Regardless of what your Thanksgiving traditions are, below are a few tips from the certified personal trainers over at GYMGUYZ on how to have a healthy, but still very enjoyable holiday:
- Eat a Healthy Breakfast
We all know how important it is to eat a healthy and nutritionally rich breakfast. Recent studies have proven that eating a meal in the morning boosts your metabolism more than eating the same meal in the evening.
So, not only will having a healthy breakfast boost your metabolism before the big holiday meal, it makes you feel better; and, having food in your system will help you make better decisions with your meal later on in the day.
- Do a Morning Workout
Whether you go for a walk, register for your local Turkey Trot, or hire a personal trainer for a customized in-home full body workout, morning exercise is the best way to start the day. Especially on a holiday!
Morning workouts are more effective at waking you up, kickstarting your metabolism, getting your serotonin levels rising, and can create a calorie deficit to burn off extra calories before you ever indulge in your favorite foods.
Not only will it help you burn off the food you do eat later in the day, but it will also put you in a better mood throughout the day so that you can deal with all of those whacky family conversations!
- Be Strict About Your Portion Sizes
Research shows that people consistently eat more food when they are offered larger portions of food. When the availability is abundant, it is harder for someone to say no. Now apply that concept to Thanksgiving, where there is a lot of food to go around (hopefully).
Strict portion control has been linked to many things like feeling less fully or sluggish, better digestion, balanced blood sugar levels, and overall health and weight loss benefits.
- Restrict the Alcohol
Excessive alcohol use is simply a gateway to bad food decisions and a lowered likelihood of feeling good enough to exercise the day after the big holiday. Unlike food, the calories in alcohol contain little to no nutritional value. Alcohol calories don’t fill you up like food calories do, hence the term “empty calories.”
So enjoy the day, and focus on your food, not the empty calories and bad decisions from alcohol.
- Hire a Personal Trainer for The Day After
The good thing about hiring a personal trainer through a service like GYMGUYZ is that we provide the accountability, so that you don’t have to. When you wake up the morning after your holiday, full and potentially hungover, your likelihood of motivating yourself enough to go to a traditional gym is low. However, when a certified personal trainer is coming to your home to provide a fully customizable and convenient workout, who could say no that?
Thanksgiving is a time to be with your family, and to be thankful for all the things that you have. Good health should definitely be on that list. If you need any help with taking the next step, visit GYMGUYZ.com or call 855-GYMGUYZ.
