5 STRATEGIES TO MAINTAIN & NOT GAIN OVER THE HOLIDAYS

Welcome to the most wonderful time of the year. It seems that the day after Halloween, Christmas explodes all over us. It's time to start thinking about holiday parties, gifts and celebrations. It's a wonderful time to spend with family and friends and to show our love & gratitude. It's also the time of the year that most people shift their focus away from health and fitness with a self-promise to start over again in January.

Just when you finish up the last piece of the leftover Halloween candy, the cookies show up daily at the office, the neighbors send edible gifts, the holiday party buffet is abundant with dedicant treats and the drinks are overflowing. It's hard to avoid this time of year. 

You don't have to accept holiday weight gain. You don't have to start over in January. You can start right now. Being mindful over the holidays can help you maintain and not gain (and even lose). 

"But Lea," you scream. "Don't you know how crazy my life is? I don't have time for health and fitness right now. I promise to focus on it more in January when things calm down."

Life rarely ever calms down. The beauty of healthy habits is that when you cultivate them throughout the year, you're already on healthy auto-pilot when life gets crazy. It is not about changing your whole life to live healthier, it's about learning to live healthier inside your crazy, busy life. If you only practice healthy habits when life is calm, you'll only learn to do healthy habits when life is calm. Get it? You can be healthy and crazy busy. 

5 STRATEGIES TO MAINTAIN & NOT GAIN OVER THE HOLIDAYS

THE 80/20 RULE

It's not the Thanksgiving dinner or the holiday parties that are the problem. It's the choices we make the other 300 days a year. Special occasions are just that, special. If you practice daily healthy habits then what you do on special occasions doesn't matter. If you've made good choices all week then you can go ahead and have the pumpkin pie, no guilt.

A good rule of thumb is to eat 80% of your calories for the week from whole foods from nature, then the other 20% can be for the special occasions, Grandma's favorite pie and any other treats that you savor and enjoy. 

Food is fuel, yes, but food is also how we bond with other humans. Bonding with people we love is part of living a healthy lifestyle. There's a balance. 

MINDFUL EATING

The biggest mistake a person can make over the holidays is to decide that they aren't going to think about health and fitness at all. While there is definitely room for dedicant meals and holiday treats it is shouldn't be an excuse to overindulge. 

One strategy you can try is to eat slowly. Take your time and enjoy that indulgence. You could scarf down a 1/2 dozen cookies because they are in front of you or you could savor a cookie or two by eating them slowly and mindfully. Chew your food. Think about the texture, the taste. Take a drink between bites. Eating slowly can help you control your calorie intake and you may even find you enjoy it more when you slow down to savor it. 

Mindless eating can lead to holiday weight gain, mindful eating can help keep it under control.

KEEP MOVING

Make it a family affair. Take a daily family walk. Challenge your friends to walk one mile a day every day from Thanksgiving until the new year. Sign up for a Turkey Trot or a Jingle Bell 5K. Do pushups against the counter when you're waiting for the microwave to ding. Do lunges as you vacuum. Park farther away in the parking lot when you go grocery shopping for your Thanksgiving dinner. Take 10 minutes to do a daily body weight routine, do it twice in the day. Structured exercise is great when you can do it, but every little action counts.

It's not an all-or-nothing choice. If you don't have time for an hour long exercise session today, then what do you have time for? Great. Then do that. Something is always better than nothing. 

The habit of daily movement goes a long way in maintaining your weight. 

HEALTHY SUBSTITUTES

Try making healthy substitutions in some of your holiday dishes, I bet your family won't even notice. If you're going to a holiday party be the person that shows up with the healthy dish, that way you'll know there will be at least one healthy option there. Volunteer to bring a chopped veggie tray, a fruit salad or a healthy casserole. A quick search on Pinterest for healthy holiday substitutions returned hundreds of delicious options.

PRIORITIZE PROTEIN & VEGETABLES

Never show up hungry to a dinner or party. When you build your plate at the buffet or the dinner table, prioritize protein and vegetables first. Turkey is a great source of protein. Fill your plate up with mostly protein and veggies, then allow smaller portions of whatever is left. Fill up on the healthiest foods first, eat slowly, then if you still have room, have a few bites to try the other dishes. 

In the end I think we should all enjoy everything that the holidays have to offer: family, friends, food and fun. We can be mindful and have the best of both worlds. Then when January rolls around and everyone is just starting to make their new year resolutions, we'll already be well on our way to reaching all of our health and fitness goals. 

Looking for a sane and sustainable approach to nutrition? I have six openings in my nutrition program going on sale for Black Friday. LImited time offer for 50% off six months of the program for qualified candidates. Reach all your 2018 goals with nutrition habits coaching. Learn more!

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Run with Purpose to Reach Your Running Goals

I told one of my running coach clients that we were going to build a running plan so that each run had a purpose. My client said, "But Lea, I already have a purpose for every run: not to die." She's funny, isn't she? While that is a noble objective, if you want to reach your running goals, each of your weekly runs should have a specific purpose. Spoiler alert: The purpose of every run is not to run harder and faster. 

Why do we need a purpose for every run? Because if we don't know what we're trying to achieve, we will never get there. if you aimlessly hit the road every other day for the rest of your life, you will probably improve a little in the beginning (the infamous newbie gains) then level off and never quite get anywhere, running the same paces and distances over and over again. 

Let's talk about the purpose of different types of running workouts.

PURPOSE: TO RUN FASTER

If you want to run faster, it is important to vary your paces. Long and short interval workouts are great for this purpose. Longer intervals (between 3 to 15 minutes or 1/4 to 2 miles) help your body learn to run more efficiently at faster paces. Shorter intervals (30 seconds to 1 minute or 100 -200 meters) helps improve your leg speed. 

Any type of intervals are best for experienced runners who have built a running base of consistent milage for 4-6 weeks. Work at your own fitness levels, do not attempt to hit arbitrary paces from the internet. You will know what 'hard' feels like for you based on how you are breathing and the talk-test. Work at your own level. Coach rant over. 

PURPOSE: TO RUN LONGER

If you are training to run an endurance race, you can start including long runs into your training plan to prepare your body to run long distances. A long run is any run that is one hour and beyond. A long run pace should be a minute or two slower than your 5K pace. You should plan to go slow as you build your endurance. You can work on speed once your body adapts to the longer distances, but to avoid injury, never increase pace (intensity) and distance in the same week. 

I often have to remind myself to go slower in the beginning than I feel I need. You remember that old Beastie Boys song? "Slow and low that is the tempo." Repeat that mantra in your head as you hit the road for your long run. Try to run a negative split, this means that you run the second half of your run faster than the first. Start out slow, if you still feel great at the halfway mark, feel free to pick up the pace a bit and finish strong. 

It's a good idea to increase your long run distance by 10% every two weeks then back off the milage on the 5th week. (Yes, I know may plans do it much faster than this, but it's better not to rush progress in order to avoid injuries.)

PURPOSE: TO RECOVER

Not every run should be fast and long. There is a benefit to running easy runs on a consistent basis. An easy run is one that is less than an hour and can be done at conversational pace. You should be able to run and chat with your running buddy without gasping for air between words or sentences. (My running buddy has four legs, but I still talk to him.)

Recovery runs should be done between hard workouts. If you run intervals or hills on Monday, do at least one recovery run and then a rest day before attempting another hard-effort workout. Recovery runs helps build a running base for overall strength and economy. 

Remember that our bodies adapt (get stronger and faster) during rest, not during the hard workouts. These types of recovery runs (and actual rest and sleep) are essential in order to reap the benefits of hard workouts. 

If you are running hard every time you hit the road, it will be very hard for you to reach your full potential without injuries, burnout and overtraining. 

PURPOSE: PROMOTE GOOD RUNNING FORM

Add strides to the end of your runs two to three times a week in order to promote good running form and train your fast twitch muscle fibers. Strides are short bursts of running for about 100 meters. Start at conversational pace, gradually increase speed, then decelerate at the end. It should be smooth relaxed cadence while focusing on form. While it's fast at a point, it is not an all-out sprint. Recover fully between strides until your heart-rate returns to normal. Repeat 6-8 times. 

Do your runs have purpose? What is the purpose of your next run? Have questions? I'd love to help. 

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Medicine Ball Leg + Core Workout

Welcome to the latest edition of Workout Wednesday, when each week I share a running workout or a strength workout that is designed specifically to help build runner-specific strength. The types of workouts that are most beneficial to runners have lateral moves to build hip strength, core strength moves and unilateral moves (one side at a time). This workout has it all and can be done in five to twenty minutes. 

You can run through this workout one time before your next easy run as part of your warm up or complete the circuit three to four times with a one minute rest between circuits as a leg and core workout two times per week in addition to your regular runs. 

In the #shredshed

You don't have to devote hours in the gym to reap the benefits of runner-specific strength workouts. Squeeze in five to twenty minutes whenever you can, keep progressing the exercises as you get stronger (heavier weights, less rest, longer intervals, advanced moves) and you will see the positive results in your running performance. Be consistent with strength workouts for best results.

This post contains affiliate links, that means if you click on a link in this post and make a purchase, I make a small percentage of the sale with no additional cost to you. No one is getting rich here, it just helps with the running (pun intended) of this blog. As always, thank you for your support.

EQUIPMENT

I am using a 8lb medicine ball in my workout. You could do the workout without a medicine ball at all or use a heavier one as you progress. You will also need an interval timer or download a free timer from the app store. 

MEDICINE BALL LEGS + CORE WORKOUT

Download a printable version of this leg + core medicine ball workout or save to Pinterest for later.

Move through each exercise quickly while maintaining proper form, form is always more important than speed. When you complete the circuit, repeat two or three more times, resting for one minute between circuits. 

Have questions? I'd love to help.

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Overnight Oats for a Healthy Breakfast On the Go

I used to think that people who meal-prepped were those kind of people who really had their $hit together. The kind of people who threw those Pinterest-worthy parties with home-baked goods and hand-made decorations. The sort of people who made their beds every. single. day. You know, really together.

I'm kind of a mess. I couldn't bake or craft if my life depended on it and I run out the door every morning in a frenzy. I wouldn't say that I make my bed, more like I try to straighten-up the covers a bit so they are not in a big lump in the middle. That counts, right? Who has time? (and I'll mention that I don't even have kids, so honestly, I have no idea how you do it.)

I figured out that meal-prep is actually perfect for people like me. I don't feel like I have it all together all the time, so if I take a little time up front, I end up spending less time and energy (not to mention money, oops I mentioned it) in the long run. If I spend 30 minutes prepping on a Sunday I know that I'll always have a healthy meal ready to go for breakfast no matter how frenzied my morning turns out. 

Overnight oats saves breakfast. It is easy to make a healthy choice in the morning when it's already prepared and waiting in the fridge. Just grab a spoon and dig in. As a nutrition coach I love it because overnight oats have a mix of healthy carbohydrates, protein and fats. If you are an athlete especially, you want to make sure you are covering all your nutritional bases. 

I experimented with a few different flavor combinations and I came with up with these varieties.

Overnight Oats - Save on Pinterest for later!

This post may contain affiliate links.That just means if you click on a link in this post and make a purchase then I make a small percentage of the sale. No one is getting rich here, it just helps with the running (pun intended) of this blog. Thanks, as always, for your support.

I used one pint mason jars, all of the flavor combinations have the same base

1/3 cup of old fashioned 100% whole grain rolled oats (uncooked)
1/3 cup of milk
1/3 cup of plain Greek yogurt (this is where you get your protein)

The topping varieties are endless. Here are a few that I loved:

PEANUT BUTTER /BANANA

1/3 cup of old fashioned 100% whole grain rolled oats (uncooked)
1/3 cup of milk
1/3 cup of plain Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons of peanut butter powder (or you could use natural peanut butter)
1/2 banana
coconut flakes

BERRIES/CINNAMON

1/3 cup of old fashioned 100% whole grain rolled oats (uncooked)
1/3 cup of milk
1/3 cup of plain Greek yogurt
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
blueberries/raspberries/strawberries
sliced almonds
coconut flakes

PEACHES/COTTAGE CHEESE

1/3 cup of old fashioned 100% whole grain rolled oats (uncooked)
1/3 cup of milk
1/3 cup of cottage cheese (changed it up from Yogurt for this one)
1/2 large peach chopped
sliced almonds
coconut flakes

PINEAPPLE/COCONUT

1/3 cup of old fashioned 100% whole grain rolled oats (uncooked)
1/3 cup of milk
1/3 cup of plain Greek yogurt
1/3 cup of crushed pineapple
sliced almonds
coconut flakes

If you are worried about soggy oats, then some people recommended making only two jars in advance. I however, thought that by the end of the week they were even more delicious as the flavors were soaked up from sitting in the fridge all week. It's really a personal preference. I liked making five mason jars ahead of time and eating them all week. I ate the one with the banana on the first day just to be sure. 

What do your mornings looks like? Are they hectic like mine? I have another idea for a breakfast on the go that I will share next week.

Will you give these a try and let me know what you think? What's your go-to breakfast? What strategies do you use to eat healthy on the go? 

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Five Benefits of Being a Beginner

I still remember what it feels like: You just started working out and it seems everyone on Instagram* is running an eight minute mile marathon and deadlifting double their body weight. It can feel hard to be a beginner when everyone else seems to be so far ahead of you, but don't be discouraged, there are benefits to being a beginner. 

* OK I lied, Instagram didn't exist when I started working out. I should have said AOL chat rooms or MySpace.

NEWBIE GAINS

As a beginner you will see improvements more rapidly and drastically than during any other time in your journey. You see a lot of initial improvement when you go from nothing to something, then after your 'newbie gains' the improvements will slow down. You will still improve over time but by much smaller percentages than in the beginning. It gets harder to continue to make drastic improvements year after year. Enjoy it while it lasts.

CALORIE CRUSHER

A beginner's body is less efficient than a more experienced athlete's body, so you are likely burning more calories in less time. Your body adapts and becomes efficient over time. In the beginning when your body is less efficient, you are working harder and burning more calories than your more experienced friend. 

ROOM TO GROW

Being a beginner leaves plenty of room for growth and improvement. You don't need a lot of training volume. You can start small and still see improvements. You can build up your fitness slowly over time. Once your body adapts you can change a variable in your workout and see noticeable progress. There is a lot of work to do before you hit your peak fitness, enjoy the ride getting there. 

BEGINNER'S MINDSET

Beginners are more willing to reach out for help and expertise. Sometimes the more experienced athletes think they are already know everything and stop seeking out new information. Science evolves, common practices and industry trends change over time. A beginner can benefit from the latest information because they are more willing to hear it. As you get more experienced you're more likely to get stuck in your old ways. Try to keep a beginner's mindset throughout your journey. 

NO LIMITS

Your enthusiasm will likely be highest in the beginning. You may never look your own potential with such fresh eyes again. You don't know yet your personal limits. It is a fun time to experiment and grow. Set your sights high and work hard, you never know how far you can go. 

If you are a beginner, dream big, set goals and get to work. Enjoy the benefits of being a beginner while they last before you can move on to enjoying the benefits of being more experienced. Like they always say, in life and on the course "run the mile you're in." 

Everyone was a beginner once. Enjoy it while it lasts. 

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