lose that holiday weight!

Ahn ahn, rice, dodo, efo, iyan...omo! I declare today a ‘weightloss holiday’ Tomorrow, I will watch my weight!

Just when you're finally getting your weight under control, boom! It's the holidays, and food is everywhere. I can never understand the thing with Nigerians and rice, it’s almost like if there is no rice, the party hasn’t started. I fear that at this rate, its only a matter of before chickens become extinct!

Oh the birthdays, house parties, events, clubbing and do not forget, the owanbe’s, how on earth are we supposed to watch our weight when everyone seems to be getting married in December?

Fear not guys, for I will not sit here and tell you to hold your breath through the holidays to avert temptation but rather to fall into temptation with dignity! Instead of eating 10pieces of fried meat like you normally do during the holidays, try eating 5 instead or even better 2 and walk away, at least you ate meat right? Another tip to minimizing the weight gain during the party season is ‘never arrive at the party hungry” eat before you leave your house, that way, you can reduce the over-indulgence at the party buffet

The biggest problem when trying to lose holiday weight is that the holiday routine becomes “normal.” In other words, you continue buying the ice cream and cake long after zenith bank has removed its Christmas decoration. While it’s okay to add a little weight during the holidays, do not forget to get it off immediately after the holidays. Don’t be found 20days after the holidays still carrying that weight around, if not, you’ll just keep piling on the weight. The holiday is over, let it be over with your mouth and belly too and work on getting back to your pre-holiday weight

Did you pick up an habit during the holidays? Drop it!, do you now have to take a bottle of coke after every meal? Stop it!  or do you still have the chocolates your cousin from canada brought back home for the holidays? Give it out! While you are at it, Cut out the late night eating too…

Stop over eating. First cut out the junk, remember that the holiday is over, next is to try to reduce the amount of food on your plate each time you eat, try not to eat until your belly is swollen. Instead of sitting around feeling stuffed and uncomfortable after a big meal, get up and walk around.

 Drink lots of water.  The importance of water cannot be over-emphasized. Although, water is not associated with direct weightloss, it still has an important role to play in metabolism and portion control  Drink a full 8-oz glass of water when you first get up in the morning, before every meal, and before you go to bed at night.  Another little trick is to take a drink of water between every bite of food.  All of this will help you to eat less and improve your digestion too. Also try lacing your water with lime incase drinking that much water get to boring. Say goodbye to the alcohol for a while please

Exercise! I know that right after the holidays is work work work! So there is really no time to exercise, but there are a couple of exercise you do even while you are work!: pull your seat back and squat even while you are working or maintain a good sitting posture, Sit up straight, and breathe, Try Pulling in your belly. Hold for 8-10 seconds, and repeat several times. Stretch your upper body as far as you can. Try walking around during your break time. But if you can make out time, take advantage of this and lose that holiday weight

The problem with holiday weight gain is that people don’t remember to lose it afterwards. The key is to get back to your old, successful eating routine immediately.

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How to Sneak Exercise Into Our Busy 9ja Routine

wake up- traffic- work- traffic- home- bed...spells STRESS!

where is the time?! 24 hours a day doesn't seem like nearly enough time to fit in work, school, and family, errands and of course, traffic!. did you know that an average Nigerian spends almost half of his life in Traffic? how do we then make out “me-time” talk less of workout-time?. Its almost impossible! I found out the hard way that riding against the current of stress will only fuel exhaustion.

Knowing the importance of exercise, I started out with the determination of a bull, deciding to do 30 minutes work out before taking my bath and dressing up for work and another 30 minutes at nights before bed and also jogging on Saturdays before sun comes out. Yes, it worked out the first week, and early second before I started backsliding. The stress was getting to me. I would work all day, only to end up sitting in 3hrs in lagos traffic, Will I do my sit ups when I get home 10p.m? definitely not!, all I think about is how good my bed looks under the yellow bulb. So I made a decision to shift my work outs to weekends, who would complain about not having enough time on weekends right? Promising myself vigorous work outs on Saturdays especially, to make up for the week, I mapped out a plan.

“wake 6:00 am, do a one hour jogging around my area before the sun comes.

          7:00am- get home and skip (30mins)

          7:30pm- a mix of different routine (30mins)

A 2hours intense work out plan. Still burning with determination, first week went as planned, but by the second week, it was getting uncomfortable, my bed was my biggest foe, 6:00am! Haba! After the stress of the week? Saturdays are my no-joke-with-sleep day. So I shifted the time an hour forward, but the still didn't help, especially with the blinding sun and the evenings were worse!. Subsequently, I began to look for mental excuses to stall or just not do it. So I decided, may be if I paid for it, I will try harder, but between traffic, work, stress and tiredness, I just couldn't find the motivation to go to the gym.

Motivated by the need to exercise but hindered by the lack of time to do so, I have finally figured out how to beat our 9ja induced “hurry”. My failure has open my eyes to see that everything you eat contains calories, and everything you do uses calories, including sleeping, breathing, and digesting food. Any physical activity in addition to what you normally do will burn those extra calories. No matter how small or insignificant it may seem. A simple standing, sweeping or even tapping your feet will burn calories.

 SO DON'T CHANGE YOUR ROUTINE, EXPLOIT IT! as the time for exercise in hidden within our daily routine!

Do not drive or take a bike or bus when we can walk! We are so guilty of this.

Forget the elevator! Take the stairs.

Dont send Adamu to buy your lunch or the new intern to make the photocopies, instead walk down and do it yourself because believe it or not those little things will add up at the end of the day.

Park farther from the office building or stop before your bustop and walk the rest!.

Lay the bed, the stretching will be burn more calories.

WHILE IN TRAFFIC,

Sit up straight, and breathe,

Try Pulling in your belly. Hold for 8-10 seconds, and repeat several times.

Stretch your upperbody as far as you can.

Ignore the gala and plaintain chips hawkers, 1 gala has more calories than a cup of white rice

We can sneak exercise into our routine without having to make out time for it, by simply staying actively conscious and taking advantage of the opportunities.

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