The infamous "after the holiday" diet

I'm sure right now a huge portion of the US is either recommitting - or starting - some form of a diet. After a long holiday weekend that generally consists of irregular eating and sampling of goodies, its common to wake up the day after and make a decision to get back on track. This is actually the most popular time to start a diet - with seven major food-based holidays in the year, that technically gives you seven different times to undertake a new healthy way of eating - out of 12 months, that's not too bad! The problem is, for most people, that new commitment only lasts an average of two weeks before its tossed aside in favor of the old lifestyle.

But if you look at it this way - if you really started a diet seven times a year, stuck to it for at least two weeks, losing even an average of 5 pounds - that's 35 pounds a year. The key is to fall off the diet without falling off the wagon. How do you do that? Well, you may slack off on your decision to eat only fruit and salad daily (who can stick to THAT?) but don't slack off on your dedication to MORE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY. Studies prove that adding even a small amount of daily exercise will increase your metabolism, make you look and feel better, and REDUCE your cravings for the unhealthy snacks.

It's nice to get that initial weight loss that new diets give, but its difficult to stick to most. However, if you can keep up the daily 30 minute walks, and slowly add in some light weights along the way, perhaps pick up a weekend kickboxing class - you will find that while you haven't been 'dieting', you've unceremoniously adopted a healthier lifestyle, and it didn't even feel that hard. So you tried to do low carb but barely made it through induction? No problem, keep up the exercise, keep the good endorphins pumping, don't let your motivation slip - you'll soon find that you naturally crave less and less sugar. Maybe when the next "after holiday" rolls around, you can try the diet as written again - with the sugar cravings already out of the way, it will be easier to work on curbing the starch monster.

The biggest thing is to stay committed to MOVING and BREATHING, and all of the rest will fall into place. Don't beat yourself up over cheats, just walk it off, pump it out, and keep it moving. I can't stress how important exercise is to any diet regime, whether its Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem or Atkins, don't let anyone tell you that its not necessary or that it doesn't matter. It makes the difference between temporary weight loss and long term body reshaping.

To that end, I'm posting my favorite walking or workout mp3s! I zipped them all in one file but feel free to delete the ones you don't care for. Load them into your mp3 player of choice and take a long walk - I guarantee this will keep you going for at least two miles. This is the playlist:

Sean Paul - (When You Gonna) Give It Up To Me
Rihanna - Please Don't Stop The Music
Fergie - Fergalicious
DMX - Get It On The Floor
Daikenkai - (song from DDR)
Blackalicious - Alphabet Aerobics
Ciara - Get Up
Bubba Sparks - Miss NewBooty
Kanye West - Workout Plan
Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice
Linkin Park f. Jay Z - Numb/Encoure
Missy Elliott - Lose Control
Justin Timberlake - LoveStoned
Van Halen - Dreams
Foo Fighters - The Best of You

(Yeah, I went way back with Van Halen, but I could really work out to any of their entire albums!)

Download Workout Playlist