Beat The Holiday Bulge

Tip For The Day: How to stay lean and mean (well, maybe not mean) this holiday season, without blowing a ton of cash.  Because who has money to burn?  You need it for gifts and travel and entertainment and party clothes and, and, AND.

Tip For Tomorrow: Far be it from me to withhold my opinions from you.  Tune in tomorrow for reviews on hair care, skin care and frozen food stuffs.  All are under $20, and all are available at your local Target, of course.  Because everything (except for Sunsilk products) can be found at Target if you look hard enough.

Further Elucidation Of My Cheap Deal: Raise your hand if you’ve already broken into the Halloween candy.  Yeah, me too.  I’ve already consumed three bags of Hershey’s Kisses, and trick or treating is still two days away.

This time of year – Halloween through New Year’s Eve – is the toughest time to stay on track with proper eating and exercise.  Too many treats at the office, to many parties to attend, too much holiday shopping, too much travel to see loved ones, and not enough time to focus on staying fit.  What’s a cheap and fabulous person to do?  Besides start a savings plan for liposuction?

Here are a few thrifty ways to watch what you eat and get decent exercise this holiday season and beyond:

1.  Online calorie counters, food journals, low-cal recipes, and other diet apps. There are a slew of sites wanting to help you eat less and eat better.  Why?  BECAUSE THE INNERWEBS LOVES YOU.  Also, because they have paid advertisers on their sites, and the more people who visit, the more they can charge for ad space.  It’s a win-win situation for us all.

Freebies:  www.my-calorie-counter.com, www.myfitnesspal.com, Free calorie counter in Google Apps.

Paid programs that also have free options:  www.ediets.com, www.diet.com

2.  The Library, aka Source of All Free Stuff. Health/Diet magazines and books are expensive, yo.  Why pay good money for something you can check out of the library for free?  Your local library has magazines, books, manuals, cookbooks, exercise DVDs and VHS tapes – everything you need to kick-start a healthy eating and exercise plan.  Plus free Internet, so you can look up those sites I mentioned in #1.

3.  Join a gym… perhaps. I have reservations about telling you to join a gym.  Probably because I know far too many folks with memberships who never use them.  Paying for a gym you won’t use is akin to throwing away your money.  GAH!  It’s like poison to me… it BURNS.

However, if you do want to join a gym, here are two tips – one from yours truly, and one from Brittnie, a Fox 9 Morning Buzz viewer.  Mine: see if your local community center has a gym.  Their fees tend to be much less expensive than the name-brand gyms.  Brittnie’s:  negotiate down your fee.  Gym memberships are down, so gyms are hurting, which means they’re more willing to give you a deal.

Bonus Tip from Jason Matheson: see if your health insurance will pay for your membership.  There are stipulations – such as, you have to prove you’re going to the gym on a regular basis – but it’s a heck of a deal.  And one I always forget, as my health insurance sucks and doesn’t offer this.

4.  Cheaper exercise. The two cheapest forms of exercise you can do – anytime, anywhere, no matter where you travel – are walking and jumping rope.  To walk, all you need is a path and a decent pair of shoes (more on that in #5).  To jump rope, all you need is a rope and proper ceiling clearance.  Best of all, jumping rope for 15 minutes burns 171 calories off a 150 lbs person.

Jumping rope is also NOT hard on your knees as many people believe.  Because you land on your toes and roll down, it’s actually less impact on your joints than running or jogging.  However, it IS really freaking hard work, so you’ll have to build up to that 15 minutes.  I recommend starting with 2 and going from there.

5.  Inexpensive footwear. You don’t have to spend a fortune on good shoes.  If you’re walking or doing low-impact aerobics, you don’t need those super-sprongy Nike deals with the springs in the heels.  You just need a decent gym shoe with good support – available at Target, Walmart and Payless.  I like to read the customer reviews first, and then try on the best rated shoes at the store.

If you’re a runner, or exercise like a fiend, you’ll need better shoes – like Sauconys or New Balance.  You can find these high performance shoes for less at stores like DSW, Marshalls and TJMaxx.  Brittnie, our fearless viewer, has this tip on shoes: if you wear a size 8 or smaller (in women’s), buy kids shoes instead.  They’re always cheaper than women’s, so you get more shoe for less money.  My caveat?  Make sure the kid’s shoe fits your arch properly and doesn’t slip off your heel.  Otherwise, you’ll do more damage to your feet than if you wore a less expensive women-sized shoe.

Let me ask you – how do you stay in shape during the holiday season?  Or do you just throw in the towel until the New Year?