Christmas and new year’s are a time to enjoy with the family, eat some good food, drink some of your favorite beverages and enjoy some downtime. We all live our own hectic lifestyles and for many of us these couple of days are an excuse to chill down a little bit before we go again. However, if you’re reading this blog, I know you care about your fitness or physique in some way, shape or form. If you have been working hard for a couple years now, you don’t want a couple of days to ”ruin” that for you. If you have started living a healthier lifestyle or losing weight a month ago, you don’t want this period to derail the progress you have made up to this point. And if you’re like me, you just don’t like feeling out of shape or a bit overweight. Whatever your reason is, I want to help you get through these holidays without having to say no, while still maintaining your fitness. I want you to enjoy these days the best you can, while preserving your physique in the process.

#1 Start and focus on protein

Many of our Christmas dinners will be based around meats and different protein sources, right? But what about all the appetizers, drinks and snacks that you don’t necessarily think of right away? Those are more than likely not protein rich and carb/sugar heavy. While carbs are not the enemy necessarily, they do add up at some point. Sugar is obviously the biggest factor we have to keep in mind during the holidays because it will cause the most amount of ”damage” if we don’t. we’ll get into this a little bit more in a second.

Starting and focusing on your protein intake will benefit you for a couple different reasons; it will fill your plate and stomach up so it leaves less room for sugary foods, it will help maintain your muscle mass and health throughout the holidays, making good decisions at the start of a meal will carry over to later. Just to name a few.

#2 The rule of 1

The rule of 1 is very simple. Limit yourself to having only one thing of whatever it is you feel like won’t benefit you by tomorrow. Think about deserts, snacks, drinks, processed foods, dishes with heavy fats like cream and whatever else you can think of. Doesn’t sound too bad right, still being able to enjoy one of each?

#3 Fasted walks in the morning

I will let you in on a little secret, intermittent fasting is going to be number 4 on this list. Why is fasted walking different? Because you’re leveraging your body into burning fat rather than carbohydrates. If you’re fasting but sit on the couch all day long, yes, your blood sugar levels will reset but you won’t get the benefits of burning as much fat.

You obviously don’t have to limit yourself to walking either, it’s just a low barrier to entry. You could go for a run, do yoga, do a high intensity workout, whatever you prefer.

Fast 14-16 hours and do what you enjoy in the meantime.

#4 intermittent fasting

Didn’t see that coming, did you? So why do I keep talking about intermittent fasting? Let’s say you don’t fancy following the tips I have given you up to this point, fasting has your back. NO, intermittent fasting doesn’t undo the 10 deserts you ate last night, but it will mitigate the ”damage”. Your body resets the sugar level in your blood which means fat is the first acting energy source your body turns to instead.

For more on why you should use intermittent fasting during the holidays, check this out .

#5 Stay active

This tip could also be called ”Manage your snacking”. Staying active simply means controlling the amount of ”uncalculated” eating we do during those days. We all have our big meals planned out, but what about the hours in between? The chocolates, the cookies and all the other stuff you can think of. Staying active or at least being aware of the situation will help you mitigate this problem. Obviously, staying active is never a bad thing so you can rely on it to help you out in this situation as well.

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