This might not seem like a massive number, but it can really add up over the years. Plus, as time progresses, that extra weight can cause hormone imbalances, insulin resistance and other side effects that make the weight pile on faster than Santa Claus coming down the chimney.

This winter, make a pledge to yourself that you’ll find ways to work physical activity into your week. And because it’s a festive season, get off that boring treadmill! With snow days and twinkling lights putting us all into a great mood, winter is the perfect time to enjoy the crisp outdoors, burn off a few calories and have so much fun while we’re doing it that we don’t even realize that it’s — gasp — exercise!

Casual Dancing

When the DJ calls everyone onto the dance floor at your next holiday banquet, jingle it all the way! In just one hour of shaking it on the dance floor, the average 175-lb. adult burns 198 calories.

Housework

It’s easy to break a sweat while you dust the cabinets to make room for your Christmas snow globes, and wiping down said snow globes before your mother-in-law comes over also burns a few calories. In fact, cleaning up your home for the next family holiday get-together burns almost 200 calories in an hour.

Snowskiing

Head downhill and you’ll burn off 330 calories worth of Christmas junkfood. Head crosscountry instead, and the calories burned jump to moer than 460 calories.

Snowshoeing

Snowshoeing is the perfect way to immerse yourself in nature and squeeze a hike into even the most snowy of days. This classic Christmas pasttime will burn you almost 530 calories in an hour.

Walking

Take a brisk walk around the neighborhood after dinner, and you’ll burn just over 250 calories. The fresh air can wake you up after indulging in a bit too much food. Research has shown that daily walks can also brighten your mood, the perfect way to keep a cheerful attitude when the days are cold and short (and when family awkwardness often bubbles to the surface).

Practice Winter Safety

While enjoying your favorite winter activities, don’t forget that it also exposes you to a few safety hazards. Don’t let a winter hazard keep you away from the mistletoe. The CDC recommends the following safety precautions this holiday:

• Wear appropriate outdoor clothing: layers of light, warm clothing; mittens; hats; scarves; and waterproof boots.
• Sprinkle cat litter or sand on icy patches.
• Learn safety precautions to follow when outdoors.
  • Be aware of the wind chill factor.
  • Work slowly when doing outside chores.
  • Take a buddy and an emergency kit when you are participating in outdoor recreation.
  • Carry a cell phone.
• Protect your family from carbon monoxide.
  • Keep grills, camp stoves, and generators out of the house, basement and garage.
  • Locate generators at least 20 feet from the house.
  • Leave your home immediately if the CO detector sounds, and call 911.

To take running as an example: I began running in the morning at the time just before the sun rises, and as I did my morning run, the sky became an amazing display of colors. I would look up at the sky as I ran, taking in this daily miracle, take a deep breath, and say to myself, “What a glorious day!” It was truly a celebration of life. The next morning, I would look forward to greeting the new day this way. It was a pleasure.

Another example: making your exercise or other activity a social activity can make it fun. You might go cycling with a group, for example, and chat with them as you ride. Or run with a group. If you do this, you don’t even realize you’re working out!

Yet another example: Let’s say you want to keep track of your expenses each day, or write every morning. Well, you could make a little ritual where you input your expenses in your spreadsheet, or write for 30 minutes, while taking in your first cup of coffee in the morning. Savor the aroma and flavor of the coffee, sip it slowly while doing the activity you want. Or it could be hot chocolate, or in my case fresh berries. Whatever would make the activity a pleasure.

If your goal activity becomes a treat, you actually look forward to it. And that’s a good thing.

Choosing a gym is a lot like marriage these days: you get caught up by appearances, then you sign a piece of paper that promises “until death do us part, or at least a year or two.” Since most gyms have massive contracts that lock you in for a specified amount of time, and impart hefty penalties should you try to get out early, it’s important to dive beyond the spectacle (Shiny machines! Club music! Overenthusiastic personal trainer!) and look for the qualities that are truly necessary for a good, healthy and safe workout.

1. Costs

Research by CNBC found that the typical person pays between $40 and $50 a month for a gym membership. But don’t forget about the initiation fee, which often ranges in the $100 to $200 range, plus incidental fees such as add-ons for classes or personal training.

2. Equipment

Some gyms have a lot of machines. Others put more of an emphasis on free weights. Identify your training style and make sure the gym has the specific equipment you need.

3. Crowds

Visit the gym on a day and a time that you would normally work out. Then,  come back one or two more days at the same time. Are the machines you would need available, or do you have to wait for 20 minutes before the things you need become free?

4. Operating hours

Some gyms are open for 24 hours. Others are much more restrictive. Make sure the gym is open at the times you’ll need it most, especially on the weekends and during holidays.

5. Sanitation

Don’t work out in other people’s sweat. Look around the gym and note how clean it is. Do the staff do a good job of picking up trash from the ground? Are there an ample supply of towels and cleaning spray near the workout stations?

1. Down a Pint of Beer

Approximately 200,000 people in more than 16 research studies were analyzed by the Fondazion di Ricerca e Cura in Italy. The researchers found that men and women who drank a pint of beer every day had a 31 per cent lower risk of heart disease. That may be because beer raises your body’s levels of “healthy” high-density lipoprotein.

2. Watch a Scary Movie

In Saw, various organs get sliced and diced, but the increased heart rate triggered by horror movies may actually strengthen your heart, according to researchers at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

3. Beans, Beans are Good for Your Heart

Eating a minimum of four servings of beans every week can reduce your risk of various forms of heart disease by 22 per cent compared to people who eat one serving of beans or less per week, reports the American Institute for Cancer Research.

4. Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand

The University of North Carolina found that holding hands or hugging someone for 10 minutes reduces your blood pressure. So go ahead, hug the person next to you. However, avoid any touching that could get you in trouble with the police.

5. Laugh

Laughing “is an active process and may have a direct impact on improving the lining of the blood vessels,” Michael Miller, M.D., director of the Center for Preventive Cardiology, tells the University of Maryland Medical Center. Time to stock your Netflix queue with reruns of Big Bang Theory!

6. Urinate More Often

In an unusual study conducted by the Taiwan University, researchers noted that having a full bladder creates stress that constricts your body’s blood flow by 19 per cent and increases your heart rate, which one of the study’s researchers says could be enough heart stress to cause a heart attack.

7. Sip Some Tea

While green tea gets a lot of positive press, black tea is also rich in antioxidants. Both teas can help reduce blood vessel constriction and protect your arteries.

8. Kill Your Neighbors

Noisy neighbors can be a downer, literally. A study in Germany found that people who lived where nighttime noises reached higher than 55 decibels were twice as likely to experience high blood pressure as those who had quieter evening surroundings. For the record, 55 decibels is the average sound level of a suburban street.

9. Start Your Day with Oatmeal

Oatmeal’s high fiber levels scrub your arteries clear, raise your levels of good cholesterol and reduce your levels of bad cholesterol. Make your breakfast even more heart-healthy by adding fiber-rich fruit such as a banana.

10. Stop Reading This Article

A study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that people who spent more than four hours a day sitting around in front of their computer or TV had a 125 per cent increased risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

Know the perfect number when it comes to cholesterol, vitamins and…sex and sushi.

Some numbers are best left forgotten or unknown. Like, the number that girl scrawled on a bar napkin last night. Or the number of kids Michelle and Bob Duggar currently have. But other numbers are important to know, track and control — for your health, well-being and general state of happiness.

1. Cholesterol: 120-130 mg/dl

The most recent survey conducted by the National Center of Health Statistics found that 32 million Americans take statins to control their cholesterol. The first thing to do: buy stocks in those drug companies. The second thing to do: get your cholesterol levels tested. The ideal, healthy adult should have a total cholesterol number of approximately 120-130 mg/dl, and an LDL of 70 mg/dl.

2. Vitamin D: 400 IU

Vitamin D has benefits for everything from heart disease to depression. You may be woefully under the recommended daily intake of the “sunshine vitamin” if you live in an igloo or basically all of Canada. General studies have found benefits for daily intakes of 400 to 800 international units per day.

3. Sushi: 3 Rolls

If you’re pregnant or a child, step away from the all-you-can-eat sushi buffet. Due to mercury contamination, many doctors and agencies recommend complete avoidance of sushi. If you are an otherwise healthy, average adult, many doctors recommend a maximum of one meal if the sushi is made from swordfish, king mackerel, tilefish or shark. If you’re enjoying low-mercury fish, such as salmon, many recommendations come in at around 12 ounces a week. Unfortunately, that’s like, just three average-sized sushi rolls. May I suggest the cucumber rolls instead?

4. TV: 0

In a 2011 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, doctors found that your risk of developing heart disease or type 2 diabetes increased by 15 percent and 20 percent, respectively, for every two hours of TV you watch per day.

5. Exercise: 20 Minutes

The American College of Sports Medicine suggests a minimum of 20 minutes of aerobic exercise, such as running or swimming, three to five times a week. Of course, more is usually better.

6. Sex: Lots

Apparently what feels good is good for you, too. A Duke University research report followed a group of Americans for 25 years and concluded that “frequency of intercourse was a significant predictor of longevity,” while a British study found that men who had two or more orgasms per week had a 50 percent reduction in their death rate over the course of a decade compared to men who had sex just once per month.

7. Blood Pressure: 120/80

A whopping 50 million Americans have high blood pressure. Scarily, 30 percent of them have no idea they do. High blood pressure numbers increase the risk of everything from kidney damage to heart failure. Ideally, your blood pressure should ring in at 120/80. One of the easiest ways to reduce your blood pressure: reduce dietary salt intake, lose weight, quit smoking and avoid alcohol. Speaking of which…

8. Alcohol: 1-2 Per Day

If you drink, doctors typically recommend a maximum of two drinks a day for men and one drink for women. But here’s the kicker: most people underestimate how much they’re drinking. To put it into perspective, one drink is a 12-ounce serving of beer (not a pint) and a 5-ounce serving of wine (and note that many wine glasses hold much more than this).

The heated argument over the pros and cons of this form of hot yoga, plus tips on surviving your first class.

Bikram yoga is hot these days, and in more ways than one. While the typical 105-degree Bikram yoga classroom is physically hot, this slightly sadistic form of exercise — founder Bikram Choudhury calls his yoga rooms “torture chambers” — is also picking up steam in pop culture. Beyoncé swears by it, although maybe less now that she’s sporting a baby bump. It makes Lady Gaga go gaga. George Clooney reportedly makes it his go-to when he’s traveling. And Ashton Kutcher told Men’s Health that it’s how he stays fit enough to survive any impending Armageddons. But is Kutcher just being punk’d?

Yes. No. Maybe so. On one hand, you have Dr. Anita Green from Sports Medicine Australia telling media that the Bikram yoga world is  “cult-like.” On the other hand, you have Kate Walter. “Bikram yoga is an incredibly effective way to detoxify your body,” says Walter, who holds an E-RYT certification through the Yoga Alliance. “The room is heated and you are constantly moving. Due to the heat, your muscles warm up faster and stay warm longer, allowing people to go deeper into the yoga poses and stretching further than they might be able to achieve in an unheated yoga class.”

This sort of environment may help maximize the results you see from your workout and makes it appropriate for nearly all types of physical training. For example, Runner’s World magazine recently noted that Bikram yoga can make a good substitute for more traditional treadmill runs.

“It is fantastic at building up endurance,” says Ronald Johnson, a yoga instructor in Portland, Oregon. “The length of the class, the temperature in the room and the level of difficulty of the poses make for a  very strenuous, demanding and ultimately uplifting workout.”

Ask people who have stuck through the classes and you’ll often hear glowing reviews. “It improves flexibility and stamina, reducing risk for injuries,” says Dr. Mary Clifton, who practices general internal medicine in Traverse City, Michigan. “I have been doing Bikram yoga for five years, twice a week. It’s changed my skeletal system. I’ll never quit.”

But others think that the rave reviews of Bikram yoga aren’t just a lot of empty, hot air, but potentially even dangerous. Health risks include dehydration — some medical experts estimate that the average Bikram practitioner loses approximately one litre of water in a single yoga session — and physical injuries related to the stretching, compression and extension moves incorporated into Bikram’s 26 postures.

Part of the reason for the increased injury risks may be because the room’s heat affects your body differently compared to a traditional pre-exercise warm up. “Muscles and soft tissue will lengthen more readily when warmed, but the risk of overstretching to the point of injury is lessened when the heat is generated internally rather than externally, as in an extra-heated room,” warns Karen Whittier, a yoga teacher who runs a health and wellness company in Sammamish, Washington.

Walter agrees. “I would caution against beginners taking a Bikram yoga class. Because the heat allows your muscles to relax and become warm, many people can overextend and cause injury to themselves,” she says. “If they have never done yoga before and do not know where their workout ‘edge’ is, they can push past this in a Bikram class and hurt themselves.”

The potentially confusing pros and cons have done nothing to diminish this form of yoga’s skyrocketing popularity. Yoga attendance in general has grown by upwards of 20 percent in the last decade, and Bikram yoga ranks as the most popular form of hot yoga. These days, it’s hardly surprising to see young urbanites carrying their yoga mats through the streets of Manhattan and Vancouver. If you wish to join the masses, a few tips can make your first class a little less like hell.

Four tips to surviving your first Bikram class

1. Drink three to four litres of water per day, starting several days before your first class so that your body has time to become fully hydrated. This helps combat dehydration and overheating. “Overheating may lead to fatigue, lightheadedness and fainting,” says Walter. “If a person has consumed less than their required amount of water for the day, I would recommend not taking a Bikram class, as they will be prone to dehydrate.”

2. Stock up on electrolytes. Eat a banana a few hours before class, and consider adding an electrolyte supplement to the water you bring to your class. After class, try some coconut water to rehydrate and replenish your body’s electrolytes.

3. Watch the mirrors, but not too closely. Every Bikram room is lined with mirrors so you can view and improve your form. While helpful, don’t get distracted by watching your classmates. There will always be fitter people around you, and it can be easy to feel intimidated. But yoga is all about you and how well you can complete each form, not how well you can do it compared to others.

4. Get plenty of sleep after your first class.  Rest is one of the most important elements of muscle recovery, and sleeping will maximize the results you see from your Bikram workout. Additionally, your body releases the most growth hormones while it’s asleep.

Running is as much about eating the right foods as it is about pulling on the right pair of shoes and choosing the right running route. Knowing what to eat and when to eat it can give you that run-enhancing boost you need to defeat a bad case of the Mondays — or Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays…

1. Watch the clock. Avoid eating large meals four hours or less before running. Also avoid eating high fiber, high fat, high protein or spicy foods. Such foods can create stress in your digestive system and make running — or any kind of intense physical activity, for that matter…swimming, sex, shuffleboard with grandma — difficult.

2. Carbo-load…correctly. Everyone knows that carbohydrates replenish glycogen stores in your muscles, giving you the fuel you need when exercising. But many people do it wrong, and I know several people who actually eat chocolate candy bars before their run because they think it’s “healthy.” While a Snickers bar might work for Betty White, it won’t work for you. Start carbo-loading 72 hours before your run, and aim to eat four grams of carbohydrates for every pound that you weigh.

3. Fuel up in the middle of your workout. Typically, you’ll need to eat 60 grams of carbohydrates and hour before you run for runs that last up to two hours. For anything longer than that, you’ll need to refuel during your run so you can  complete your workout as strong as you started it. Try an energy gel or energy chew. You can also make your own portable, natural energy drink by swirling 24 ounces of filtered water with a teaspoon of lime juice, two teaspoons of honey, eight teaspoons of cane sugar and 1/3 teaspoon of sea salt.

4. Chow on recovery foods. Many people focus on how they eat before they train and pay no attention to their recovery meal. This post-workout meal is critical because it can improve your fitness returns, battle fatigue and pain, and speed up total recovery time. The less time you need for recovery, the more time you can spend pounding the pavement. Try a protein- and carb-rich meal that’s alkaline-promoting, such as a hemp protein shake. Or, have some lean protein like a chicken breast. Whatever you choose, try to chow it down within 60 minutes of completing your run.

1. Houston Marathon

Tip: Hate hills? You’ll love this marathon. The average elevation difference rings in at around 25 feet throughout the course.

Houston, Texas: January 15th – chevronhoustonmarathon.com

2. Run for the Red Marathon

Tip: Love hills? This is a downhill run that loses 1,391 feet of elevation from the start.

Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania: May 20th – poconomarathon.org

3. Newport Marathon

Tip: Ocean views are stunning, but so is the sun; bring sunscreen and a hat for this race.

Newport, Oregon: June 2nd – newportmarathon.org

4. Chicago Marathon

Tip: This is the mother of marathons, with more than 45,000 runners and nearly 2 million audience members.

Chicago, Illinois: October 7th – chicagomarathon.com

5. Mohawk-Hudson River Marathon

Tip: You run along the river and end up in the city, so bring nightlife attire for the post-marathon parties.

Albany, New York: October 7th – mohawkhudsonmarathon.com

6. Baystate Marathon

Tip: The course actually loops around on itself so it can mentally feel like you’re running a shorter distance.

Lowell, Massachusetts: October 21st – baystatemarathon.com

7. Road2Hope Marathon

Tip: This is the best Boston qualifier marathon in Canada and includes views of the Toronto skyline.

Hamilton, Ontario: November 4th – hamiltonmarathon.ca

8. California International Marathon

Tip: This marathon is known for its gentle hills. Your quads will thank you.

Sacramento, California: December 2nd – runcim.org