Are you someone who feels like a stuffed turkey after Christmas?
Do you feel compelled to eat and yet you are sick of eating?
Is weight-loss a New Year’s resolution again?
Here are some of my favourite tips
1. Avoid wearing trousers or skirts with elasticated waists every day over the holiday. Dress in fitted clothes every day to keep you waist aware and only wear gym gear to exercise.
2. Avoid sitting for too long. Just by standing, you will burn 10% more calories. So by dancing, shopping and walking rather sitting in front of a TV, you will stay lean. Check out your local area for charity fun runs and walks around Christmas.
3. Be especially careful between Christmas and New Years day, the 27th to the 30th. This is a crazy weight-gain time! Make plans and avoid boredom.
4. The greatest weight gain culprits are tins of biscuits, boxes of sweets, crisps and alcohol. Supermarkets are piled high with them and selling them cheap. One biscuit is typically 100 calories, 1 chocolate sweet is typically 50 calories. Can you stop at eating one? Best solution is to avoid buying them. If you get a present of them, re-gift.
5. The festive season is a suitable time for alcohol. It helps us relax, lightens the mood but when we over-indulge, it leads to terrible hangovers and sometimes low mood or anxiety. At worst, it causes fights and hassle. Decide your intake in advance – hit the happy spot. Avoid having a drink too early as it can be a long night.
6.Aim to maintain a healthy routine. If you walk daily, keep it up over the holiday. If your body is used to 3 meals a day, keep it fed when it expects food. Routine wins hands down, when it comes to weight maintenance.
7. If you have a hangover, you will look for stodgy food all day. Eat a protein-rich breakfast such as scrambled egg and smoked salmon with tomatoes or Eggs with Jane Russell 96% pork sausages, beans, mushrooms and tomatoes. Eat again 3 hours later – a warm soup with some lentil and beans. Protein helps to fill you & vegetables (especially celery ) provide electrolytes to replace those you have lost in urine after alcohol. Visit a local gym and use the sauna to sweat while re-hydrating. Exercise at a moderate level to push oxygen and nutrients through the body.
8. Others around you may decide to throw caution to the wind and over-indulge at all levels. You will be tempted to join in. Remember your compelling reasons to lose weight and how hard you have worked at it all year. Food shop and have healthy options in the house for yourself. Pre-cook some healthy meals and freeze them. Use the “Emergency Moments’ document to buy pre-cooked food for those days you do not want to cook.
9. Decide your ‘relaxation with no rules’ day/s in advance and enjoy every moment of these day/s not allowing any feelings of guilt to creep in. The day before or after indulgence days, go low calorie. 900 – 1300 calories for a woman and 1300 -1700 calories for a man. Rest the gut.
10. Warning – I have experience of clients who are very controlled over Christmas and the New Year and then blow out in early January. My recommendation is to enjoy the holiday season and let this strengthen your resolve for the New Year.
Look at your friends, family and colleagues. These are the people who influence you. Who do you admire most? Who would you like to emulate for your New Year? Ask them about their lifestyle, their food choices and exercise regime. If they can do it, so can you.
Surround yourself with achieving, positive, happy and energetic people
Happy Christmas
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