• Food, filled with calories, fats and tons of it! Plus the never ending, non-stop buffet.
• Booze. Hey, I'm no Buzz Kill, but during the holidays we consume more alcohol than most other times during the year, and the drinks we drink are heavier like Bailey's Irish Crème.
• Lack of Exercise. This time of year many stay away from exercise. We always have an excuse not to...but I'm going to give you an excuse to exercise this season.

First of all, during the holiday season, the average person packs on from 5 - 15lbs. How much work are you going to do AFTER the damage is done to get that weight off. And if you're already in need of losing weight or even if you need to get your fitness level up so you can be a stronger, healthier happier person, then starting now is important....Lets break that down.

If you can average 1.5lbs of weight loss a week after the holidays being on a strict diet and exercise routine, it would take 10 weeks. Most people won't lose much faster, and fast weight loss is not a healthy way to lose it! It puts a strain on your body and you're just losing weight, not body fat if you do it faster. You're more likely to put most of it back on.

Stress is also an important factor in weight gain. This time of year lends itself to all kinds of stresses. Exercise reduces stress, increases productivity, and makes you feel generally happier. So don't stress, Exercise instead and help keep those pounds off by DE-STRESSING!

Everybody is fixated on NEW YEARS. New Years is too late. You've already gained the weight. So what can you do to make your holidays a non worrisome time of year! We have enough stress.

Well, first sit down! (NO, not there! Nah, just kidding, sit anywhere)

Step 1 - Take a calendar out. Find 30 minutes to 1 hour for 3 non consecutive days that you can set aside for resistance exercise. Don't go by old thought patterns and give excuses not to use a certain time, look hard. Write down Resistance training.

Step 2 - Ok, . Now go find 3 other days to do cardio. Just 20 minutes of interval training. Got it? Write it down! Write Cardio.....Good! (come in and find out what interval training is)

Step 3 - Watch what you eat. Yeah, you know. But the great thing about exercise is, it gives you more incentive to work on the diet part (not DIETING, I'm talking about watching your diet...what, and how much you eat). I want you to start eating less. I'm not a Nutritionist, but you can get results from taking in less calories. If you ate what you eat now and eat less, you lose weight. If you change your diet and eat less, you lose even more! Write down everything you eat. EVERYTHING! you'll find out where you've gone wrong so you can fix it!

if you write it down, you're more likely to do it. Your end result with all three steps will be a slimmer you by New Years, not someone who is 15 lbs heavier! You'll already have a jump on it, the hardest part will be over. You'll already have gotten your body used to the workouts, the cardio and be stronger, lighter and happier.

All three of things are essential to weight loss and fitness. Reducing calories and fats reduces weight. Increasing cardio, increase conditioning, and burns excess calories helping to reduce weight and increase fitness. Resistance training burns calories, increases conditioning, increases lean tissue which burns body fat, and increases your strength and feeling of well being!

Don't let another holiday SABOTAGE your LIFE! Because it does. It's as if we were given a license to do all the things that will endanger our diets, fitness and lives.

Lets make the holidays extra special, and the New Year a truly NEW YEAR!