Six ways for fit and healthy Holidays

Holidays are coming, and we all know what that means. Many parties with lot of food and drinks, until late night and sometimes ending with hangovers. After all that, of course the bad feeling of regression because you gain few pounds in short time and you were working long time so hard to lose them. Additionally, you are usually even more tired after holiday instead of being full of energy and ready for the next year and new challenges. Moreover, most of people often hate themselves for every single bit of food or too much unhealthy drinks they had during holiday parties. In that way, they begin the new years feeling so negative about themselves what definitely leads to more stress and lack of productivity. If you think that is impossible to enjoy and relax during holidays while staying fit and healthy, you're wrong. Fortunately, there are just few steps to follow and you may have the best holiday ever without losing your good shape or deteriorate your health.

1. SMALLER PORTIONS OF THE BEST FOOD

When it comes to holidays food, people usually want to try everything what is on the table, especially if there are some new dishes they have never tried. It is difficult to control how much and what you eat when you are surrounded with various tempting food and drinks. Sometimes, you may even eat just from courtesy if you are a guest at somebody's house. Consuming more food than your body needs will lead to weight gain and post holiday depression by coming back to daily routines. When you are not active so much like on holidays where people spend most part of their time sitting, and you eat more than you spend, it is more likely that you will gain some weight and even feel bloated. Therefore, choose smartly what you eat, and remember that your body can't support everything that your eyes are looking on. In a nutshell, choose the best from food that is offered, or if you really crave to try almost everything, then strive for smaller portions instead of eating full plate of every meal and snack. Finally, avoid to eat just for habit even when you are not hungry. Although sometimes it seems like it is, good holidays are not only about food and drinks, so be focused more on spending nice and quality time with your family and friends. Gain more beautiful memories, than stubborn bodyweight pounds!

2. LISTS OF PLANS

We all know that holiday time can be so chaotic, busy and stressful. After buying presents, preparing food, and organize everything, you may not have time for yourself and moreover this constant stress could lead to unbalanced hormones and then to bodyweight gain. Therefore, help yourself by making daily list for all of your obligations including your workouts. During this crazy time around Christmas and New Year, even those the most dedicated to fitness usually skip their workouts because of poor organization, what leads to lack of time and energy. To avoid this completely break of exercising or wait that holiday past to start working out for the first time, you should manage your time wisely so you don't deprive yourself from anything. For example, try to do your workout in the morning, before you start with other daily activities that could take all your time and energy so you even lose motivation to exercise at the end of the day. If you can't go to the gym, you could still do home workouts following some fitness videos or making your own workout plan of mostly bodyweight movements that don't require special equipment. Don't forget that any workout is better than no one! In addition, working out will help you to relax and handle better with stressful situation.  Exercise also releases endorphins which are known as your hormones of happiness so you will be more positive and full of energy during your day. As for your workouts, set a time for everything you have to do, so you may have a better control under things with less stress.

3. BE MORE ACTIVE

Weather you are or not a fitness lover and fun of exercising, you should keep moving as often as you can doing some physical activities. By being active you improve your health and also body image which usually has a great influence on your self confidence. Everyone has different interests so you should find your own favorite activities that will improve your life and keep you motivated. This is especially important during holidays when people spend most of their time sitting or even laying down and consuming unnecessary amount of food and drinks.

Instead of usual passive holidays, it would be interesting to include some physical activities that will

keep you and your beloved fit, healthy and happy. For instance, you could organize some plays in snow, ice skating or just go for a winter walk and enjoy in casual talk with cup of hot drink on way. Keep yourself busy with some interesting activities that will prevent you from eating just because of boredom and then really enjoy in good meal when you get hungry after fun and active day.

4. STAY HYDRATED

You have probably heard so far many times how much is important to always keep your body hydrated mostly with water. The amount of water that individual's body needs may vary due to physical activity and even nutrition. For example, since coffee works as diuretic, for every cup of coffee you drink, you should have one more glass of water beside usual amount. The best thing to avoid dehydration is to drink at least 8 glasses of water daily, but have in mind that on more active days you may need even more fluids. On holidays people usually drink more beverages such as soda, alcohol drinks, juices and cocktails. Although you can avoid yourself some treats in nutrition so you enjoy also in various drinks, don't forget to drink also spring water and even green tea that will improve your digestion and help you to avoid bloating that can occur after all this different food and drinks that you consume in short time.  The following advice is good for holiday time but also in your general life - always carry a bottle of water with you. In that way, it is more likely that you will drink more water and also track easier how many you actually drink every day.

5. KITCHEN CREATIVITY

There is no better time to be creative in your kitchen than holidays time. You can make so many different food which could be healthy, delicious and also look amazing. Challenge yourself to try some new healthy recipes that you have never made before, so now is a good time to surprise your guests. Improving some old recipes could also be a good idea if you are not ready to experiment with completely new dishes. What you should do is just change some ingredients little bit and make every dish more healthy so you and your beloved may enjoy in food without regression. We all love when food look nice, so try also to be creative as much as you can to make every meal looking tempting. In that way, your dear people and you will eat more of this healthy food and still enjoy, without craving so much for other junk food or cakes with too much sugar and saturated fat. Therefore, include some creativity during cooking to improve your health and also fun during holidays. 

6. REST AND SLEEP

Excitement, many obligations, and stuff to prepare, all that end with lack of sleep for almost everyone. Most of people may even don't feel tiredness during holidays, and they stay awake until late night, but consequences usually come after holidays are finished. During holiday time, it is difficult to have a quality sleep weather you are a guest or host. If you are at home and you have some guests who are staying very long, you would probably feel uncomfortable to end the party even though you are maybe already tired. On the other hand, as a guest you will avoid some cleaning after crazy party but if you stay longer enjoying in the night, you may also feel so tired until you come to your own home and prepare yourself for sleep. In addition, people who eat and drink too much could have problem with sleep and after several similar days of partying, your body would be exhausted in every way. Think about that next time before you deprive yourself from sleeping and if is possible take at least some naps to rest when you don't sleep enough. Help your body and organism to always function well so you may feel and look better what will definitely improve your holidays.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Written by Tamara Arapovic

Flat belly food

When it comes to flat tummy regular exercise is more than necessary but your nutrition is even more important. If you don't have regular and healthy meals, it will be difficult for you to rid of belly fat, often bloating and reveal those desired six pack, even though you workout so hard. Therefore, beside training, the key to get and maintain flat stomach and well muscle definition, is primarily in the kitchen. The following food is some of the most significant that can help you to achieve and maintain your goal of beautiful abs.

1. ALMONDS

This is good, healthy and convenient snack with many benefits. Beside they help you to build and maintain muscles, almonds also reduce cravings so prevent the possible overeating which usually leads to increased body fat. In addition, they contain vitamin E which is very good for nice skin. However, try to avoid too much salted almonds and choose rather the natural raw almonds so you don't consume unnecessary amount of sodium which increases belly fat and bloating.

2. EGGS

Powerful source of protein are definitely eggs which are mostly recommended for breakfast because they will keep you more satisfied during day and give you more energy. Additionally, eggs contain many other important vitamins, and among them is vitamin B12 which is known to help your body break down fat cells. Therefore, by eating eggs you can lose fat and maintain muscle mass thankful to high quality protein content. There are so many ways to prepare eggs so you may enjoy in various different meals almost every day.

3. SPINACH

This great vegetable should be included in your nutrition for several reasons. One of them is that spinach makes you feel full after eating even small portion and you can eat much more if you want because it contains very small amount of calories. In addition, spinach is a great source of calcium which improves muscle contraction so your workout could be even more productive. It is also high in iron that could improve your blood image. Well prepared spinach has a very good taste and may be combined with different food such as meat, eggs or used as one of ingredients in sandwiches.

4.BEANS

Some people avoid this very healthy food because of uncomfortable gas they may have after eating beans, but various healthy benefits should outweigth that fact. Beans are high antioxidant, and contain lot of fibre, vitamin B, iron, magnesium, potassium and zinc. In addition, it is also high in protein which maintain and improve your muscles. Regularly consumption of beans could significantly improve your health, prevent serious diseases, and help you keep wanted body image.

5. GRAPEFRUIT

Fruit very high in vitamin C and other vitamins such as potassium and lycopene. Grapefruit boosts your immune system, but can also help you to manage your weight. According to many researches, people who were eating only half of grapefruit before every meal, lost more pounds without changing too much other eating habits. However, the best results would be achieved if your diet is well balanced and regular, along with daily consumption of grapefruit. You could also consume this little bit bitter fruit by making fresh squeezed juice of it, or add some oranges to make it more sweet.

6. APPLES

Unvoidable in healthy nutrition and diet for flat stomach. Beside their many health benefits, apples can help you to get and maintain your ideal body weigth. Additionaly, apples increase hydration of your body because they are full of water and also keep you satify reducing cravings thanks to their high content of fibre. Fruit such as apple requires more chewing so make you think you are eating more, what helps you control your calorie intake. At least one apple per day and belly fat goes away!

7.WHOLE GRAIN

Whether your goal is to lose or maintain body weigth, including whole grain in your nutrition may improve your results. Whole grain will help you burn more fat because they slowly release their energy, so your insulin levels won't rise and drop down too quickly what usually leads to fat storing in your body. Not only whole grain help with weigth management but also keep your heart healthy and make you feel more energetic. For best and long term results, you should consume whole grain on daily basis, and some examples are bread, pasta or muesli of whole grain.

8.GARLIC

Although is not appealling by its smell, garlic is great for you immune sytem and for body fat burning. Actually, garlic is known to work like thermogenic, so it speeds up your metabolism rate while increasing the burning of calories coming from fat. It is so low in calories but contain little of everything that our body needs to be healthy. For instance, it is high is Allicin, the sulfur compound that improves overall health. Consuming raw garlic is the best way to get all benefits. Even little amount of garlic but regular will give you amazing results considering your health and body weigth.

9.BROCCOLI

Great source of vitamins and high in fibre so your tummy feel full while also getting the most of necessary vitamins. Steamed or raw broccoli would be the best because they keep all nutrients but you may still get some benefits too if you add them in soup or combine them in other ways. However, what you should avoid is too much creamy sauced broccoli or other unnecesaary calorie intake.

10.DARK CHOCOLATE

While the most of sweets should be avoided in healthy nutrition, dark chocolate is actually recommended for weight loss and healthy heart. It contains compounds known as flavonids, that act like antioxidant and also healthy monosaturated fats that slow down the absorption of sugar into blood stream. Make sure that your choice of dark chocolate is with at least 70% of cacao to get all benefits from it. The nutrients of cacao will keep your hearth healthy and decrease risk of many serious diseases. Beside eating piece of dark chocolate, you can also make a hot cacao beverage, with fat free milk and real cacao powder. However, remember that moderation is the key for everything.

11. GREEK YOGURT

During fat loss it is important to maintain your muscle mass and even increase it because more muscles you have, more calories and body fat you will burn. To build and keep your muscles, your body needs more protein intake and one of great way to fuel your body with protein is consuming fat free yogurt, preferable the greek yogurt which is higher in protein than the regular one. In addition, yogurt is full of probiotics that help your body to clean well your intestines and prevent bloating.

12. CUCUMBERS

They are full of water and very low in calories so you may enjoy in this refershing vegetable as much as you want while losing this stubborn belly fat. Cucumbers can also help you to decrease and even prevent bloating because they improve your digestion. Try to include cucumbers as often as you can in your daily nutrition. Add them in salads, or include in sandwiches to eat healthier even on the go.

The food above are just some of the most beneficial to burn belly fat and improve your body image. Moreover, by including this food in your diet you may improve your overall health, but make sure that you always consume a variety of food that will make your nutrition well balanced. Strive to eat the best quality food and live in healthy body which leads to happier mind!

Written by Tamara Arapovic