1. On Christmas day, allow yourself to enjoy anything
The
Christmas season can be a difficult one. Everyone letting their hair down, food
and drink everywhere in sight. There are endless parties and meals, and drinks
with family and friends. The best way is to set boundaries. Try to be as
good as you can sticking to your regime where you can, then enjoy what you have
planned – but be reasonable. Choose lighter options, or go out for food or
drink, not both. At a meal choose to be the designated driver so you wont be
drinking as much.
But
on the big day, allow yourself to enjoy anything. If you’ve been doing
your best you’re allowed a treat, so enjoy it. Once the day is over, remove
anything that’s left over. Offer sweets to friends with children, take cakes
and treats to work. It’s tough but come January, you’ll feel better with the
success of not having been beaten by the season.
2. Make rules about
food you SHOULD have rather than things you shouldn’t
Diet
is a common trigger of everyday guilt for people. The biggest problem with
guilt is that it can make us feel hopeless and deflated.
Guilt is a
terrible motivator and will only lead to a pattern of bingeing and restricting
– be that food or exercise. Instead, make some rules around food that involve
things you should have rather than things you shouldn’t. For example, rather
than trying to avoid those delicious, warm mince pies – allow yourself to have
them (to nourish your soul!), but also make sure you eat a huge plate of
vegetables that day accompanied with your choice of protein, salad or soups so
that you nourish your body and brain.
When
it comes to nutrition, viewing food as ‘harmful’ can be incredibly dangerous,
particularly when we often believe that a single or even a couple of bad meals
are going to impede our health or appearance, which isn’t necessarily the case
– our guilt is often based on inaccurate assumptions. The truth is that a few
big delicious Christmas lunches and dinners should be something we look forward
to and enjoy and remember they are not going to impact our health in the long
term, unless we start to enjoy them every day!
3. Make sure you move
Dance!
Run! Jump! Whatever you do, just move! It’s often easy to fall into reverse
with exercise routines when diet goes out the window. However it’s not only
gym-based workouts that burn calories, or keep those extra kilos from showing
up. Christmas is family time – have some fun with the kids, they’ll keep you on
your toes and that will be burning calories. Music will definitely be playing
at most gatherings. Grab a spot on the floor and dance like no-one is watching.
There are so many ways to keep that heart rate high, and most of them you can
include others in.
4.
Plan ahead
It’s
the time of year when it’s so easy to indulge – a mince pie, a glass of wine, a
handful of chocolate – yes, it seems like a lot when you look at it from a
calorie point of view. However, to counter this, all you need to do is take
some time to think about things and plan ahead. If you know you’re going out
for dinner, plan in healthy foods during the day and stick to your plan. If
it’s a heavy weekend, eat well and exercise during the week.
So
many people beat themselves up over what they’ve eaten at this time of year
when, in reality, as long as you’re eating in moderation overall, the odd bit
of indulgence isn’t going to impact that much. One of the best for maintaining
a healthy regime over Christmas is that you don’t need to ‘start again’ – if
you’re in a good place mentally about your diet and your health and fitness
goals, you’re more likely to carry on and succeed, so one cheat meal, or day,
isn’t going to ruin all your hard work.
5. Make wise alcohol
swaps
A
tip for the Christmas party season is to make wise alcohol swaps. Instead of
creamy cocktails, drink vodka and a diet mixer or choose a glass of wine topped
up with a flavoured sugar-free sparkling water, such as apple and elderflower.
6. Don’t let your diary get too busy
Try not to
burn the candle at both ends. We cram in so much over the festive period, going
out during the week and hosting family and friends at the weekends; we don’t
always give our body the rest it needs to recuperate. Too little sleep can
reduce the level of the appetite controlling hormone leptin and increase the
hormone ghrelin, telling the brain you need to eat – and not always the right
healthy food choices. Pace yourself!
7. Christmas food is just food!
Christmas
is just a day. Enjoy it by all means, but it doesn’t need to be an excuse
to sabotage all your hard work. Think carefully about what’s more important –
those few moments of bliss whilst the chocolate cake is in your mouth before
you swallow it and it’s gone, or the lifetime goal of feeling healthy and
having confidence?”
8. Don’t buy your
Christmas food too early
Shops
often stock Christmas foods months before the festive season. It can be
tempting to take advantage of offers, but ask yourself – if you buy it now,
will it last until Christmas? Or are you likely to get tempted and tuck in
before?!
9. Eat from smaller
plates
One
easy tip is to use smaller dishes when eating. People tend to fill up their
entire plate this time of year for some reason and smaller dishes = smaller
portions without much effort!
Source –
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/