A Plan to Maintain Weight Through the Holidays

This is a tough time of year for me as far as exercise and controlling my weight.  It’s a perfect storm of holiday food and parties, cold weather that makes it hard to exercise outside and winter clothes that make it easy to cover up a few extra pounds.

So am I going to give in to it and throw away the decent shape I got into for my half marathon?  The honest answer is yes, some days I will.  I like to eat, drink and be merry as much as the next guy.  I can usually fend off gaining weight because I will run farther.  But it’s hard to run outside all winter in Iowa’s cold, wind, snow and ice.

Believe it or not, I understand when people say, “I hate to exercise!”  I understand it because I don’t really like much exercise other than running.  Nothing else makes me feel as good while allowing me to chat with a friend.  I have a friend who runs every day in any weather because it burns so many calories. She’s afraid to stop for fear she’ll gain the weight she lost through running.

I used to run in almost any weather but I’ve gotten wimpier (or maybe smarter) lately.  Now that I’ve lived in Iowa for over 50 years, I know I have to have options other than running or I won’t be getting any exercise at all!  I belong to a gym that I barely stepped foot into this summer but has everything I could ever want to stay in shape. No excuses here…

I created a plan to get through the holidays until New Year’s Day.  My only goal is to maintain my current weight.  I don’t care if I have six-pack abs or can bench press 100 pounds or even 25 pounds.  I’m just trying to survive here.

Continue reading this post on Kathi Prien’s blog, Breaking 50