Do you put on weight every Christmas? You don’t have to you know. This is actually the perfect opportunity to get fitter.
How you say?
Nutritionist Susie Burrell always has some good advice on this.
“holidays are usually viewed as an excuse – an excuse to eat high fat, high calorie food, and far too much of it. An excuse to skip training and regular exercise sessions and an excuse to dump all the good habits you have spent all year trying to maintain.
If we holidayed for just a couple of weeks each year this would not be so much of an issue. But many of us holiday numerous times throughout the year, take school holidays off as well as long weekends which tends to leave us with far too much time ‘off’ our healthy lifestyle program, and many more kg heavier as a result.
So with this holiday period almost upon us, try looking as the precious time as an opportunity. An opportunity to do more and really concentrate on the lifestyle habits you know will make you leaner, lighter and fitter come the end of January”
How?
Most people say they don’t have time to adhere to good habits such as cooking your food and going for a walk first thing in the morning. But because we are on holidays and not bound by such a tight schedule, we are in complete control of the way we spend our time.
In turn this means that if we so choose we can start to prioritise exercise and movement. We can decide whether or not to go to the gym, or whether we will walk to the shop instead of drive.
The same can be said for our food choices. We now have a little extra time to prepare the nutritious foods we need to eat well. We have the extra time to seek out better options and even if we do find ourselves overindulging a little at a party or special occasion, we also have the choice to eat lightly the next day to compensate”
Tips –
1. Change your bloody mindset!
Don’t simply accept that you’re going to put on weight this Christmas.
Don’t simply accept that you’re going to let your fitness lapse.
Don’t simply accept that “everything goes out the window” during the holidays
One of my favorite sayings when it comes to motivating people around health and fitness is
“when you get one flat tyre, do you go and slash the other 3?
Just because you miss one workout doesn’t mean you miss them all does it?
Just because you have one indulgent meal doesn’t mean you go off the Richter scale for the whole of the holidays does it?
2. Don’t stop exercising! Finish Strong!
Plan to not go backwards over the holidays. Not making progress is fine as long as you don’t go backwards. You can go hard again come mid January. But don’t go backwards.
And don’t stop. That will minimize any weight gain from any excesses…
See you in the gym!
Brad Stocks
Personal Trainer
Bondi Junction