Fit tips for avoiding holiday weight gain: Week 3 of our plan

Let's talk turkey. Week one and two of our month-long "November to remember fitness plan" focused on the initial steps necessary to ease into exercise. This week's fitness formula is designed to help manage holiday weight gain, as Thanksgiving marks the start of season's greetings and eatings. While food-filled festivities and celebratory sips make it challenging to avoid bulking up, maintaining your pre-feast physique isn't impossible.

Try these tried and true holiday fit tips:

Become a morning person.  Those who rise early to exercise have the advantage of setting the pace for the remainder of the day. You are less likely to binge after an intense fitness circuit, and even if you do, you have a leg up on those calorie-dense and decadent dishes since you already expended energy earlier in the day.

Work the room.  While it is tempting to binge on a bowl of mom's bacon wrapped biscuits, the safer strategy is to make yourself a small plate of appetizers and then start mingling. Save some serious calories by spending time before dinner socializing with relatives and family friends, rather than going to chow town on the hors d'oeuvres.

Walk it out. You just ate your weight in pie and now you are ready to go into hibernation, right? Wrong. Expend that stored energy by waking up and working out. If you don't trust yourself to commit to be fit after a long night of nibbling, make a plan to meet a friend at a fitness class, or make an appointment with your personal trainer. You are more likely to adhere to your routine if someone is relying on you to be there.

If your intrinsic motivation has you ready to move, try this HIIT routine at home:

Lunges: 10 reps on each leg

Repeat three times to complete one lean workout.

Ashley B. Greenblatt is a certified personal trainer and wellness coach. To learn more, visit ashleyblakefitness.com.