2016
Top 5 tips for keeping the weight off over the Christmas period
As you’re all well aware and hopefully excited for, Christmas is nearly here!
Parties are well under way and it’s that time where everyone lets their hair down.
Now I’m not going to sit here and tell you not to eat mince pies, have a few drinks and enjoy yourself – I certainly will be, it’s what this time of year is for!
What I am going to give you are a few strategies that may help to limit the usual weight gain over this period, whilst still being able to enjoy yourself and hit the ground running, rather than face down in 2017!
- Fill up on vegetables and lean meats at the main meal, reducing how much desert you feel like eating.
Try to eat a larger portion and mix of vegetables with your main meal in order to fill up more before heading to the dessert menu.
This will have the simple effect of making you feel more full due to the added bulk of the low calorie veg and less likely to eat as much of the sweet, more highly calorific deserts that are so easy to binge on -Simple but effective!
- Switch to lower calorie drinks beer to spirits
Beers, Ciders and Wine contain a surprising amount of calories from both alcohol and sugars, as do all the fancy coffees. A simple strategy to reducing the amount of calories that you take in, whilst still being able to enjoy a drink is to move to lower calorie alternatives such as spirits (with a diet mixer). This can have a large impact, especially at parties where several drinks can easily be consumed of an evening!
- Damage control – try to manage how much highly calorific foods you eat and try not to binge completely
Bearing in mind point 1. here as well, when you do decide to go for that piece of cake or mince pie, try to avoid the line of thought that is ‘oh well, I’ve had one now so might as well have a few more!’
Whilst it might feel like you have broken your diet – just having one will have much less impact that giving up completely and allowing yourself to binge.
- Keep training and increase the intensity of the sessions – short and sharp working to higher repetitions so you don’t spend ages in the gym away from the fun – but burn lots of calories.
Don’t stop training – its easy to think that because you are going to be eating lots and drinking that you might as well just completely relax and start again in the New Year along with all the other ‘resolutioners’.
Instead, think that by continuing your training, you will be putting your self in a better position when the 1st Jan does roll around and getting back into the swing of training won’t be so hard!
Obviously, as you will want to be spending more time at home with the family etc, the frequency and length of the sessions can be reduced, but in this event – up the intensity! Performing higher rep circuits (12-15 reps/ set) or complexes can be a great way of packing a lot of work into a short time-frame, so you can help keep fit and not take up too much of your time with it!
IF you want some ideas – Just drop me an e-mail (james@jlfitnesssolutions.co.uk) and ill happily send some over to you!
- Try Intermittent Fasting
This can be a really effective way of helping to reduce the overall amount of calories that you take in daily as well as allowing you to eat and drink a bit more of what you want when you’re out partying!
A simple way to do this would be to skip breakfast for example on the day you’re planning to go out – eat your first meal at Lunch as normal and then use the extra calories that you have ‘saved’ from breakfast towards your larger evening meal out. (This will be effective provided you can refrain from snacking as a result of missing breakfast).
Don’t worry about missing breakfast – it’s not the be all and end all. When it
comes to weight loss overall calories in being less than overall calories out is the most important principle to adhere to over time.
Hopefully some of these tips will be useful to you!
I hope that you all have a fantastic Christmas and New Year and start 2017 in a positive frame of mind!
James
Coach
JL Fitness Solutions
FB: JL Fitness Solutions
Insta: Jamesleept
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