Like many others I usually gain some weight over christmas & new year holidays-usually about 7-10 lbs. It can then take me many months to lose the christmas weight !
What can we do to prepare for this and try and keep the gain to a minimum ? Well its about 4 weeks until Christmas so it is worth starting some good habits now in preparation
Here are some quick tips :
- Leave buying the christmas chocolates until as late as possible. Every year I buy chocolate & biscuits as gifts in November & early December, then I have to buy them again as I have eaten them-lol
- Make sure you have your 5 portions of different fruit & veg a day. This will help you feel fuller & makes sure you get plenty of vitamins
- Eat before you go to parties-this will help you to resist snacking on the crisps & snacks
- Volunteer to drive on a night out-this will mean you can not drink alcohol and you are more likely to stick to healthy options (alcohol definitely weakens ones resistance to temptation)
- If you are already overweight consider joining a slimming class before Christmas. Many people leave it until the new year which means they overindulge at christmas & have far more weight to lose than if they had joined pre-christmas. The queues to join at slimming classes are huge in the new year-new years resolutions-why wait until the new year ?
- Avoid shopping for food when you are hungry. The supermarkets are crammed full of chocolates, crisps, snacks & bumper sizes tins of biscuits & sweeets at this time of year and are very difficult to resist when you are hungry.
- Keep the amount of chocolate you buy for family to a minimum so that you wont be tempted to eat their’s.
- When at a party or a night out choose long drinks with mixers in tall glasses with plenty of ice-eg gin and slimline tonic, vodka & tonic, white wine & soda, bacardi & diet coke. There are fewer calories in these drinks, and the drink will last longer so you will be less likely over consume
- Be aware of evening snacking-the long winter night can mean we spend too long in front of the tv & the temptation to snack in the ads can be huge. Think of little jobs you can do in the ads, or if you must snack put a bowl of fruit in your tv room to snack on so at least your snacking is healthy.
- Get active-when ever you can get outside and enjoy some fresh air and sunshine-wrap up warm and go for a walk. Walking is great exercise and costs nothing to do. All you need is a pair of comfortable sturdy & ideally waterproof shoes & away you go.
- Consider taking up a new hobby in the evenings that gets you out of the house at least once a week
- Try some new recipes-winter is a great time to get out your slow cooker & russle up a casserole or a heart warming soup
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