They say the average person consumes more than 6,000 calories on Christmas day. And a big Christmas dinner usually isn’t even the main culprit; it’s the nonstop snacking and drinking that sneaks up on you. One day of indulging certainly isn’t the end of the world (and you shouldn’t have to count calories on Christmas!), but the holiday season as a whole can be a bit of a bump in the road for those trying to live a healthy lifestyle. If you start getting together with friends for holiday drinks and parties in early December, and find sweets sitting out at home and in the office for several weeks, chances are you’ll pack on a few pounds by the time the festivities wind down on January 2. Is it any wonder that the most popular New Year’s resolutions every year revolve around getting fit and losing weight?
Some lucky people find that the extra pounds just melt away again as soon as they return to their usual post-holiday routine, but others struggle a bit. Although reaching and keeping a healthy weight involves a combination of diet and exercise, research has shown that most people underestimate both the number of calories they eat and the amount of exercise needed to burn off those calories. (Would you guess that a cup of eggnog clocks in at…
