For many people, sticking to an exercise plan and keeping the food side of things good can be challenging at the best of times, never mind around the Christmas period.
Taking the notion “well it’s only once a year”, being over indulgent in alcohol and quality street can be very counter productive to your goals. Luckily, we can help you with this! Here’s our top 4 tips for enjoying the festive period whilst not undoing many months of hard work.
Change Up Your Usual Workout
If you’ve been running the same loop every day, using the same few machines at the gym or doing the same couple of exercises in the garage, why not try a new class at your local gym, change where you do your cardio or change up your training program to keep yourself interested! You could vary the intensity and duration of your cardio, intoroduce a few short sprints or set yourself a small goal like being able to do a handstand, or climb a small hill without being out of breath. Don’t wait until January to make the change.
Keep Being a Gorb to Christmas Day
Stick to your normal good habits until December 25th, then feel free to indulge moderately without feeling guilty, you’ll probably just feel a bit sick.
Stay Active on the Day
Do something on Christmas day that involves a wee bit of exercise. Go for a nice walk at Tollymore, along the beach, up the valley or out to Cranfield. Squeeze a gym session in between opening presents and Christmas dinner, make it one that you enjoy. If you have youngsters, ask Santa nicely to bring them something that will make them active (like a bike or one of these new contraptions that flyes about side to side, rather than a PS4), many children can’t get out of their own road these days, the last thing they need is Santa bringing them something that will make them less active. Play with them and their new toys, even this will get some calories burnt off! If it’s wet outside, play charades or twister to get the heart rate up!
Fill Up With Veg
Christmas dinners tend to be a really good meal nutrition wise. Lots of protein (turkey and ham), a natural source of carbohydrate in the spuds and lots of colorful veg to fill up the plate. Eat plenty of the fibrous carrots, sprouts, broccoli or whatever you decide to go for. Leave it an hour or two before tackling the Christmas pudding. Spreading out your food over a longer period of time will likely reduce your overall calorie intake for the day. You could also use the extra turkey and ham to make a tasty salad for tea or supper!
Our advice would generally be to get through the month of December without gaining more than a couple of pounds (if weight loss is your goal). Sticking to the 4 points mentioned above should help you get through the next 3 weeks feeling good about yourself and motivated for the new year!
Have you got any great tips for surviving the festive period in a healthy way? Share them in the comments below.