Holiday cakes, and cookies, and pies, and cocktails, and dressing and casserole and…does it seem like just reading the names of your favorite holiday foods makes you gain a couple pounds? Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve…the holidays cause many of us to eat a little too much, and to miss a few too many workouts.
Here’s what health and fitness pros have to say about simple tips that can help you burn off some of those celebratory calories.
1. Embrace Those Chores
The scenario: The holiday office party causes you to miss your yoga class, company’s coming tonight, and the house is a mess.
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“Housework is the best way to fit in a workout without even knowing it,” says Shannon Griffiths, group fitness director for Lakeshore Athletic Club in Boulder, Colo. Scrubbing, sweeping, vacuuming … they all burn calories.
Even cooking fires up the calorie furnace, says Griffiths, especially if you’re moving around the kitchen. So put on perky music and boogie down while you bake.
2. Shop!
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“I like to use shopping as exercise, too,” says Griffiths, who maintains that the best thing about going to the mall is all the walking. “That translates into a calorie burn.”
To maximize that burn, Griffith recommends carrying your own holiday packages, then unloading them after every stop.
“If you’re going to buy something at 10 different shops, go out to your car between each store,” Griffiths says.
To encourage yourself to make those multiple trips to the parking lot or to take the mall stairs instead of elevators, Griffiths recommends wearing a pedometer.
“A pedometer really encourages you to … get moving,” she says. “You have to go shopping, so you might as well get a workout as you’re doing it!”
Keep your pace brisk and you can burn 250-300 calories an hour.
3. Make Snow Your Ally
When it’s snowing, it’s time to bundle up and enjoy the free gym outside.
“The best calorie-burners are those that bring the heart rate up to a cardiovascular training zone,” says Julia C. Jackson, owner of Friends in Fitness Corporate Wellness and Personal Training in California. For most healthy people, the American Heart Association recommends an exercise target heart rate ranging from 50% to 75% of your maximum heart rate, which is normally calculated as the number 220 minus your age.
4. Walk
For most of us, walking is the easiest way to burn a few extra calories during busy times.
The trick (after a good warm-up) is to keep your pace strong, says Diane Proud, a running pro at the Cooper Fitness Center in Dallas. Try power walking, high-stepping, or climbing stadium stairs. According to Proud, such activities fire up major muscle groups like the quads and gluteals.
“Recruiting more muscle fibers during a workout is like stoking a fire … the embers burn for a longer period,” she says. That means even when you’re lounging by the fire later, you’ll still be burning away extra calories.
If you keep up a moderate walking pace, expect to burn 250-300 calories hourly.
5. Be Nice
Combine a few of our calorie-burning tips — shopping, cooking, walking — and do a good deed in the process.
You can gently increase holiday season activity, says Comana, by making goodies for your neighbors, then taking a brisk stroll around the neighborhood to drop off your homemade gifts.
Or burn about 700 calories an hour participating in a holiday fund-raising race, such as the Arthritis Foundation’s Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis, held in various U.S. cities in December.
Locate all kinds of races near you at www.coolrunning.com. Good deeds and a good body — what a gift!
6. Work It Out While You Sit
Every holiday includes downtime when family or friends gather around the television for a parade, a game, or a favorite old movie. Why not use that time to burn a few calories?
“Instead of sitting with your full butt on the couch, get to the end of your seat and bend your legs up off the floor, hands on the seat to give you balance, and do crunches,” says Nieca Goldberg, MD, chief of Women’s Cardiac Care at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.
Goldberg also recommends getting your triceps trim by doing dips off the edge of the couch (or airport seat), firming your thighs with seated leg lifts, and building biceps by grabbing a water bottle and doing curls.
7. Get More Motivated a Group
To keep her motivation at peak, Griffiths gets fired up with group fitness classes. “Being in a group can really help motivate you,” she says.
Gyms and rec centers offer all kinds of classes to choose from, from spinning, yoga, and aerobics to ballet, kickboxing, aquacising, and Pilates.
Want something more free-form? Get a group of friends and family to join you outside for an hour of making snow angels, sledding, searching for the last colorful leaves, hiking, or ice-skating.
A bonus: Workouts with loved ones not only keep everyone’s calorie counts in check, but exercising together can help build stronger relationships, too.
8. Pick a Plan, Any Plan
Just set a goal. Having a specific objective is a great way to motivate yourself, Griffiths says. Share your plan and goals with your primary care doctor.
“Set goals for how many workouts you want to get in during the week,” Griffith says.
Even if it’s fewer than you usually do during the rest of the year, be sure to reward yourself for meeting your objectives.
So How Much Exercise Do You Need?
Instead of tackling a weight loss regimen over the holidays, most experts suggest you simply aim for maintenance.
To stay in a steady weight state, get 30 minutes of moderate activity daily, says Jenny Graddy, coordinator of group fitness and wellness at University of Florida Recreational Sports in Gainesville, FL.
You can rack up that 30 minutes throughout the day, Graddy stresses. Go for a 10-minute walk in the morning, play actively with your kids in the afternoon, then walk the dog before dinner, and you’re there.
With the holiday hustle and bustle upon us, Griffiths reminds us that staying fit during this time is not as hard as you may think.
“Folks think they have to suffer to get fit, but they don’t,” she says. “They just have to get up and move!”
