December ‘21 Health & Wellbeing Blog! Tips for Staying Healthy This Christmas!

December ‘21 Health & Wellbeing Blog!    Tips for Staying Healthy This Christmas!

I fully understand the ‘I may as well start in the New Year’ attitude towards fitness, weight loss etc; but it is infinitely harder to lose weight gained than it is to put it on. This doesn’t mean you have to eat completely healthy over the festive period or not drink, that is wholly unrealistic. Just having that awareness in the back of your mind about over-eating, drinking and remaining active will make a massive difference to push forward into the New Year with a strong mindset towards your goals and ambitions.

 Keep Active!

Simply going for a few walks or some seated cardio exercises, if nothing else, in and around the festive period, will all add up. If you have a big Xmas party or meal planned, go for a nice walk or some exercises in the home beforehand, literally just 20-30 mins will make a big difference. You will, at least, be burning some of the calories that you will be putting back on in the evening. If you are working around the festive period; try walking to work 2 or 3 times that week if feasible. Maybe a short brisk walk or some seated resistance exercises during the working day to work the cardiovascular and respiratory system. Believe you me, these small things will add up over the two-week festive period.

Don’t Drink Too Much (of the wrong drinks)!

I can literally see the eyes rolling now at such a comment, but bear with me. Most people will have a few drinks over the festive period, but you can drink ‘smart’ if that even makes sense, as certain drinks contain a colossal amount of calories. Take a standard Margarita for example containing a whopping 740 calories, this is roughly the same as consuming a Big Mac and fries. If you drank 4 of them over the course of an evening, this equates to almost 3000 calories, or 4 Big Mac meals! See the diagram for some better options. Drinking a glass of water every now and again during a night out will. 5 minutes of research into your favourite tipple and then looking for easy alternatives could save literally tens of thousands of calories over Xmas.

Avoid Over Eating

 We all know that Xmas is a time for over-indulging; the cheese board, nuts, crisps, chocolates……and that’s on top of eating half our body weight in Xmas dinner! It is very easy to literally gorge ourselves on all of these treats that are right under our noses throughout the festive period. A neat trick is to simply keep all of the treats out of sight, there is a genuine phenomenon backed by science called ‘sensory specific satiety’, this is the desire to consume different foods of texture, colour and flavour in view. Out of sight, out of mind

Another good tip is to simply stop eating and snacking when already full and bloated, just by waiting 5 minutes for that extra snack to let the last one settle can change the desire to keep on eating more.

Most importantly, stay safe and have a great Xmas and New Year!

January’s blog will be all about how to set achievable goals for 2022. Most New Year fitness resolutions fail by Easter but I have some solid methods to keep your goals going and how to stay motivated throughout the year so please visit again early January for the next blog.

Merry Xmas & A Happy New Year

Coach Sean