Posted on November 28, 2014 by Jenny Cromack
So Christmas is rapidly approaching and whilst we all want to enjoy ourselves I know that many of my personal training clients are worried about piling on the pounds over the festive period so I thought I would put a Christmas Survival Guide to Saying Healthy together to help you!
Christmas Survival Guide To Staying Healthy
Buffet Food
Oooooh the word buffet just makes me imagine plates of sausage rolls, quiches and spring rolls and other high fat foods. It’s easy munch away at calories without even realising it at buffets. Did you know that a mini sausage roll contains around 40 calories and a mini spring roll around 35 calories, stack your plate up with 3 of each and a couple of sandwiches and in no time you’ve probably eaten around 600 calories and as it’s not very satisfying food you’ll probably feel hungry again later!
Great ways to avoid the sneaky buffet calories
– Eat before you go and be strict about not eating whilst you are there.
– Limit yourself to salads (no dressing) cold meats and fish
– Avoid anything which looks deep fried or contains pastry
– Avoid the buffet table if you’ve had a drink – we all know our will power is lower when we have had a drink.
Meals Out
My personal training clients will know that I love eating out – it’s one of my favourite hobbies, BUT I’ll be honest I am even stressing about how many meals out I have over Christmas. So I will avoid these meals leading to excess weight gain:
– I’ll apply the principle above of not eating high fat, deep fried foods.
– I’ll limit myself to only one chealthy ourse
– I’ll aim to choose salads where possible
– I don’t eat meat but if I did I would choose meat/fish with veg for my main course.
And I’ve already chosen restaurants where I know I can eat healthy!
Alcohol
Now we know it’s Christmas so we’re not going to say don’t have a drink BUT we will say LIMIT how much you drink.. We all know the perils of drinking and how they affect your waist line….empty calories which have no benefit when you are trying to watch your weight, the risk of piling on more pounds if you eat whilst drinking due to how alcohol is metabolised by the body, the risk of a carb binge when you have a hangover next day…….it seriously isn’t good for you if you’re trying to watch your figure so how will you, like Gloria Gaynor, survive?
– Don’t drink every time you go out – stick to water
– Aim to drink spirits or white wine spritsers with soda water or low cal options.
– If you are drinking then alternate water with alcohol.
Office Chocolates & Biscuits
We all know it’s Christmas when the tins of chocolates start appearing at work…..these tins need an alarm on them which shouts ‘STAY CLEAR, YOU WILL PUT WEIGHT ON, STAY CLEAR, YOU WILL PUT WEIGHT ON’. One pesky chocolate may only have 40-50 calories but consider this…..
Just 5 small chocolates a day is the equivalent of 250 calories
Doing this every day will lead to a weight gain of 1lb in two weeks.
Do this every day for the next 4 weeks, have a few nights out where you nibble at buffet food and drink and in no time those pounds will have piled on!
Finding The Time To Exercise
We know you are all busy bees at Christmas, what with the extra parties, kids parties, Christmas shopping, etc BUT we are sure you can still find some time to exercise. As all of our personal training clients know we are great believers in HIIT training and one of my favourite fat burning protocols which only takes 20 minutes, yes that’s right…….20 minutes, is the 8:12 protocol which Chris has previously blogged about. Other ways you can still fit in exercise:
– Kids parties……if you can drop your kids off at the party and then go for a run or hit the gym whilst they are there.
– Forfeit some of your TV time. If you’re struggling to fit exercise into your normal routine then instead of curling up in the evening fit your training session in then. What’s more important? Your favourite soap or staying in shape?
– Get rid of the ‘I have to do an hour’ otherwise it’s not worth it ideology……you can still have a great workout in 30 minutes if you work hard and perform your exercises as a circuit or do a HIIT session.
– No equipment…..no excuse! Here is an equipment free HIIT workout just for you! And it should only take 30 minutes tops!
And whilst we are on the subject of exercise…..’no’ dancing at the office party does not count and neither does Christmas shopping!
Christmas Day
I’m not going to say too much about this as Chris is going to blog about the number of calories the average person consumes on Christmas Day but be warned unless you have some self control it is a phenomenal amount! Watch out for Chris’ blog next week!