In the first part of this series we talked about how setting goals is the first step to maintaining your weight over Christmas. You can read if here. If you’ve taken our advice you’ll already be regularly measuring your waist and starting to feel in control over your weight. But even with the best intentions, the Christmas period can be difficult to manage. With Christmas parties, catching up with friends and of course the buffet style Christmas lunch, the opportunities to overindulge are endless. Now you could vow to eat healthy, or perhaps limit yourself to just 1 glass of wine. But if we’re being honest with ourselves, I’m sure you’d agree that this just won’t happen. 1 drink turns to 2 (and 3 and 4) and what little willpower you had is gone after your third dinner date in as many days. Put simply, if you try and restrict yourself you’ll be setting yourself up for failure. So I say just enjoy it… but of course there’s a catch!

Tip #2 – Don’t deprive yourself, instead make it up to yourself.

When we set goals and fail there’s a lot of negativity and self-doubt that comes with it. If you say to yourself, “I’m not going to drink tonight” and then you find yourself nursing an alcohol fueled hangover in the morning, this reinforces our lack of self-control around food and drink; we’re training ourselves to fail. But what if we flipped it around. Specifically, let yourself indulge on whatever food and drink you want but set a price for it. Say you want to have a few after work drinks with friends, set yourself a price of say 20 push-ups for each drink you have. If you end up having 5 drinks, that’s 100 push-ups you need to do the next day.

Push-ups aren’t your thing? How about running. For every course you have while you’re out for dinner, set yourself a price of running 1k the next day. A four course banquet will be 4k’s of hard work to make up for it.

You may ask what the point is, does this amount of exercise actually make a difference. To be honest, how much exercise you do doesn’t really matter, whether it’s ten push-ups or a hundred.  The more important thing is that we’re being accountable for our actions. We’re taking responsibility for our health and our weight. This small change can be very empowering. Instead of food controlling you, you’re taking back the reigns and choosing to take control.

Want to take it one step further? How about being proactive and doing your ‘penalties’ before you even go out for drinks or dinner. If you know you’ve got a big night tonight, go for a run beforehand. There are 3 important reasons why this works incredibly well: 1) you’re taking control over your actions; 2) you’re burning off the excess calories that you’re going to consume; 3) and you’re spiking your insulin sensitivity beforehand which minimises the damage.

So there you have it, looking and feeling good this holiday season is in your hands. Take action and put these tips into place and you won’t regret it come January. In Tip #3 we’re going to let you know how to make the most of the festivities whilst still being smart about it.

-Chris