It’s the busiest travel season of the year, and many folks are visiting over long holiday weekends. Whether you are hosting the celebrations this year or flying around the country to join in, you may not have access to your normal gym routine, and may also have to work late and entertain.

Don’t ditch your calorie and stress-relieving cardio workouts just yet. You need them more than ever.

And help is on the way: If you or a member of your family lives in a multi-family space with a fitness center, your holiday luck has officially arrived. Research the fitness centers class schedule where you’ll be and sign up for yoga classes or pay a day rate at a local rec center or YMCA.

When you can steal 15, 20 or even 25 minutes during the holiday exuberance, it may help keep excess calories (and holiday stress) at bay.

Slate Regular Exercise to Stop Holiday Stress

To avoid getting trapped into using eating or meal times as an emotional crutch, devise other soothing strategies for self-preservation. This may include:

• Building in time alone during the chaos
• Getting enough sleep and not over-scheduling
• Working out every day, even for 15 minutes
• Asking family for help baking, cleaning or shopping
• Giving exercise DVDS as gifts
• Hiring extra help to clean up after the festivities

So remember,  holiday celebrations have officially started! That’s a lot of opportunity to skip exercise and double down on Thanksgiving dessert. Don’t do it! It’s basically freezing all over the country so buy a day pass to a local YMCA or use that local multi-family fitness center to blast calories and stress. Try drinking more water during all your fat-burning cardio workouts – and save that spiked eggnog for later.

Do @CardioMachine  #LoseThanksgivingPounds.