The holidays are a wonderful time, except when it comes to dreaded winter weight gain. Parties and gatherings with mountains of rich food are nearly impossible to avoid, but what about exercise?

The prevalence of winter weight gain is no surprise, given how many usually health conscious people suddenly stop exercising and start filling up on goodies throughout December. As if forgetting the month constitutes well over 8% of a year! The result? Many yuletide revelers gain five, ten, or even fifteen pounds or more before they know it.

You could always pass on the sweets and treats, but if moderation is not your thing, incorporating exercise into your holiday traditions is a must.

With school out, you can get active with your children, younger siblings, nieces and nephews, or grandchildren. Try skating or, if you live where the white stuff is common, making snow angels, building snow people, tobogganing, and throwing snowballs can all be seriously fun workouts.

A day of downhill skiing or snowboarding is always great for burning calories, just don’t spend too much time at the lodge! You can also try cross-country skiing or snowshoeing. Even Christmas shopping can burn up some stored energy, especially if you take the stairs at the mall and not the escalators.

Of course, the irony of winter weight gain is that so many have extra time off over the holidays, which could allow more time attend the gym. Of course, everyone is busy!

To burn off some extra calories in as short a time as possible, avoid performing strenuous strength-building routines. Instead, maximize the calories burned by rotating between the treadmill, stationary bike, stair climber, rowing machine, and elliptical trainer. Noticeable results should be seen with as little as 25 minutes of cardiovascular training on just three occasions per week, but be sure not to overdo it and to stay within your target heart-rate zone.

Here’s our final holiday exercise tip: set your 2013 fitness goals today and begin making an action plan to achieve them. Common resolutions like eating better, exercising more, or losing weight are far too vague. Be sure your plan includes realistic and, above all, specific lifestyle changes to help you hit the ground running in January.

In fact, just making a fitness plan in advance may persuade you to pass on thirds of eggnog on Christmas Eve,

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Shaun Karp is a certified personal trainer. He owns Karp Personal Training and Rehabilitation Inc. in Burnaby. For further information call his office at 420-7800 or visit their web site www.karpfitness.com.