A Personal Trainers Practical Festive Season Tips

Someone asked me yesterday for some tips on how to manage all the seemingly unavoidable food and drinks coming up over the festive season and how to avoid ending up looking even remotely like this poor dude below (click on the image to see a larger version), so here we go...

A Beer Belly Not To Be Proud Of!Firstly, I just want to say that I really do hope this image has been "digitally enhanced" as that is one mighty fine beer gut depending on how you look at it. I am not sure whether to be amazed or appalled!

Here are a few things I am not going to tell you:
1. To not drink over the festive season
2. To watch every single thing you eat or drink (although some caution would make a little sense regardless of the time of year)
3. That now is a good time to try some radical new diet or swear off alcohol forever so you can beat the oncoming deluge of Christmas events, etc.

I wonder if that guy is still alive?

Some practical tips then and the plan I follow:
  • If you know you are in for a big session of food and alcohol, and this applies to any such event, try eating a little lighter during the day and do a longer workout, or even a couple of workouts that day, ie. morning and a couple of hours before you head out time permitting of course (don't punish yourself so much that you fall asleep at your partner's Christmas dinner though!)
  • Pace yourself... I am sure you have heard something similar to this in that it takes around 20 minutes for the brain to tell you that's it for now thanks. That seems like a long time but well worth listening to. If you overfill your car's petrol tank, where does the fuel go? It's wasted but worse for us it doesn't just spill onto the floor, our body knows how cheap petrol is right now and it stores it away for us (ie. body fat) for a rainy day.
  • It makes sense for a dozen reasons to drink to water throughout the day/night where possible. This won't just save your week of hard work in the gym, it might even save you a few bucks, a potentially embarrassing moment you can't recall, and at worst your license...
  • Even if you don't feel like it the next day, try and eat the healthiest meal you can possibly think of (think again!) rather than opting for the "God I need something greasy..." scenario. You will be amazed at how much better this will make you feel. Trust me.
  • Enjoy yourself with friends and family and have a great time, the gym will be there tomorrow (as will your personal trainer saying give me 10 ten more!), but we only have so many Christmas's to celebrate...
I hope this is some useful information that you can use and please let me know if I can provide anything further. For those savvy calorie counters out there I would be more than happy to give you some numbers on certain foods/drinks/wine, etc. that you are bound to cross paths with in the not too distant future.

2 comments:

Ken said...

Don't forget to exercise. Sometimes avoiding certain foods during the holidays can be very tough. When the turkey and mashed potatoes come out of the kitchen along with pies, stuffing and buttery rolls, it's hard to say no, even if you determined to do it earlier. If you exercise during the holidays, you're a lot less likely to gain unwanted weight.

Unknown said...

hey ken,

thanks for the input mate, we certainly can't get enough real and practical advice this time of the year. just popped onto your site and love the content, keep up the great work and your comments are very welcome.