How do you avoid that extra holiday weight before the holidays? Eat. Now.
The holidays are a wonderful time of family, love, and festivities. The true gift is what comes just directly after, the 5+ pounds of cookies, cakes, and the yams your grandmother forced a third helping of around your waist. You can try and try to get it off by New Years, but lets be real, the Tupperware of mashed potatoes in your fridge and I both know that is not going to happen.
Can you wear an oversized Christmas sweater to a New Years Eve party?
So what else is there to do? Buy your New Years dress a size too big? Just give up now and dive into Thanksgiving leftovers (if you haven’t already)? Here’s your answer: eat.
Those friends of yours that can eat and eat and eat and not gain a pound do so because of a high metabolism in their genes. A fast metabolism very simply means that they burn the calories they eat faster than others. For those of us who aren’t as fortunate, we have to trick our bodies into that fast metabolism. Now, the only way that this will benefit you before the holidays is if you start now, so get to eating!
Shockingly, they aren’t just spitting out the food when you aren’t looking.
Foods and drinks that will help you keep weight off during the holidays:
- WATER! Water is a miracle drug that I could go on about for days. The more water you drink, the easier it is for your body to speed up your metabolism.
- Coffee. Yep, finally something abut coffee that is good for you.
- Energy drinks. I don’t encourage drinking energy drinks too often, as they have a lot of harmful chemicals in them. However, they have taurine and caffine, which both boost your metabolism, so in great moderation, I recommend them.
- Green tea. Green tea contains caffeine and catechins to boost metabolism. Research has even shown that drinking 2-4 cups of green tea daily can help your body burn up to 20% more calories during exercise!
- Snacks. No, this is not a specific food, but eating smaller quantities of food more often than just 3 big meals a day increases your metabolism. Trade out two of your big meals for sporadic snacks throughout the day.
- Spicy food. Red pepper flakes can spice up almost anything, and they contain chemical compounds that rev up your metabolic rate.
- Protein. Fish, chicken, meat, tofu, nuts, eggs, and dairy all require more energy to break down than fats and carbs do, burning more calories and boosting metabolism.
The more you know.
In addition to the above foods, exercising regularly can boost your metabolism. If you don’t exercise (shame on you!), even just running for 20 minutes 3-5 days a week or doing 20 minutes of strength training a few times a week can help your metabolism get ready for the winter. The more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism will be. Also, luckily for those of you who don’t have a lot of time or who don’t enjoy long workouts, short bursts of high-energy workouts are best for boosting your metabolism. Shorter workouts, snacks, and coffee, it’s really almost too easy…
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LE
