How to Keep Your Hourglass Figure During the Holidays
CASSIE BREWER
If you’ve been blessed with an hourglass figure, you have a defined waist and curvy body, with your chest and hips in beautiful proportion. You don’t want to lose your sultry shape over the holidays but if you’re putting your gym routine on the back burner, don’t worry. Here are some clever ways to keep your hourglass shape looking fabulous with fitness and diet tips.
Avoid Waist Wideners!
To keep your shapely waist, you should avoid junk food. Although the holidays might make junk food feel even easier to indulge in, these foods are high in saturated fat and have been linked to obesity. Rather switch unhealthy fried foods for more nutritious alternatives without losing any tastiness. For instance, bake kale chips and potatoes instead of frying them.
Fill Your Schedule With Squats
Squats are a great workout to tone your bottom and sculpt your shoulders so that you maintain your hourglass figure. They’re the perfect holiday exercise because you can do them everywhere: while you’re waiting for your bath to run, when you’re taking a five-minute break during cleaning chores, or when you’re in the kitchen cooking up a storm. Intensify your squats by holding dumbbells in both hands.
Ready, Set, Run!
Who says you need the gym to keep your hourglass figure looking stunning? Adding a bit of cardio to your day is easier than you think. Even if you only have 20 minutes at your disposal, it’s enough to burn calories from all the Christmas puddings and keep fat in check. Great holiday cardio exercises include playing sport with your kids, going for a run with the dog, or having a fast walk to the nearby shops and back.
Do Some Bicycle Crunches
Another good exercise to train your waist is to lie on your back with your hands behind your head and then bring your knees up to your chest. Raise your shoulders and straighten out one leg while the other is brought to your chest. The key is to twist your abdomen so your elbow can reach your opposite knee. The movement is like riding a bike. To maximize your workout, wear a waist trainer that will help you sculpt your waist.
Eat Your Probiotics
Make sure to add probiotic-rich foods to your holiday diet. Picks such as yogurt, kefir and sauerkraut are fermented foods that keep your intestine’s bacteria in check. Research has found that gut flora can affect your waistline - when women were trying to lose abdominal fat after pregnancy, probiotic capsules reduced their waist measurements. You can easily add probiotics to your festive table, such as with a delicious orange, apple and cranberry sauerkraut recipe.
Choose Ab-Friendly Foods
Toned abs are important to make your hourglass figure extra beautiful, so you want to reach for foods that fight abdominal fat to keep you lean. Surprisingly, some holiday foods can help you!
Leafy green salads. Salads are always a must for the holiday table, but throw in leafy green vegetables as these contain calcium. Not just good for healthy teeth and bones, calcium aids muscle contraction so it can strengthen your workouts.
Delicious winter soups. These are more than just comforting during the cold season. Studies have found that people who ate low-fat, cream-based soups twice a day managed to lose weight more successfully than people who didn’t consume soup.
Nuts and berries. Pop them into salads, desserts or just snack on them. Almonds reduce the body’s absorption of fat while berries are packed with fibre the body needs so it doesn’t absorb calories from other foods you eat! Fibre literally traps particles of food and releases them from your body before they’re digested.
Maintain your beautiful hourglass shape over the holidays by sneaking in some easy exercises and snacking on delicious as well as healthy foods.
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Cassie Brewer is a journalist in Southern California. She is passionate about helping others look and feel their best and finds that one of the best ways to accomplish this is through the foods that we eat.