Healthy Living balances your calories for Christmas

By now the hams and turkeys are probably ready for the oven and the cakes ready to be sliced for that sumptuous Christmas meal on Friday. But before you sit down for the feast, Healthy Living has some tips on how to balance the amount of calories you will be consuming.

Marleni Cuellar, Reporting
Christmas is finally here. Most people are looking forward to all the festivities that lie ahead. The last thing any of us want to think about is the amount of calories associated with our feasting. But considering that our caloric intake may sky-rocket to almost two to three times above our normal daily recommended intake; it may help to think about how we’ll be burning off those extra calories from the X-Mas ham and rum popo. We checked in with Nutritionist and Fitness Trainer, Karen Rosito, to find out the top three ways to get through the holidays without holding on to the Christmas calories.

Karen Rosito, Nutritionist & Fitness Trainer
“After Christmas January 2010, the best and the cheapest; number one walking, because most people that can should walk. Number two is Aerobics and when I say aerobics I don’t mean joining a gym and trying to keep up with any instructor with steps and all that. I mean aerobic dancing as in Punta and salsa and meringue and everything else that we have here. Creole music dancing and Number thee is riding. Either on a stationary bike or on any beach cruiser any mountain bike, anything. So those are the three easiest and cheapest way to get in shape.”

Although it may seem like quite the feat to get up and get active during the holiday season, it may not be as big a sacrifice as you think. Rosito suggests a mere twenty minutes a day can add up to just what you need.

Karen Rosito
“If you were never fit in 2009 and you want to just start in 2010: twenty minutes a day. Twenty minutes a day every day. Some people might disagree and say twenty minutes a day four times a week. That’s not enough. It’s just eighty minutes which is a little over an hour and that’s not enough. Twenty minutes, seven days a week and I’m sure most people can spare that. For a one hundred and fifty pound female about two hundred calories which is equal to a beer, a coke, a slice of white cake: thin slice you could see through it, a half a glass of rumpopo. So that’s how we exchange calories if you take those two hundred calories and you multiply it by seven its almost a half a pound of fat a week. It adds up.”

Staying active during the holidays may also be a way to jump start the New Year’s resolution of getting healthy. Of course with any exercise that you undertake, proper form is of utmost importance. So a walk to the store gossiping with a friend may not exactly be considered the type of calorie burner you need.

Karen Rosito
“Walking leisurely means that you can walk and hold a conversation without feeling out of breath or gasping for air. Walking to exercise you want to walk to take your heart rate up for at least over one hundred and twenty beats per minute. It’s important to walk upright. Walk with your arms relaxed. Strike with the heel first rock on the toes or the ball of your feet. Important to walk and try to squeeze the glutes and tighten the quads, the muscles of the legs, when you’re walking.”

As for those who prefer a faster pace like jogging or riding. Rosito offers some tips of doing it right. Having realistic goals in what your body can endure and also using the right gear must be kept in mind.

Karen Rosito
“Let’s say you wanna jog or trot. First thing don’t do it if you’re like twenty to twenty-five pounds overweight. It’s more beneficial if you walk all the time because with your weight and the distance you go you will burn calories without hurting yourself I say if you can jog a lamppost length and then you rest one. So you take up the heart rate and then you bring it back down that way when you finish your twenty, thirty, forty-five minutes you would have burned all your calories without hurting yourself. What most people own is a beach cruiser or mountain bikes, First thing you make sure is that you have proper tennis shoes. You can’t ride bike in slippers and ride good and that you have something to clip in the feet. You ride straight up always tuck the tummy in so that you work the abdominal muscle. Because remember you no get abs or a good waist by doing a thousand abs. you get a good waist by burning the fat that covers the abdominal muscle. So whatever you do, make sure the spine is erect that you’re not hunching and that the seat is not too high or too low.”

As for fitting in aerobics exercise, it’s a lot simpler than you’d think.

Karen Rosito
“Put on wah Supa G, wah four songs and even if you can’t Punta you try. And there’s salsa there’s meringue, there’s Mr. Peter’s Boom and Chime that when you hear it you want dance but that is aerobic activity or you walk run, walk run or you could walk and squat.”

The key is moderation. Christmas does only come once a year but the pounds we pack on may stick around for much longer.