The holidays is always a time for yummy food and spending time with family, but if you're like me, you come back from break with tight jeans and a little more fear of the scale. I'm studying Health and Exercise Science at Colorado State University and I decided to put my training shoes on and make an HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) workout to help keep those jeans fitting nicely and still leave room for more Turkey (or if you don't eat meat than whatever you eat around the holidays).

Things you'll need before starting:

1) A water bottle - I recommend not using a Nalgene or anything that you have to remove the cap for, the breaks are short and it's hard to get enough water before the next exercise starts.

2) An amazing workout playlist - this is about a 30 to 45-minute workout so either make a playlist of our favorite songs to workout to or you can easily find some good ones on Spotify.

3) A mat - you'll be doing arm and core workouts so you'll want something soft to lay on, I just use my yoga mat. You'll also want it for when you do your cool down.

4) A timing app - you can easily use the clocks app or a stopwatch for this but I enjoy an app called Pacer (it's free for iPhones but I'm unsure about Androids) where it'll ring when your exercise set and rest sets are up to keep you on track.

5) Some small weights - this is completely optional, but if you don't feel some body weight exercise I recommend using weights. If you can get your hands on some light dumbbells and a light medicine ball I recommend using them, if not feel free to use textbooks or anything that would work. If you feel like you may not strong enough to use weights, please feel free to just use your body weight.

Tips before you get started:

1) Don't eat within an hour before doing this. You'll feel sick pretty easily, and if you're not used to HIIT training or just anything like this workout, it might not end well. Do drink plenty of water during the day before you do this.

2) Feel free to take breaks, don't stress your body. There are very short break intervals with the nature of this workout so don't worry if you miss a set to take a break.

3) This is a very cardio heavy workout, all the sets are in a Tabata-style, which means you work for 20 seconds and then rest for 10 and then continue with two sets a minute. If you think this workout isn't for you or your fitness level make sure to lengthen the rest periods and take it easy.

4) Control your movements, all the sets are for time not reps, so going as quickly as you can with sloppy form isn't going to make the 20 seconds go by any faster or make you any stronger any quicker. Go slowly, control your movements and listen to your body. Doing three good burpees with good form is better than doing 10 and hurting yourself.

The Workout:

Like I said above, this is a Tabata-style workout, so 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest. You can do this two different ways, a) doing each circuit on their own and then moving on or, b) doing each circuit together and 4 big rounds instead of 3 small rounds of 4 times doing each exercise. I recommend if you have a low fitness level is to do each circuit on their own but it goes by quicker if you do all the circuits together in one big circuit. You'll do each exercise four times so each circuit will be 8 minutes long (16 sets total). If you decide to do all of it in one big set, you'll be doing 48 sets total (it sounds like a lot but it goes by a lot quicker than you'd think and it's only about a 23-minute workout).

Warm-up: 5 minutes of whatever cardio you like. I choose to go on a run, but if you like the stair master or even walking on the treadmill or around the block is fine. Just do something to get your blood pumping.

Leg Circuit:

Lunges

Squat to narrow squat jump

Sumo squats

Burpees (with jump but no push-up)

Arm Circuit:

Push-up

Commandos

Tricep dips

Squats with dumbbell curl and press

Core Circuit:

Russian twists (with or without medicine ball)

Bicycle crunches

Sit-up with opposite arm punch

Leg raises with hip lift

Super Set: 3 minutes of the same Tabata style you did the rest of the sets as. Pick your two favorite exercises from each circuit and do one set of each. This part of the workout is completely optional if your body feels sore and tired than skip this and move to cool down but if you feel like you could do more, do a super set or two.

Cool down: 10 minutes of active/dynamic stretching. I recommend doing yoga for this because it keeps your body moving but stretching your body at the same time. Or if you don't get sore or tight easily do a five-minute active cool down by going on a walk or slow run on the treadmill and then use your last five minutes to do some active stretching. But stretching is a very important step . Don't skip this or you'll be sore for days and never want to workout every again.

The Result

After doing this workout, I was not as tired as I was expecting to be. I am normally someone who goes to the gym everyday but after two weeks of not working out and going back to a higher altitude, I was expecting this to hit me a little harder than it did. My arms and shoulders were the most exhausted after doing this workout but that was quickly fixed after a yoga practice the next morning. So, if you are a fitness newbie, don't worry this workout isn't as hard as you'd think.

How this helps

This workout helps because as your body is holding the holiday food you eat as fat, when you're raising your heart rate you start to burn that fat away and when you add resistance training into that, the more muscle you have, the more that muscle will eat away at the fat your body is storing away. These types of workouts are perfect if you want to get "toned" by gaining more muscle and getting rid of body fat. And once the holiday season passes, you can continue workouts like this and add in a healthy, well-balanced diet for best results.