Average Joe Tackles the Holidays

Average Joe Tackles the Holidays

Ahh…the Holiday season is here. November starts with Average Joe standing firm – “I will be strong this year!” With football on the tube, snacks at the ready and cold weather allowing Joe to cover his love handles, Joe slips into Thanksgiving. Joe certainly doesn’t want to upset or offend any relatives, so he piles up the Turkey Day feast on his plate. December brings shorter days, college basketball, corporate parties and neighborhood events. Average Joe stumbles into January exhausted, bewildered and disgusted that he fared no better this holiday season.

What’s a Joe to do? Well, this year Joe is determined that it will be different! Here are some helpful hints to survive the ‘Diet Dead Zone’ that spans Thanksgiving to New Years.

Party tricks – No, Joe is not talk

ing about rolling a quarter down your nose into a shot glass (although that does take talent!) To survive a corporate or neighborhood party, try these tricks:

- Stay away from the buffet! If the food is out an available, grab yourself a small sample of your favorite ite

ms and retreat to a social position as far away as possible.

- Mix it up - Mix and mingle with

as many people as possible. The more time you spend concentrating on the conversation, the less time you w

ill be eating.

- Drink slowly – Everyone seems to have a drink in their hand at a party. The faster you down that drink, the faster you will lose your powers of resistance. In addition, you are piling on the empty calories. Try alternating your drink of choice with a glass of water – It will fill you up, keep you social and hydrated.

Corporate events: Beware of “free food” – Corporate dinners are difficult to manage because you are not paying – and who doesn’t want the best food they can get for “free?” Average Joe knows it is hard to say no in

a corporate situation, so try changing things up.

- Order the fish instead of the steak and potatoes, take advantage of a salad.

- Pause frequently to talk or to listen to conversation – it will fool your stomach into that “full” feeling much sooner.

- Average Joe has even cut his entrée in half and set it aside for a take-home box.

- Stay away from the Carb ‘killers’ – breads, pastas, deserts.

Snack attack! If your home is like Average Joe’s the holidays are filled with wonderful smells wafting in from the kitchen. Joe’s wonderful wife makes fabulous sausage balls! The key to avoiding the snack attack lies in timing. Grab a small handful and walk away. Stay away from the kitchen! Try substituting the sweet and salty snacks with vegetables like carrots and celery. Will power is a must in resisting the attack of the snacks.

Exercise – weather or not! When the cold winds blow, Joe likes to head for the couch. Even the gym seems too far away to travel. Stop being lazy, Average Joe! If the weather is too nasty to get out, then get busy. Run the stairs in your house or building. How many pushups and sit-ups can you do? Dust off that treadmill! The key to exercise is commitment. If you don’t schedule it into your day, other distractions will seem much more enticing.

Hey look – Average Joe knows it is not easy to have discipline and self control during the most hectic part of the year. You may even fall off the ‘plan’ at a party or event. That’s OK - Work hard to keep your focus at this time of year, and those January resolutions will be a lot easier to make and keep! Average Joe wishes you and your family peace and happiness during this season. Eat smart, drink smart, stay safe and plan your exercise activities! Enjoy the holidays!

Are you like Average Joe?

Are you like me? Do you read an article in Men's Health or another magazine and think “That sounds like a great idea, I will try to…”? Of course - two days later, as you rush to gobble down that burger and fries before your 12:30 conference call, that idea is far away and forgotten.

You may not realize it, but you are being bombarded every day by an assault of images, standards and ideals. Television, celebrity “news”, infomercials, news reports, advertising in any form – they are all designed to entice, motivate, shame, encourage or inform you. What are these images and reports telling you? Do they make you feel good about yourself, or do you believe you are below average - struggling to keep the pace with the rest of the world? Face it – no sportswear company would sell a single t-shirt if their spokesperson was a 44 year old man with a pot belly and a passion for fried foods and late night TV.

Similarities

People are more alike than you might think. According to a recent national survey by the CDC, only one in five adults engage in a high level of overall physical activity, and one in four gets little or no regular exercise. Many of us get motivated and we will exercise and eat better for several weeks, and begin to see results. Then we go on a business trip, celebrate a birthday, go on vacation or just get tired and bored. We are up against many obstacles in our quest for personal health and fitness – availability of fast, cheap food, hectic-to-frantic paced lives, pressures from home, job, community and children can cause us to “false start” many times each year.

Avoid being a statistic! - It seems like pretty depressing news so far. How does Average Joe battle his own weight and the “weight of the world”? I understand that each person has different, complex life circumstances and there is no ‘easy fix’ to solve them. However, there are a few things we can do to keep us moving in the right direction.

Make small changes - 60% of Americans make New Year’s resolutions. 80% of those resolutions are broken or forgotten before the end of January each year. Most personal trainers will tell you to set a realistic goal in a realistic time frame. Once that goal has bee

n reached, adjust it to keep yourself motivated.

Write your goals down – Unwritten goals are the easiest to forget. Set your sights on a 5K race, see if you can swim for 20 minutes without taking a break, or join a recreation team at the local YMCA. Set a goal, write it down and go for it!

Anticipate setbacks – Life happens. Unexpected trips, day care issues, illness, fatigue, bad weather – these are all examples of things that can interrupt your daily exercise routine. Average Joe has ran in place for 30 minutes in a hotel room – no workout room, pouring rain outside, on a very limited time schedule…adjust and adapt. You may not get your best workout in, but you can at least get your heart rate up.

Celebrate small successes – How many of you judge your health by a number on the scale? Stop weighing yourself twice a day! Instead, try a weekly weigh-in at the same time each week. Evaluate how you are feeling – exercise promotes mental health. As you change fat into muscle, your weight may not change drastically, but your clothes are less snug, you have a little spring in your step and that cloud that normally follows you seems to have drifted away.

Accountability – It is tough out there alone, people! Grab a friend or two, get a trainer, or run with your dog. People who struggle to keep their exercise habits consistent can really benefit from a training partner. Look at your history – if you have trained alone for years and keep falling into the same trap, then maybe a trainer would work for you. It is harder to ignore someone you are paying for a service!

Decompress – Many of you are thinking “I can’t add one more thing to my crazy life!” Average Joe knows what you mean! Evaluate what your daily activities are. You can schedule exercise just like any other kind of appointment. You must find some way to decompress, relax, and unwind to relieve stress.

Average Joe struggles with the same things you do. Life and work are not going to slow down. The small steps you take today will help you establish healthy patterns that can stay with you for life.