How To Survive The Holidays

by Dec 22, 2017Nutrition Tips

It is that time of year, the festive season, Christmas and New Year mix into that a few work, social and even just romantic Christmas parties and it’s a recipe for disaster, right?

It doesn’t have to be a season you need to go all out in order to enjoy and it certainly doesn’t have to be the reason you then have to make drastic new year’s resolutions to rectify, here’s some advice that I give my clients if they feel they struggle through this period

Preparation – Ok, so sometimes we may get thrown a curveball ‘you coming out tonight?’ when you’re in the final hour at work but most of the time these events are planned far in advance and the parties have to be pre-booked more than likely too so there is plenty of time for preparation here to make sure damage is minimal. If you know you’re going to be out then don’t indulge elsewhere during that week, do a little more weight training, schedule a workout the day of and maybe for the afternoon after (just to get through the hangover first) but prepare for this and you can enjoy it fully.

If you have two events in one week then you can then make sure the next week you’re really good just do your best with planning.

The 80/20 rule – This is a big thing I like to make sure my clients know about, 80% of the time if you’re on point and eating healthy, training nice and high levels and then you can take 20% of the time off. You will still see good results and be able to be ‘let off the leash’ so to speak in order to enjoy these events.

Enjoy the food – This sounds a bit silly but a lot of the time, and I am one of the worst for this’ we don’t enjoy the food we’re eating we just over indulge and scoff it down without even tasting it. Take your time, put your cutlery down after every couple of mouthfuls, enjoy the company you’re with and make sure you stay nicely hydrated. It takes the body around 20 minutes to start to realise it is full up so make use of this, don’t eat for the sake of it, eat to enjoy and eat to fuel.

Be mindful of your choices – When you’re picking the food a general rule I like to go by is if you have a starter don’t have a dessert, if you have a high carb main then have a smaller dessert or a coffee, something like this, it will stop you getting high amounts of sugar and most of the time you won’t eat too much protein or sides. Another thing is to choose a good amount of veg as your sides and the fibre in these will help keep you satiated for longer.

Diet mixers – Ok, so you’re not going for a meal you’re straight out ‘on the town’ ready to get ‘on it’ when you’re out don’t go for vodka and coke but rather diet coke, don’t go for the sugary drinks, beers, the fruity things but the spirits will have a lot less calories in there and you can save even more by taking the sugar out from the mixers too, you’ll still forget what you done at the office party the night before but you won’t have the problem of forgetting the extra 5000 calories you consumed in liquid form too.

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