 With the festive season slowly approaching, everyone wants to relax and have fun, but what are the best ways to make sure you dont lose all your hard work? Let's be honest... Food and drink that is not great for you is going to be heavily consumed. Fact. But that goes for almost everyone, it's a time of year when we all relax with our exercise and nutrition and we rest up ready for the new year. I personally do all of these things and make sure I enjoy myself whilst I can, as I know when 2017 hits, it's a great chance for me to start my journey to becoming better than I was last year! This is where most people will trip up. The old excuses come out saying how you'll get back to the gym next week, I'm too busy to eat proper meals and oh there's still chocolate left over so I have to eat it so it doesn't go to waste. These are all valid points, but can be avoided, and if they really cant be avoided, you need to know exactly what you're going to do as soon as more time is available to you. If you have no idea how you're going to back to the gym and a normal eating pattern, looks like its going to be a bad start to a fitter and healthier 2017. Portion control This is one of the best ways to keep Christmas under control, as mentioned, every food and drink you love will be available to you in large quantities, but does that mean you have to eat it all? The answer is no, and this could be a huge factor to stop someone gaining excess weight and body fat very quickly. What we need to remember is that these foods are not good for you anyway, let alone eating vast amounts of them, this screams lots of calories, repeated cravings and a heavy defeat to your personal willpower. So this tip is pretty simple, you can still eat bad foods and drinks if you wish, however monitoring how much of it you eat or drink can save you putting on that few extra pounds allowing you to get back to where you was quicker when you begin your regular training and eating regime. Smart swaps Everyone likes their favourite brands, wether it be chocolates, biscuits or alcohol, we all know what our go to choices are. But what if you're not too fussed? This next tip can save you a lot of calories and money! For example: let's say you like shortbread biscuits, and your usual brand has 150 calories per biscuit, yet another brand only has 90 calories per biscuit, this smart swap would save you 60 calories a biscuit. Or to be realistic, save you 600 calories after you've demolished 10 of them! But you're still eating your shortbreads! And this can be done with most treat foods and drinks, all it takes on your xmas shop is to have a quick compare of a few brands and see if there's a big difference. Most of the time, when you lay some biscuits out anyway no one will really tell the difference, however if you're very picky on taste, find one that's less sugar or calories and try it, you still get to have eat and drink the good stuff, just a healthier version of it. Don't lose track of time... What does this mean? What I'm trying emphasise is that Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year's Eve/Day are big important days over the Christmas break, so understandably you're going to overindulge on these days, but that doesn't mean all the other days need to be unhealthily too! If you're off work and just relaxing, you probably aren't used to being at home and having all the time in the world to just continuously eat and drink, so it can be hard. However, if you eating bad when it's avoidable then theres not much you can do, but on those days even in the middle of the main holidays if you eat even half as decent as you usually would, you're not slowly going into a binge, you've had a few odd days of being extremely flexible and then going back to a regular eating pattern. This goes for training too, you may not want to go to the gym, if you do, then burn off them calories you've consumed and this will help massively to avoid weight gain. However you can do a little something at home, a light walk, jog or have a go at Davina McCall's latest fitness DVD you got bought! This allows your body to burn excess calories, maintain fitness and activity levels whilst still enjoying yourself! Have fun! All in all, make sure you enjoy yourself, it's coming to the end of the year and everyone deserves some time to relax and enjoy themselves. Make some samert food swaps on items you can to save money for more gifts and try to make any efforts you can to improve your Christmas food and drink choices. If you're really focussed on a certain goal, but havent used these tips, then make sure you find time to plan how you're going to get back on track when 2017 reaches! Freel free to enquire about a Personalised Training Programme designed by me to get you started, or find out more about training plans by clicking here! PREVIOUS ARTICLE  |
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