Ever wonder how you will cope with your training and nutrition routines over Christmas? Yeah, I thought most of you might say ‘No, it’s Christmas?!‘, but for those few die-hards who want to make sure training stays on track, I might have a few helpful tips.
Nutritional Off-Roading
Eating for health and wellbeing is not complicated, it really isn’t. It whole, natural, real foods, get plenty of veggies and chuck in some good fat.
What gets really difficult is eating the unhealthy food. It sound’s stupid right! Well.. After you start eating right and you start caring about the food you put in your body, eating clean is now far easier.
But how do you eat dirty and importantly not let it derail your hard-earned gains!
This great chart from “Whole 9” walks yourself through a series of checkpoints that all lead to one of three conclusions
- Don’t eat it
- Eat the “less bad” option
- eat the real deal.
It provides you with structure, a forum for intelligent self-reasoning, a map of “guidelines” to follow in previously uncharted territory. It lets you enjoy the good stuff without overdoing it on the other stuff.
Get Your Workouts In
Working out is good for us, we all know it. Training over the Christmas period can help deal with hangovers, re-inforce good eating habits, keep us in a joyful mood and overall make us feel better about ourselves.
Just because it’s Christmas does not mean you need to stop training, but it also does not have to be long or complicated to get all the benefits of a workout. Most of us don’t have access to a gym at Christmas, but there are plenty of workouts that can be done sans-equipment, here are but a few examples:
- Run for 20-30 minutes, perform 10 burpees (or any other movement) every 5 minutes
- 3-6 rounds: Run 400m, 30 Walking lunges, 30 Push-ups, 30 Sit-ups
- Death by burpees: Perform 1 burpee on minute 2, 2 reps on minute 2, 3 on minute 3…and so on until you cannot complete the work within the minute.
Get Your Friends Involved
Ok, this is a tough one I admit it.
Training as a lifestyle can be a hard sell at the best of times. But getting friends or family to do a workout with you at Christmas?! YES, it can be done but I find it works best to do the following.
- Just ask if they want to do a little workout to get them moving and have a little fun. Make it a Boxing Day play.
- Don’t try and have them do the hardest and most difficult exercises you have ever done yourself to just to show off – You want them to have fun, not break themselves. Keep it simple and keep it basic. Running, squats, push-ups, sit-ups, burpees, broad jumps are all effective (and non-threatening)
- Make it a partner workout – They are always way more fun, and if they are working out with you and not against you they are more likely to enjoy it
- Don’t make it race against the clock – Just have fun and do some fitness!
If all else fails just use the line ‘all I want for Christmas is to do a workout with you‘ and employ the puppy eyes…it might work!
Bonus Tip
It’s Christmas afterall. So, you are with your friends and family… …You can forget about the gym for a couple of days and enjoy a few days break! I will miss you of course, but I will be right here waiting when you get back.
Have a very merry Christmas!
Milla xo
