and grazing, it also helps with your metabolism. This isn’t to say that you can eat as much as you want as long as you’re drinking water, but it does help to stimulate your body’s metabolic rate.

Continue to exercise

It’s easy to get out of the habit of exercising during the holidays because your regular schedule can get thrown off. Try your best to stick to your workout schedule so you can maintain the habit while burning the extra calories you’re probably going to eat at parties and other gatherings.

Eat slowly

It’s not unusual to be concerned about how much you’re eating at a dinner party. One way that you can help fill up without overeating is by chewing slowly. This makes it so that your stomach has time to fill up and let your brain know that you’re ready to be done eating. If you eat too quickly you’ll continue eating before your brain knows that you’re full. Not only will you end up eating more than you originally planned but you’ll probably feel sick as well.

Don’t go back for thirds

There’s nothing wrong with indulging during the holidays. You’re going to be with friends and family who want you to break bread with them and enjoy their company. However, you want to make sure you don’t overdo it. You can have one or two reasonably-sized plates of a delicious, seasonal dinner without going for a third and making yourself sick. To this point, you’ve worked hard to condition your body for a specified caloric intake each day so reverting to old habits of eating too much can either make you feel overly stuffed and sick.

Get enough sleep

If you’re traveling home for the holidays and spending time with friends and family members you haven’t seen in years, it’s easy to get caught up in the fun and spend every night out on the town or up talking about the old days. As much fun as this is, it can cut deep into your sleep schedule. Keep in mind that not getting enough sleep triggers the release of cortisol, which is a hormone that can cause cravings for sweet and salty foods. This isn’t conducive to trying to maintain a healthy diet at a time of year when it’s difficult as it is.

Don’t beat yourself up

You’re likely going to get to a point where you eat too much or skip a week of workouts. Don’t beat yourself up about it. Stay the course, keep a positive attitude, and keep working to get better. Nobody is ever going to be perfect about maintaining their workout routine. What’s important is that you don’t lose focus on your goals and what it takes to get there.

Contact us for more

If you’d like more nutritional coaching advice from our team at Paru Fitness, schedule a consultation. We can work with you to come up with a nutritional plan that’s sustainable through the holidays and beyond. You can give us a call at 702-582-7406 or send a message using our online contact form. We look forward to speaking with you.