December is often a month in which your training & diet will take a backwards step on everyone’s list of priorities. On top of our usual fast-paced lives, the addition of more social occasions with friends and Christmas parties means progress can easily stall and more often that not, go backwards.
To help you maintain your results and fight off the weight gain, we’ve put together five tips for you to live by during the festive season:
1. The 9/10 Rule
This rule is fairly simple but will allow you a degree of flexibility for social events.
Of every ten meals you eat, nine of those have to be ‘on plan’; the 10th can be your meal out with friends in which you can choose a higher calorie meal or a desert for example.
2. Eat Smart, Choose Wisely
When eating out, steak and sweet potato are more often than not always an available choice and one that will keep a good quality source of protein, healthy fats, good carbs with a source of fibre.
It’s also something that your friends are less likely to give you the ‘boring’ label for!
3. Factor in Your Alcohol Intake
There is always going to be alcohol consumption in December.
If you know that one evening you will be meeting friends for food and drinks; then going ‘lower carb’ during the day with your meals will limit the effect alcohol consumption has regarding total calories and more so sugars consumed over the day.
4. Make the Right Alcohol Choices
1g of alcohol contains seven calories.
Opting for ‘light beers’ may seem like a good choice if you enjoy beer however the fact they are ‘light’ may well mean they go down a little toowell; therefore you may end up consuming more.
Wine, on the other hand, is something you ‘sip’ rather than drink and with an average of around 120 calories per glass so may well be a better choice.
White spirits such as gin and slimline tonic will contain fewer calories, and due to the alcohol content, you might find you will end up consuming less over the course of your night.
5. Sweat it Out!?
How many times have you heard that phrase?
Sweating is your bodies response to elevated temperature and sweat is made of mostly water, sodium and chloride; so sadly, sweating won’t get rid of the toxins in your body from the night before.
However movement burns fuel, so get moving and stay active the day after a meal/drinks out.
Our main detoxification organ is the liver so by supporting liver function we can be in a better position to handle alcohol. The liver works in two phases and through a series of chemical reactions, it processes toxins from such things as alcohol.
Quick tips:
Get hold of a good multivitamin supplement, lots of cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli and sprouts, good quality protein sources, filtered water and fruits such as apples and grapefruit will all help to aid liver function.
Just remember, being healthy doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself. Just be aware of what you do with your body, make the right choices, and Santa will be keeping you on the ‘healthy’ list this Christmas.
