Fat season. That’s what we call it around my office. It starts on Halloween, and it usually runs straight through January. We are bombarded by holidays that require us to consume copious amounts of meats, pies, cookies, chocolates, and alcohol. On top of that, for those of us living in the north, it gets dreadfully cold and painfully hard to do as much moving around as we would like to. It is due to these conditions that it is not unlikely for an individual to gain between 5 - 10 lbs within this 3 month period. And with that I would like to share some of my favorite tips for when it comes to coping with the inevitable “fat season”.

    At the Office

    Avoiding temptation at the office can be tricky. There always seems to be extra bags of candy, and extra baskets of cookies strategically placed around your work area. If your goal is weight loss, maintaining a steady doping of sugar into your blood stream is not going to make your efforts any easier.

    If you can avoid the sweets, then good for you, you’re stronger than most. However I don’t feel it’s absolutely necessary to be that guy/girl in the office who wants to avoid the break room at all costs. You could be setting yourself up for even worse disasters, especially if you’re one who tends to get more stressed around the holiday season. If I had to pick between what’s worse for your health: a couple of cookies or being the stressed out sociopath who avoids people at all costs fearing they might shove brownies in their face, I would have to go with the latter. Stress is going to create much stronger repercussions than a few sweets will any day.

    If you’re busy around this time of the year like I am, it will be hard to get normal workouts in. The key is to make them brief, frequent and consistent. Get good at the exercises that stress your entire body i.e. squats and deadlifts. Doing a couple of sets will only take you 15 minutes and it’s much better than doing nothing at all right?

    Take it to the Party

    More often than not you’ll probably encounter a party or two this time of year. Parties are another good place to find lots of fattening foods. If you find yourself at one of these parties, my advice is to you would be to seek out the vegetable platter. There is always one somewhere and rarely has it ever been touched. Filling up first on fruits and vegetables is a good way to pack a little fiber into the stomach before consuming those delicious and fatty finger foods. The fiber will not only help to fill you up, but it also soaks up some of the fat like a sponge preventing it from ever getting to those love handles.

    As far as alcohol is concerned, try to be mindful of what types of mixtures you’ll be having. Sure, alcohol itself packs calories, but combine it with sugary tonic water or coke and it becomes a real diet killer. As an alternative, try soda water for a less calorie dense beverage. Since it’s a party, keep yourself mobile. Move around, dance and mingle. After all, that’s what the party is for. You’re not going to burn a heck of a lot of calories, but it’s much better than being a calorie-consuming wall flower.

    Around this time of year being uptight about your diet and weight is only going to cause you more trouble than it’s worth. Beating yourself up over a couple pieces of pie or a few extra drinks during the week isn’t going to help your efforts in the long run. The best piece of advice I can give to you is to relax and try to make a few smart choices here and there.

    增肥季節--我們都這么稱呼它。這個季節始于萬圣節，到一月才結束。在這個季節由于節日太多，我們被大量的肉，派，小餅干，巧克力，酒精轟炸。尤其是像我們這樣住在北方的人們，天氣冷的都不想動。以上種種往往會使人們在3個月時間里重個5到10磅。面對這個無法避免的“增肥季節”，我有幾個小建議。

    在工作時：

    避免辦公室里的誘惑需要一點小手段。在你的辦公桌附近似乎總能看到幾袋子糖果，幾籃子餅干，多余，又有點戰略意味。如果你的目標是減肥，那么給你的血液里是不是來一點糖的補充可不是什么好主意。

    如果你能經受住甜食的誘惑，你真厲害，你比大部分人都強了。不過我覺得沒什么必要因此而破壞辦公室的氣氛。這樣不僅會讓你自己遇上更糟的局面，如果在假日前后你的工作壓力會變大，你遇到的局面就尤為糟糕。如果我不得不在兩個對我身體有害的局面中選擇一個的話：要么吃點零食，要么不吃，但是要頂著別人的一張臭臉，頂著被認為是不愛社交的人的壓力。我認為后者更糟糕。壓力的破壞力可比糖果大得多了。

    如果你和我一樣，每逢到了這個時間就忙的不可開交，那么要抽時間鍛煉就比較難了。關鍵是要做些簡單的運動，要勤，要持續。象蹲立，舉重這類鍛煉可以全面消除你的壓力。每天你只需花15分鐘就能做一點鍛煉，比起什么都不做可好多了。

    在聚會上

    每年這個時候你大約都能遇上一到兩個聚會邀請。在聚會上很容易找到很多增肥食品。如果你在這樣的聚會上，我建議你去找找蔬菜的位置，在某個地方你總能找到一碟蔬菜，還沒什么人去吃。再吃美味可是又容易讓你長胖的食物之前，吃點水果蔬菜用纖維點點肚子可是個好主意。纖維不僅讓你覺得飽，還能象海綿一樣減少脂肪被吸收。

    提起酒精，一定要注意你喝的酒是由什么混合出來的。酒精可以本身還有熱量，當和含糖奎寧水或可樂混合在一起之后，就成了減肥克星。你可以用低卡路里飲料蘇打水代替酒精飲料。同時，既然你參加的是個聚會，你就要多動動。四處走走，跳舞搖擺。這才是聚會的目的嘛。雖然跳舞燃燒的卡路里不多，不過比起什么都不做要好得多了。

    在一年的這個時間里可不值得節食，節食給你制造的麻煩可不少。就算少吃幾個派或者少喝幾杯酒對你長遠的計劃也不有特別大的幫助。我給能你最好的建議就是放松自己，在不同的地方做不同的聰明的選擇。