How To Stay Healthy Over Christmas

by Tia Dewick in Nutrition | Training

christmas | healthy | exercise

As you all are aware, Christmas is a time that everybody likes to overindulge. However there are sweet and cheerful tips that can help you to keep on track! A lot of people will accept defeat and just think ‘I’ll just cut down in January’. Don’t admit defeat; Christmas doesn’t need to make you put on weight.

  • Remember to keep up your training – As Christmas comes around the corner people automatically start to lower their intensity and commitment to training. If you can exercise for at least an hour 2-5 times a week then you can achieve a calorie burning of way over 1000kcal if you work hard! Some gyms are even open on Christmas day to keep people on track!

 

  • Exercises you can do at home – calf raises (find a step to use), glute bridge, plank, squats, lunges, press ups, sit ups, russian twists, burpees, jumping jacks, mountain climbers, tricep dips, lateral leg raisers, (reverse) cobra, bear crawl, wall sit, single leg deadlift, sit to stand, elbow to knee and many more

 

  • Don’t binge – We all like to treat ourselves around Christmas but it’s all about portion control. Research has found that the average person will consume around 3000 calories in their Christmas dinner alone! That’s more than the recommended consumption for a grown man! Aim to chew each mouthful around 20 times and place your knife and fork on the table between mouthfuls. This will enable you to eat slow and therefore eat less before you feel full as your body has time to react to the food consumption and tell you when it’s full. Reducing your portion size is key to maintaining your body weight over Christmas

 

  • Cravings – When you experience a craving for junk food it’s actually your body wanting carbs. Find yourself a nice piece of fruit – maybe a banana or orange and wait 20 minutes. Once the 20 minutes is up you should feel your craving significantly reduce or completely disappear. Have you ever scoffed down loads of chocolate and then regret it 20 minutes later? It’s because you need to provide your body with enough time to digest the food

 

  • Try to avoid consuming too much alcohol – An average bottle of wine contains around 1000 calories (half of the daily recommended allowance for women and equates to a medium McDonalds meal!). Therefore if you were to consume 3000 calories in your Christmas dinner and 1000 calories from your wine, already you’re double the female recommended allowance!

 

  • Sleep – Make sure you keep on top of your sleeping routine. If you start to reduce your sleeping hours your body will think it wants more calories when in actual fact it just wants sleep! Remember to aim for at least 6-8 hours each night.