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A "Smart and Simple" Holiday Season

With November beginning, the holiday season is quickly approaching.  This is definitely one of, if not the most, challenging times of year to keep your body weight in check.  I have some good news and some bad news…

It has been generally regarded that the average American gains somewhere between 5 and 10 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year’s (without a scientific study to back up this assumption).  A study performed in 2000 by the National Institutes of Health showed that the average weight gain for there 200 person study to be just over one pound per person.

So what is the bad news you might ask?  The good news is that Americans do not gain nearly as much as previously assumed.  The bad news is that these adult Americans did not generally lose this extra pound of body weight over the rest of the year.  Add this up over a couple of years, and it becomes pretty apparent why our nation is getting fatter and fatter.  Are you aware that more than half of the U.S. is now considered overweight?

Being “Smart and Simple” during the holiday season could be an easy way to combat this yearly increase in body weight.  You should not feel guilty indulging for special celebrations, but lets try not to indulge just for indulgences sake.  Choose your indulgences wisely, while staying in check the rest of the holiday season.  I tell my weight loss clients to shoot for maintenance of body weight during the holiday season.  Maintaining body weight instead of allowing the average pound plus increase is like losing a pound because it is a pound that we do not have to lose throughout the rest of the year. 

With a few calculated moves you can enjoy your holiday season in a “Smart and Simple” way.