5 Quick Workouts for Avoiding Holiday Weight Gain

How to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain

The holidays are here and so that means people will be fattening up pretty nicely. When I say fattening up I mean they will be putting on weight that is not the good kind. Now some may think, well that is not very nice of you to say that, Pat, but it is true and I have sworn an oath and cannot lie except only in extenuating circumstances.

The holidays are a time where people don’t work out as much and start eating more. Some celebrate Santa or Jesus and others light candles or pray to a god with eight tiny little legs. This year we are celebrating Christmas but next year I would like to try Hanukkah or something. Christmas has been fun but I would like to try another holiday maybe of some kind.

This post is about workouts you can use when you don’t have a lot of time or when your friends are coming over. I will also give you a little advice on what to eat and what not to. Let’s get started with that.

Tips

My first advice for not getting fat and plump over the holidays is to remember that what’s more important than the cookies you eat on Christmas or New Years is what you eat all the other days of the year. Honestly if you eat pretty good most days then what you eat for about six or seven days out of the year will have no impact whatever.

Next is you should try fasting. Fasting is when you don’t eat for a while and have nothing but water with a squeeze of lemon in it or maybe some coffee or tea. Fasting is wonderful and perfect because it burns fat and is an easy way to go about doing such a thing. Some people think fasting is magic, but the only reason it works is because it gets your calories down. So if that’s magic, then OK I guess we can say fasting is magic.

Now if you are going to be gorging and guzzling at night you should fast during the day and right before you go the hog, which is an expression, go ahead and try having yourself a nice, little protein shake. You can even put fiber in it, and for that I would recommend psyllium husk because that stuff will fill you up with no extra calories. Now if I had to guess psyllium husk is probably what is giving my poor wife the jelly craps, but like I said the doctor told us that is not anything to really worry about.

This is a good strategy because now you are a lot less likely to overeat. OK, great. Let’s get on to some workouts.

Workouts

The workouts I’m about to give you are short and fun. They are also very intense and burn a lot of calories.

Workout 1: 300 Swings

Prescription: 300 kettlebell swings, done as quickly as possible. Men use 24 – 32kg; women 16 – 24kg.

Workout 2: 5 Minute Snatch Test

Prescription: As many snatches as possible in 5 minutes. Target is 100 reps or more. Men use 24kg; women 16kg.

Workout 3: High Voltage:

Prescription: 5 x one arm swing, snatch, clean and press, reverse lunge. Do 5 rounds. Men use 20kg; women 12kg.

Workout 4: Double Clean and Press. 8 reps, on the minute, every minute, for 5 minutes. Men use 2 x 20 – 24kg; women 2 x 12 – 16kg.

Workout 5: Front Squat x 3 minutes (AMRAP), rest 2 minutes; 2 minutes (AMRAP), rest 1 minute; 1 minute (AMRAP). Men use 2 x 24 – 32kg; women use 2 x 16 – 24kg.

What I would say is to do one of these workouts about an hour before you eat. That way whatever you decide to put down is more likely to go to muscle instead of fat.

OK well give these a try.

Strong ON!

– Pat

PS – You may also like my Inner Circle because I sometimes do kettlebells on the beach. Plus, you get my best and newest workouts every week!