Holiday Fit: Why Wait Till January?

          During this time we celebrate the season, create memories with family and friends, and enjoy a rest from the madness of work and our typical routine. However, this break from the ordinary can be detrimental to our health and fitness by introducing bad habits and creating a health “debt” for the New Year. A few facts are provided below to put everything in perspective:

          Health Debt = Weight gain (from fat) + reduced cardio fitness + decline in muscular fitness + increased stress levels + a sedentary lifestyle.

Weight Gain:

          We all joke about gaining 4 or 5 pounds during the holiday season, but let’s break it down. 1 pound of fat = 3,500 calories; 3,500 X 5LBS = 17,500 stored calories! That means that it would take you literally 35 workout sessions, assuming you burn 500 calories per exercise bout, to shed holiday bulk. This concentrated physical activity must be paired with a calorie correct diet just to recover. Before you dig in this year, ask yourself if it is worth spending at least a month, possibly more, merely to return to your pre-holiday shape.

Reduced Cardio Fitness:

          Studies show that it takes a minimum of 3 cardio sessions per week to improve and retain cardio fitness numbers. Sadly, the time and work you have invested this year by adhering to that number can rapidly diminish after only a couple of weeks of being sedentary. Fitness will literally dissolve if you let it! In other words, if you are finally feeling in shape, not getting winded, and continually looking for more challenge in each workout, you can expect to feel sluggish, lethargic, and depleted by the end of the holiday season. Who wants to start out the year feeling like a slug?

Muscular Fitness:

          Similar to cardio fitness, your body’s skeletal muscle system requires a minimum of 2 days a week of structured strength training to retain and improve its composition and function. It is widely known and continually validated that muscular fitness impacts your ability to move, carry out activities of daily living, burn calories, retain healthy bone density, avoid and recover from injury, and overall functional capacity. Yet, declines in muscular fitness (deconditioning) are evident as early as 2 weeks after you cease training. That means that all of the benefits you are enjoying now could be gone by the end of holiday festivities if you aren’t working out.

Increased Stress Levels:

          With holiday fun and revelry comes heightened stress, and resultantly this means that you will store fat, feel horrible, and engage in unhealthy activities to self-medicate. The endorphin release you typically derive from cardio and weight training are not present, so you will naturally crave the endorphins found in chocolate and certain other foods. The only way to decrease these stress levels is to engage in activities that restore the balance by managing and releasing stress. By continuing to exercise during the holidays, you will feel better, and you will instantly improve your chances of actually enjoying the season!

Sedentary Lifestyle:

          Arguably, one of the most detrimental, unhealthy, and unnatural behaviors known to modern man is a chronic lack of physical activity. Why? Simply put, humans are designed physiologically to move. Our fitness and health declines almost exponentially if we do not, and our capacity to function and exist independently diminishes as we age. If you invest in exercise and a highly active lifestyle throughout the year, why set a negative trend for yourself? Why set a precedent of not moving? Yes, routines are thrown off and exercise is inconvenient, but the consequences of not being active for even a couple of weeks are far worse than the “inconvenience” of a morning jog or midday walk. I’ve heard it put that you become what you train for. If you train like a sprinter, you will begin to perform like one. If you train like a swimmer, you will begin to look like one, as your body attunes itself to your lifestyle. Well, if you train like a couch potato, you will perform and look like one, without a doubt.

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

          Stick to a program. Don’t necessarily train your hardest, but stick to a routine that will promote the retention of your current fitness level.

          Buy cheap, portable exercise equipment (like elastic bands) that can be carried out of town or keep making time to go to the gym during the holidays.

          Be careful to watch the quantity of foods you eat, while allowing yourself simultaneously to have some treats.

          Drink lots of water and avoid over consumption of high sugar drinks (hot chocolate, egg nog, punch, etc.) or alcoholic beverages.

          Don’t put out candy or snack type foods at your house. You and everyone else will eat them! I know I do!

          Exercise on every major holiday. Who says you can’t work out on Thanksgiving? It’s your life, your health, and your body. Don’t’ watch football—play football or take a family walk. Great memories can be forged doing active things.

          Remember what your current fitness goals and values are. Holding yourself to a standard will liberate you from having to overindulge to feel festive.

          Also, remember that the holidays are about family, friends, faith, memories, service, charity, and so much more—NOT food!

          Devote thought and conversation to the New Year and what your goals are NOW. Determine where you improved and what kept you from improving in the past year/s. Goal-setting now will make temptation easier to overcome, and when the New Year comes, you will be able to hit the ground running—instead of limping!

Have a Happy Holiday Season!

-Andrew Kurek

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