23 Dec Five holiday fat-burning fitness tips

The holidays are a time for lots of fun, family and food.
If you over-indulge on the latter and consume too many calories, there are a few ways to burn off some of the calories quickly meven if you have a busy holiday schedule.
It’s not hard to lose track of the calories in a hurry with delicious food items all around you, cold adult beverages and the excitement of Christmas or New Year‘s Eve.
To help work off some of those extra calories, here are five holiday fat-burning tips. Do them in addition to your normal workout, or for sure if you don’t exercise very frequently:
1. Take a 15-minute jog or walk – Squeeze in a run on the treadmill or walk to help burn those extras calories. Maybe you could walk before your family gathering, at lunch time or in the evening after presents have been opened.
2. Do alternating sit-ups and push-ups – Alternate between doing three sets of sit-ups and push-ups, doing close to your max for each. An example might be 30 push-ups/50 sit-ups, then 25 sit-ups/50 sit-ups and finally 25 more push-ups/40 sit-ups. Squeeze out those last reps in the final set – that’s where you really make gains.
3. Go for a short bike ride – Hop on the exercise bike, or if there’s good weather where you live ride outside. Even if you can get a short ride in it will help burn off some of those lurking calories.
4. Eat healthy again in the days after – Try to eat small, light meals the day after your Super Bowl belly-buster night. Snack on fruits and vegetables and whole foods – avoid processed foods. That’s really the way you should be eating anyway.
5. Drink lots of water – Flush your system clean by making sure to drink at least 6-8 glasses of water during the day.

At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen’s blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people’s lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.com