- Yoga. If you've read my blog before you know I'm a huge fan of yoga. It zens you out, stretches your muscles to keep you flexible, burns some calories, and can tone special areas. My favorite is to hold as many of these moves as possible for 30 seconds. Some of them are meant to be done on the left & right side, not just one, or meant to be done all at once.
- Jumping Jacks. 35,000 jumping jacks alone will burn approximately 1 POUND off. Yes: POUND. So, if in addition to watching what you eat & exercising regularly, you do 5,000 jumping jacks a day each week or 1,000 every 12 minutes for the course of an hour workout, you will quickly shed those pounds.
- Get some rest, stay stress free. After the holiday season of eating, take a load off. Don't give up as much sleep as you did worrying about how the Christmas dinner was going to turn out or if little Suzy would love her new Dooney & Bourke purse. Get a full 7-9 hours every night. EVERY NIGHT. Don't just do this every once in a while and think it'll help, get adequate sleep every night.
- Get off your butt. It's well known that fatty tissue LOVES it when you sit. More sitting really does move that fat to your tummy and makes it bulge over. So get up, walk around, stand, lay down... just sit around less.
- Water. Flush out all of those nasty sugars and fats that have gotten in your system! An all-water or majority-water drink "diet" is great for you. Stay away from sugary juices and soft drinks for a few weeks after the holidays. Just think of all that pie and stuffing as a trade-off for soda!
- Hardcore stand-alone moves. From a trainer, here are 4 tough, great moves to quickly get rid of holiday weight. Trust me though, you'll be putting a lot of sweat and tears into this exercise!
- Increase your metabolism. You'll be eating less than you did on Christmas day, but you still want to burn off more than the fat coming into your body, so increasing your metabolism is a great way. You can find a few different ways to kickstart/rev up your metabolism from eating when you first wake up, to doing a small exercise set or even just drinking a glass of cold water. Here's a great workout to wake up your metabolism & do some cardio beside your cardio.
- Bikini Workout. Why not start one right after the holiday season of eating?? This way you guarantee you'll have more time to work on getting bikini ready & attack the fat right away. Here's a bikini workout to start ASAP.
- Find small ways to burn calories throughout your day without working up a sweat
- Tap your toes while sitting
- Sit up straight & squeeze your abs or butt
- 50 calf raises
- Sit on the edge of your chair, forcing you to sit up straight
- Walk around at the end of every work hour for 5 minutes or so, don't be so sedentary!
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator (live/work on a HIGH floor? Take the elevator to a floor closer to your level, then walk the remaining flights up)
- 100-calorie workout plans. These are short bursts of workouts that can be added to your current workout plan or aggregated to form a workout plan, that will burn 100-1,000 calories in one "sitting." Some examples: The Mover, The Fundamentals, or the Big Burner
- Negative Calorie foods. They're a true gift from God. These puppies eat out the calories the rest of your menu is piling on!
- 54321 workout. I've found these give you so much motivation as you climb down the minute marker and you can see you're almost done. There are many out there for any type of exercise plan, but the one I've linked to gives options for beginners, intermediate, & advanced routines.
Most importantly, DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. Get out there and shed those pounds!!
Happy eating ;)
