As Christmas fast approaches, the parties and festive feasts continue to ramp up.
Work parties, lunches, dinners and everything in-between will see people indulge in beautiful food over the festive season.
But many won't want to overindulge and will be hoping to remain in shape over the party season.
Fitness coach Abiola Raheem has listed seven things that will help keep you fit and healthy through Christmas and into the New Year:
1. Choose your meals ahead of any festival events you have coming up
If you are attending a Christmas event or dinner, look at the restaurant’s menu in advance. Have a look at the calories/fat/protein content (typically displayed on menus these days or at least easily found online). You want to be choosing meals that have good protein content (ideally 20g upwards) and have lower calories (ideally around the 600kcal mark). When in doubt, a steak with green veggies is always a good shout!
2. Drink more water
Ahead of mealtime, ensure that you have consumed enough water. Your body can often deceive you, thinking that you are hungry when in fact you’re thirsty. Make sure you’ve consumed at least a pint of water before eating, and drink water along with your main meals.
3. If big meals are coming up, skip breakfast
Gaining weight and losing weight is all about calories in, and calories out. If you know that you are having a large Christmas meal at 2pm which will take up the majority of your daily calorie intake, you can help mitigate damage by reducing the number of calories prior to this meal. So, for example, have a strong coffee and a litre of water with lemon in the morning instead of a full Irish breakfast.
4. Move more
It's often easy to give up exercise routines entirely when your diet goes out the window. However, it’ll make all the difference if you can keep moving. Make sure that you make a deliberate effort to go out for walks, play with the kids, take the dog out. Moving in between courses is a fantastic way to boost your metabolism, improve your digestion, and allow your body to turn the excess calories. Fresh air and exercise are also brilliant for your mental health.
5. Focus on what you should be eating, rather than what you shouldn’t be eating
Guilt can be a terrible motivator, and in fact being told that you can’t eat something will inevitably make you want to do it even more. Instead, it can be really useful to make a list of the foods that you should be eating. For example, turkey is a fantastic source of protein, and is light in terms of calories. It might be better to decide you can eat unlimited veggies, sources of protein, and berries for dessert instead of thinking you shouldn’t eat the pigs in blankets.
6. One bad meal shouldn’t lead to one bad week
“Oh well I’ve already eaten that, so I may as well have this…and this… and this…”. One unhealthy meal shouldn’t lead to the week spiralling out of control in terms of diet. If you eat one unhealthy, calorie dense meal, the chances are it won’t impact you physically at all. It’s an accumulation of this behaviour that will make the difference. Let yourself have an unhealthy meal, but don’t let that take over the whole day or week.
7. Start 2023 strong
Get a plan in place for 2023. If your New Years Resolution in Jan 2022 was to get in shape, and lose weight, and it hasn’t gone to plan, then something needs to change. It’s useful to reflect on why progress wasn’t made (too busy, not enough accountability, not sure of what to do). Some fantastic options are joining a nice gym which means you actually want to go, working with a coach to keep you accountable, or trying a new form of exercise (spinning, dancing etc) that you actually enjoy.
- If you’re unsure about how you can get started, or need some additional help, you can fill out Abiola's progress analysis form for free here. He'll reply with a personalised response giving you some tips about how you can start making easy yet drastic improvements to your lifestyle, and actually hit your NY resolutions in 2023.
READ NEXT:
Ally McCoist and Lee Dixon accused of making Roy Keane fly home from World Cup early
James Lowe on Leinster's travel chaos - 'it was a bit of a s***show'
Amy Broadhurst named best light welterweight boxer in the world in end of year rankings
Roy Keane sends Gareth Southgate warning as England manager ponders his future
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts
