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.

    增肥季节--我们都这么称呼它。这个季节始于万圣节，到一月才结束。在这个季节由于节日太多，我们被大量的肉，派，小饼干，巧克力，酒精轰炸。尤其是像我们这样住在北方的人们，天气冷的都不想动。以上种种往往会使人们在3个月时间里重个5到10磅。面对这个无法避免的“增肥季节”，我有几个小建议。

    在工作时：

    避免办公室里的诱惑需要一点小手段。在你的办公桌附近似乎总能看到几袋子糖果，几篮子饼干，多余，又有点战略意味。如果你的目标是减肥，那么给你的血液里是不是来一点糖的补充可不是什么好主意。

    如果你能经受住甜食的诱惑，你真厉害，你比大部分人都强了。不过我觉得没什么必要因此而破坏办公室的气氛。这样不仅会让你自己遇上更糟的局面，如果在假日前后你的工作压力会变大，你遇到的局面就尤为糟糕。如果我不得不在两个对我身体有害的局面中选择一个的话：要么吃点零食，要么不吃，但是要顶着别人的一张臭脸，顶着被认为是不爱社交的人的压力。我认为后者更糟糕。压力的破坏力可比糖果大得多了。

    如果你和我一样，每逢到了这个时间就忙的不可开交，那么要抽时间锻炼就比较难了。关键是要做些简单的运动，要勤，要持续。象蹲立，举重这类锻炼可以全面消除你的压力。每天你只需花15分钟就能做一点锻炼，比起什么都不做可好多了。

    在聚会上

    每年这个时候你大约都能遇上一到两个聚会邀请。在聚会上很容易找到很多增肥食品。如果你在这样的聚会上，我建议你去找找蔬菜的位置，在某个地方你总能找到一碟蔬菜，还没什么人去吃。再吃美味可是又容易让你长胖的食物之前，吃点水果蔬菜用纤维点点肚子可是个好主意。纤维不仅让你觉得饱，还能象海绵一样减少脂肪被吸收。

    提起酒精，一定要注意你喝的酒是由什么混合出来的。酒精可以本身还有热量，当和含糖奎宁水或可乐混合在一起之后，就成了减肥克星。你可以用低卡路里饮料苏打水代替酒精饮料。同时，既然你参加的是个聚会，你就要多动动。四处走走，跳舞摇摆。这才是聚会的目的嘛。虽然跳舞燃烧的卡路里不多，不过比起什么都不做要好得多了。

    在一年的这个时间里可不值得节食，节食给你制造的麻烦可不少。就算少吃几个派或者少喝几杯酒对你长远的计划也不有特别大的帮助。我给能你最好的建议就是放松自己，在不同的地方做不同的聪明的选择。