Holiday Super Feature: Staying In Shape Over The Holidays!

We at Bodybuilding.com are serious about getting the best and most relevant information to you this holiday season. Here are a few tips!

We have put together this super feature so you can find all of our holiday related material in one easy to find location. Check it out now and stay healthy!

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

The holidays are a time when we give; we share, socialize, and unfortunately loosen our belts. Generally, we are not loosening our waist band due to our patterned relaxation techniques; it has something to do with the breaded starter, our stuffed main and devious dessert.

The environment in which the Thanksgiving feast circles around is one that doesn't sit too comfortable with our training and nutritional hopes. Your invited family and friends generally bare gifts that have more calories than Willy Wonka's residence and your training program is lost within deep dark holes of T.V., reclining sofas, beers and general entertainment.

Oversized courses and enough leftovers for the following days are enough for you to throw your hands up and say "I will get back on track in the new year..." Stop!! The main problem with the holiday season is that it is all to easy to procrastinate and postpone.

When Mr. Halloween hooks up with his cousins, Mr. Thanksgiving and Father Christmas to see in the New Year's celebration, the odds of exercise and diet survival are stacked against you.

Holiday Tips To Stay In Shape

  • Create a plan ahead of time.
  • Don't put your fitness goals on hold.
  • On the day of a party, be sure to eat regularly all day long.
  • Schedule your workouts.
  • When at a party, start by eating some of the healthy offerings.
  • Avoid wasting calories on alcoholic beverages.

DIET

Those trusty nutrition-filled Tupperware containers that have watching your every move throughout the year doesn't have to be your embarrassing sidekick at the holidays. You can make the healthy transition to your dinner plates providing you don't make any sudden moves.

Whilst I am not saying you should remain on a meticulous diet throughout Thanksgiving, there is nothing wrong with tempting some healthy substitutes towards your impatient cutlery. Turkey without the skin, baked potato instead of mashed and protein bar can all be friends to your figure whilst tickling your taste buds in a social environment.

Grazing at frequent intervals throughout the day can assist with steady sugar levels and help prevent any sudden crashes. Sugar cravings and overeating at meal times can be minimized by taking these thoughts into practice.

If you aren't a creative mastermind behind the apron, we have them on hand for you. Here are some great healthy holiday recipes that will more than likely get the whole family craving a curious nibble. Check out these great alternative dishes that will prioritize your taste buds along with your abs.

Top Diet Methods

  • Eat tasty/healthy recipes.
  • Eat small and frequent meals.
  • Protein bars make great snacks.
  • Use protein pudding as a desert.
  • Eat good fats to curb cravings.

TRAINING

Lifting heavy objects over your head during the holidays can be as enticing as having Mr. Lector and Charlie Manson as your accompanying dinner guests. You don't have to train on the days of the holidays to best utilize your preventive measures, but training around them can work almost as well. Preparing your day off from your resistance ritual or from your cardio crash course should be done well in advance.

If you don't prepare, prepare to fail. The day prior to the holiday can involve your normal exercise procedure, and if you failed to read the rest of this Super Feature and gluttony found it way to your guilt, then the day following will need to be spent at the grueling grindstone also.

There are so many small tweaks and nicks that can keep your fat-burning furnace firing on all cylinders if you do some form of exercise on or around the holidays. Here are just a few examples that will make this job as easy as the one provided for Craig Titus's prosecution team. LOL

Top Training Methods

  • Use a jump rope at home.
  • Walk for 10 minutes before dinner.
  • Play a physical game.
  • Involve family and friends to make it fun.
  • Train legs the day before thanksgiving.

MOTIVATION

Everyone can make it through the plain sailing part of their nutritional and exercise goals, but it is the winners that make it through the battle field of firearms that shoot temptation and deprivation at us like a loose cannon.

If exercising and dieting throughout the holidays were meant to be easy, there wouldn't be half as many of you reading this article and there would be many more sets of abdominals wavering for attention. Simple solutions such written goals and photographed reminders of yourself scattered around your home can be just some of the supporters needed to get us through this time of need.

This is a challenge, life is faced with them and this is only one. The great attribute that you can donate to overcoming this challenge is... you can control it.

Top Motivational Methods

  • Watch an inspirational movie.
  • Try a new workout.
  • Assign someone to be accountable to.
  • Imagine the cardio needed to burn off over indulged meals.
  • Frequently look at a picture of a body that inspires you.

BODYBUILDERS GIFT GUIDE

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There are some universal bodybuilding products that nearly every bodybuilder would appreciate though! This page will highlight a few of them so you can make a quick and easy purchase that we know they will love. We ship by Priority Mail which usually takes about 2 - 3 days for delivery. We will get it there in time for Christmas!

7 Great Gifts To Give