The second holiday is this week in the form of Thanksgiving. Most families and the award winners from Saturday’s Thankful Turkey 5K will have big meals on Thursday. The food choice improves from Hershey bars and gummy bears to turkey and sweet potatoes. The two are similar in that both usually have left overs to eat. From turkey sandwiches to various components in a soup of the last remains of Thanksgiving. As I mentioned in an earlier column, this is the season where it is easy to put on those extra pounds that you promise to lose with your New Year’s resolutions. Between the main big meal and the meals for a couple or more days afterwards it is easy to overeat.
Next up is Christmas that is already appearing in stores. And of course, there are the ‘Black Friday Deals’ that started two weeks ago. Christmas usually has more gatherings and pre-Christmas parties that include more food so it is especially notorious for weight gain. With more left-over food and another big meal one week later with New Years Day celebration it is a major challenge to maintain a decent weight and a normal waist line measurement.
I had mentioned attending a few of these gatherings with a group of runners that were big eaters that never seemed to gain those extra pounds during the holiday seasons. The serious runners had put in a large number of miles the weeks before the big meals arrived. And they also put in some more miles after the meals. While this is a good solution to maintaining weight over the holidays it is not necessary to train for a marathon to keep the weight down.
The key is to increase your metabolism before the meal so when the food arrives in the stomach your body is revved up to burn a few more calories. Starting this week the practice of going for a walk every day for at least 30 minutes and better to make the time one hour. And it includes the morning of Thanksgiving to go for a walk or run. This increases the metabolism so sitting down for a turkey meal at least your body is going to burn more calories. I mention walking or running but any activity will work. Lifting weights has been known to maintain an increased metabolism or a longer time than running. One report stated that your metabolism stays elevated as long as the time of your run.
If you run for one hour your metabolism stays elevated for one hour after the run. Weight lifting has been said to keep the increase in metabolism for up to six hours later. The key to this increase is that the workout has to be quite strenuous and not a few pushups on the living room rug. One problem with this is unless you have a good set of weights at home most gyms are closed for the holiday. One sequence I used a few times is to pick out a series of maybe five exercises. Pushups, sit ups, vertical jumps, side straddle hops and chin ups or side to side leg lifts as an example. You only do 10 repetitions of each exercise but you do each of them for 10 sets. At the end you have done 100 repetitions of each exercise and accomplished something you probably could not have done trying to go to your limit with each exercise. And adding them all together you did 500 repetitions of exercise.
The other method for keeping the weight off is to go for a walk after the big meal. This is a tough one to do. Most of us after a big meal look for an easy chair to let the food settle. Some football fanatics say they want to watch the game after the meal. This is a poor excuse as most will be sound asleep before the first quarter is over. A walk for 30 minutes will do wonders for digestion and keeping the metabolism working. And the easiest method is to cut back on the size of the portions of food you eat. Adding to this method includes not going back for second or third helpings. It makes weight loss easier.
