Christmas is a time to celebrate with the ones we love. A time to eat, drink, stay up late and be merry.

Luckily this year we will be able to experience work Christmas parties and spend time with our loved ones.  However, this doesn’t mean that our fitness and health goals have to fall off the tracks, there are ways to negate the effect of the Christmas holiday excesses.

Here are our top 5 tips to help you stay on top of the Christmas cheer:

• 1. Maintain habits – Try as much as possible to continue the habits you have in your day-to-day life. For example, if you get up at 7am every working day then continue to do this. Although you’ll likely be going to bed later, on certain days, it’s so important to try and control what you can control, with this being a simple example. If you keep to a similar routine, you’ll find everything else is easier to manage.
  2. Make better alcohol choices – We will all likely drink more over the festive period than we would do normally. Picking a tipple that may have lower calorific content or that brings on less of a severe hangover is always a smart idea. For example, a clear spirit like vodka or gin with a non-sugar-based mixer (sugar free tonic or soda water). The lower calorie content of these drinks compared to say beer or wine will mean your overall calorific consumption on a big night out will be lower. This can really add up over the course of a week. Secondly clear drinks tend to contain less impurities which can bring on more intensive hangovers. Red wine and darker spirits such as whiskey are examples of drinks to try to avoid.
  3. Get up and move – Getting up and out of bed for some light exercise first thing in the morning is one of the best things we can do for our health. It will help regulate your blood sugars for the rest of the day plus make you feel more alert and energised by managing your circadian rhythm. Your circadian rhythm is known as your natural sleep/wake cycle. Having that morning light exposure and elevation of heart rate is one of the most simple tricks to keep cortisol high in the morning and then low at night which then induces deep sleep.
  4. Introduce Intermittent Fasting – Also known as time restricted eating, IF can have profound effects on weight management. The commonly known 5:2 diet of eating normally for five days then severely cutting caloric intake for two days is what popularised IF. Instead, another way is to condense your eating window to 8 hours and then fast for 16 hours. The way to do this is to remove your breakfast or evening meal (never the lunch). If you would like further information on how to practice intermittent fasting in a healthy way, please contact us on 0207 315 4260, or email info@coachlondon.uk .
  5. Walk after each meal – This is something that is recommend to do year round but especially during holiday periods. It’s as simple as it sounds, after each of your meals go for a 10-20 minute walk. This simple change can help reduce post prandial inflammation (the inflammatory effect food has), balance blood sugar levels and help drive nutrients in the cells of the muscles to be used as fuel, rather than being stored as fat.

Written by Mark Roper, Principal Coach