7 Tips to Stay Fit During the Holidays!

Pssst...Don't wait until New Years to reach your fitness goals! This year, lets stay fit during the holidays!  All you need to trim your waist before you trim your Xmas tree is a Fitness Hooping Kit and a few of our go-to tips for giving yourself the gift of health and fitness! There's no time of year like the holiday season!  Whether it's spending more time with friends and family (in my family that means monopoly nights that sometimes include tequila!), traveling to exotic places, sharing gifts, feeling gratitude, or honoring tradition, the holidays are an in-your-face excuse to enjoy life. Then there are the other markers of the holiday season... pants digging into my waistband (or my unbuttoned jeans with a long shirt to hide!), food comas, the climbing numbers on my scale, followed by frantic New Years resolutions. The feeling of losing control of my personal fitness around the holidays can get so intense that it gets in the way of being in the moment and enjoying time with friends and family.... Fifteen pounds into my weight loss journey, I am seeing and feeling the results, and this year I have committed to creating a new holiday experience for myself.  Six weeks of questionable holiday sweets and treats could be enough to set me back right to where I started! Below are some of my tips, as well as some of the best tips I've found that I would like to share with our hooping community because we are not only bound by our shared love of hooping, we are bound by our commitment to health, happiness, and well being.

• Think 90/10: Don’t deprive yourself completely, or your holidays will be miserable.  Aim to eat healthy 90% of the time and then look at your “treat” foods as something to really savor and enjoy in moderation. (from the The Calorie King)  For me, this means treating myself- just not treating myself so much it's not a treat anymore. (aka stuffing will not be my main food group).

• Slow Down:  Practice slowing down when you eat.  Savor your food and learn to recognize the signs that you feel full and stop when you do.  Take some time out to think about your journey towards healthier living and visualize your goals. (also from the The Calorie King) Recently an acupuncturist told me to chew 50 times, which seems like a lot, until realized that I was literally swallowing my food whole! Try starting with 25 chews and you'll be amazed at the difference!

•  Be the Crazy Hoop Lady...in a good way! If you are going to bring hoops to the party then bring multiple hoops to share with friends (cause we all know crazy cat ladies have more then one cat). Get your friends and family outside hooping with you. By disguising fitness as fun with family and friends you won't feel like you're missing out on the party!

• Get enough sleep. Holidays can be a stressful time with work parties, family gatherings, and other functions.  This extra stress can have serious affects on your sleep habits.  Little sleep can contribute to increased appetite and weight gain, so aim for 7-8 hours per night. (From the Nutrition Expert) I LOVE this tip, if there is one thing that triggers me to overeat it’s lack of sleep... Nothing like a good nights sleep to make better food choices. 

• Hoop between courses! One of the most powerful things about Hooping is the way that it helps you to be present in your body. (The hoop is literally a bio-feedback tool, if you’re not present the hoop drops.) I've realized that for me it's usually a lack of presence in my body that keeps me stuck in front of the buffet table at a holiday party eating...and eating...and eating some more....So this Thanksgiving I invite you to try hooping between appetizers, the meal, and the dessert. And if there's a buffet table, having your hoop nearby will help you brake the trance and get you moving.  Use the time in your hoop to check in with your body and burn a extra calories while your at it. (*Approx. 50 calories every 8 minutes!*) -From the Hoopnotica team :)

• Make your mark on the menu! The Holidays are a great time to take a healthy twist on a favorite recipe. My speciality is pies.  My pattern has been to make sweet buttery bombs that I love to eat and snack on while cooking. (You mean the dough isn’t the best snack food?) So this year, keeping to my commitment of change,  I’m trying something new: grain free pies. I’m using this recipe from My Whole Food for the crust and am adding a special berry twist to the filling. My trial run was delicious! Not only can you indulge in this pie and feel good about it but it is a healthy dish that my whole family can enjoy.

• EVERY MEAL COUNTS!  Just because you didn't eat a healthy breakfast this morning does NOT mean that the day is ruined.   If you’re going to indulge during ONE meal, that still gives you the opportunity to eat two really great meals, in fact, the next meal becomes the most important meal of the week!  One bad meal does not make you gain weight. It’s when that one bad meal is followed up by a week of bad meals that things get ugly really quickly.  Eat a bad meal and move on! (From Nerd Fitness - gotta love that name) This for me is the single most important piece of advice. One of the challenges I have experienced with food is the “f**k it syndrome”. I used to look at every slip up as an excuse to indulge my next craving.  One slip up and the day was done for so I had might as well make the most of it! This type of thinking was a massive contributor to my weight gain. Looking at every bad food choice as an opportunity to simply choose better in the future is supporting me in my weight-loss. I take it one meal at a time... Now, one slip one does not guarantee another slip up. 

So this are going to be my guideline for the holidays. Now, it's time to stick with them and I would love to hear from you: If you have any great tips of your own to share, please let us know in the comments below and let's all do this together!   Happy Hooping!!! Melissa Palmer CEO Hoopnotica  

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