Fitness tips for the holidays

BECKLEY, WV (WVNS) – Two things associated with the holiday season are eating and travel. And while those are wonderful and welcome, they can be disruptive to our fitness and health.

Tips to make your Thanksgiving meal safer and healthier

Between the turkeys, the pies, hot chocolates, and cookies of every kind, we tend to take in a lot more food in the final months of the year… and the food we’re eating is often a little more… shall we say, indulgent.

Then there’s the travel. Sitting for hours, sleeping away from home, being away from our local gym or track – these can all throw us off our fitness routines.

Matt Harvey, the Fitness Center Manager at Performance Physical Therapy & Fitness, shared some tips on how to maintain our health and fitness during this wonderful, yet potentially gluttonous, season.

“Well, you know, fitness is part of life and you have to make it a part of your life if you want to see yourself, stick to it. And so one of the big things, holidays, dinner with family, stuff like that, that’s part of life, too. You got to be able to have your fitness routine work with life. If you’re trying to completely divide the two, you’re never going to be able to stick with one.”

Matt says you should enjoy the great treats on the Thanksgiving table and suggests focusing on the more protein-rich foods, which will help us with our workouts. Then he says, it’s important to squeeze in some time to exercise.

“I always say a 20 minute workout is still better than the workout you didn’t do. And so you can do things like air squats, lunges, push ups, things like that. Even in a hotel room, any sort of resistance training you’re doing is actually going to work to burn calories longer than just like a straight cardio routine. “

Keeping a fitness routine while traveling can be tough. It’s important not to put too much pressure on ourselves over it, especially during a season that can already be stressful. On the plus side, exercise can help with that too!

So, make sure to enjoy the holiday treats and go for protein when you can. And try to squeeze a workout in wherever you are, and go for resistance training, if you can.

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