The biggest fitness challenge that most people face during this time of year is holiday weight gain. Glee is in the air, and delicious food is everywhere.
But does that mean it’s the time of year to say goodbye to hard-earned gains and weight loss? No way, and that doesn’t mean you have to skip the celebrations. With a little self-awareness, you can enjoy the holiday season without making it difficult to get the body you want. Here are the 7 things to do this holiday season to maintain a healthy bod while still having lots of fun.
1. Move Your Body
One of the biggest reasons people fall off the wagon is that they decide to not move their body. The cold weather makes it easy to skip outdoor workouts and cozy up with beverages and foods that destroy your calorie deficit plans.
You need to stay committed and adapt to the holiday season. Take your workouts indoors at a gym or jump rope in your living room. Do what you have to do to keep moving and stay active.
The other big obstacle to working out during the holiday season is the complaint that there’s not enough time. Nuh uh. Make the time. If it’s important enough to you – you will do the thing!
Most of our workouts are designed for you to go hard for 30 minutes and then get on to the rest of your day. Nothing changes during the holiday season. Set aside that 30 or 45 minutes, get intense and then go out and hit those parties.
The key here is to create a workout that you can complete at home. Wake up early and hammer it out, or get it in after lunch – just make sure you get your body moving. If you’re really struggling, do workouts that move your body in ways you love. This makes it easier to get focused and intense for that workout session. My daily routine at home for the holidays is VERY VERY simple:
- 100 pushups
- 100 ab crunchers
- 100 squats
- 30 minutes of jump rope
Ninja Jump Rope Workout Program:
For inspiration, be sure to check out all of our workouts on channel our and newly released SHREDDED NINJA JUMP ROPE WORKOUT PROGRAM. This is a 12-week program combining jump rope and body weight exercises focused on helping you lose body fat.
We wanted to create a program that is comprehensive so whether you’re a beginner or advanced, you can work through this program a number of times until you reach your goal – being shredded. At its core this program is about fun and efficiency. This program gets you in and out of the gym in around 30 minutes and makes for a very efficient workout.
The number one priority is to focus on fat loss and the second priority is toning out and getting those muscles shredded. We want this program to be something you GET to do every day, not something you HAVE to do. You’ll get lifetime access to the program so you can use this tool anytime to get the body you want. Check it out here.
2. Use Junk Food To Build Muscle
Do more resistance training during the holiday time to burn fat and build muscle. Use a combination of lifting weights and carb loaded holiday treats to fuel your muscle growth. Without resistance training, you won’t be using the muscles or tearing the cells, so excess carbs will be stored as fat. Instead, if you use your muscles by working out hard and then eat a piece of pie, more of those calories are going to go right to your muscles.
Since you inevitably will be eating more carb rich food use it to your advantage:
You can check out all of our bodyweight workouts over on our YouTube channel for inspiration. You can combine these with HIIT jump rope intervals to increase your fat burn and maximize your workouts. Check out our Nutrition System for a personalized plan for weight loss or muscle gain. You’ll get a step-by-step guide to eating the right amount of food, tutorials for faster results and delicious recipes to keep you motivated.
3. Limit Holiday Parties
If you attend every holiday work party and all your friends’ ugly Christmas sweater parties you are going to simply be setting yourself up with more chances to lose and overindulge. Pick in advance which 2 or 3 are the most important to you and just go to those.
If you just HAVE to go to every holiday party, set yourself up for success with a little pre-planning. When you are at holiday parties, either eat dinner beforehand so you don’t snack (I used to do this at my old software job) or just don’t snack. Make sure to set yourself a drink limit too, because all those eggnog calories add up quickly.
4. Throw Away Your Leftovers
Stop feeling bad for throwing away crappy food that is going to make you look and feel bad. It’s ok to feast but after that, don’t set yourself for poor eating. Stay focused and stick to your nutrition plan.
Many people have this idea that throwing away food is wasteful. Just think, it’s either going to be wasted in the trash OR wasted inside your body – YOU CHOOSE. Treat your body like a sacred temple and only consume the foods that are going to get you to the body you want.
Don’t feel great about throwing away food? Then donate it to someone in need.
And finally, if someone offers you leftovers (like my mother always does) simply decline the food nicely 🙂
5. Feast, Do Not Snack
When it comes to consuming food, you want to make sure you prioritize feasting and limit snacking. Feast 1-2x per day, and eat all the food you want during your meal, BUT DO NOT GRAZE. Grazing is how calories add up and that prevents you from reaching your shredded body goals.
6. Practice Intermittent Fasting
One of the easiest ways to reduce grazing and focus on feasting is to start intermittent fasting. At Jump Rope Dudes we use intermittent fasting almost every single day. Fasting doesn’t change the types of food you eat, but rather when you eat your food. When you eat food, your body burns glucose from carbohydrates. About 8-12 hours after your meal, your body enters the unfed state where it starts to burn fat rather than glucose. Limiting your feeding window maximizes the amount of time your body spends burning fat instead of glucose, leading to faster weight loss. We fast for 16 hours and keep our feasts within an 8-hour window between noon and 8pm.
The health benefits of intermittent fasting go past simple weight loss. Fasting results in increased muscle mass and growth hormone levels and optimized hormones, which result in a faster metabolism. Fasting extends your lifespan, improves cardiovascular health, and protects against brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Read more about the benefits of intermittent fasting in our post about it here.
7. Be Smart About Your Drinking
Alcohol is not an essential nutrient, which means that as soon as you consume it, your body tries to get rid of it. We consume alcohol every now and then, but we keep it in moderation so we can stay lean and live longer lives. The lifestyle we promote here at Jump Rope Dudes is all about freedom, but you need to limit alcohol to achieve your body goals. For more information on how to be smart about your alcohol intake, check out our alcohol and fat loss video for a nutritional breakdown and process of elimination tips.
GET IT DONE
It’s a mindset – at the end of the day, if you really want to hit your goals then do what you would do EVERY OTHER DAY OF THE YEAR, there is no reason to fall off track just because it is the holidays. Eat in calorie deficit and DO THE THING.
#dothething