Winter can be a great time to stay indoors, snuggle up, and enjoy warm foods. Your body naturally wants to add a few pounds and slip into a sort of “hibernation” mode.

Because of this, it can be difficult to prevent gaining weight during the holiday season. In fact, over 75 percent of Americans gain weight during this time of year, and studies show that unless your diet and exercise schedule remains the same, you could gain an average of 6-7 pounds per year!

Here are several tips and tricks to help prevent those unwanted pounds from sneaking onto your body:

Take a Shopping Trip

It’s the holiday season, and you probably have to buy gifts. Take a trip to a mall, superstore, or any large big-box retailer and just walk. Aim for at least 30 minutes of walking for best results. Travel through aisles, explore new stores, allow colorful products to distract you just a little bit... the 30 minutes will be over before you know it. As an added bonus, your shopping list will already be taken care of.  

Don’t Keep It In The House

Avoid having your favorite junk foods or snacks in the house, especially during bad weather. Staying indoors and watching a movie can make the food awfully tempting to snack away on, and without realizing it the whole plate could be empty if you aren’t paying attention.

It’s All About Portion Control

It can be hard to prevent yourself from eating more food than usual, especially when the cold weather beckons for you to eat those toasty, comfort foods. A great way to practice better portion control is to start eating your meals in a bowl instead of a plate whenever possible.

Whether it’s breakfast, lunch, or dinner, having your food in a bowl will reduce the amount you eat. If it has to be on a plate, split it into two servings and immediately put the second serving into a food storage container before eating. If you’re at a restaurant, many times you can ask for half of the meal to be placed in a container before it reaches you, or you can simply ask for a to-go container and move the food yourself once it arrives.  

Melt Fat with Bodyweight HIIT Exercises

Lastly, if you can’t make it to the gym or don’t want to step outside, perform exercises inside your home using just your body’s weight. Combine bodyweight exercises like push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, planks, and air squats with high intensity interval training, or HIIT.

With HIIT, you want to do a short burst of high-energy exercise followed by a shorter period of rest. Using the bodyweight example, do each exercise for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, and do it a total of four rounds each. Studies show that an hour of HIIT is much more effective at burning fat and boosting metabolism than standard cardio, making it a great tool to fight potential weight gain.

Listen in as Ray Doustdar, the Everyday Juicer, provides helpful tips and tricks for avoiding unwanted winter weight.