While Christmas is arguably one of the best festivities of the year, it can be difficult to keep on top of your fitness and health. Let’s be honest, it’s a busy time of the year. Christmas shopping needs to be finalized, socializing is at a high (depending on restrictions) and there’s so much preparation leading up to the big day- it leaves very little room for fitness.
Research suggests that the average person consumes around 4,000 calories on Christmas Day, when considering all festive food and beverages such as minced pies, gingerbread, and mulled wine it’s incredibly easy to hit this number without lifting a finger.
Here, you can find a few simple steps which might aid in putting on less Christmas pudding.
- Keeping active is an obvious option. When you’re strapped for spare time, lugging yourself down to the gym for an hour can seem like a bit of a stretch. A simple walk or run is a great idea to get in-to the swing of festivity phys. Better yet, a small circuit whether that’s using your body weight or functional fitness equipment burns fat for a few hours. Resulting in you feeling euphoric and like you’ve earned your treats.
- Another obvious option is to monitor alcohol consumption. Alcohol has huge calorie values and if you’re planning on binge drinking you can quite easily consume your RDA.
- Let’s be honest, we are suckers for a Christmas treat. No one wants to be that person who is sat counting calories at a Christmas meal. Eating excess amounts will surely put you on the road to gaining weight. The key is to eat in moderation.
- Drink plenty of water. Not only is water incredible for keeping your water content in check but it can aid in weight loss. Stick to the recommended 2 liters and you can begin to see some results.
- Get ahead of yourself. We’ve all been there when the New Year comes around. ‘New Year, New Me’. Why not begin your journey in December? When Christmas comes around you can treat those festive days as rest days and hop back on the grind after.
- Don’t punish yourself if you miss a couple of fitness sessions. Christmas is a time to relax and be present with your family and loved ones. It’s been a tough year and we all deserve an opportunity to put our feet up.
To summarize, everyone deserves to enjoy their Christmas time without feeling of guilt and letting yourself down just because you love a good yule log. If eating and drinking is done in moderation you can feel less guilty about joining in the festivities.
