Is it okay to over indulge at Christmas?

Do you ever find that Christmas feels like a real effort?

You have worked hard to be fit and healthy all year and the thought of the Christmas period fills you with dread about how your fitness will suffer...

The media is full at this time of year of how many calories are in a Christmas pudding and how much exercise you have to do to work off your Christmas dinner.

As I said last week I am more concerned with what happens between New Year and Christmas not what happens between Christmas and New Year!

If you eat well and exercising 80% of the time you will ensure you stay on track to your goals and are still able to enjoy your time off.

So how do you survive Christmas and look after your health and fitness goals?

Firstly don’t beat yourself up! When you are rushing about for Christmas your usual routine will probably go out of the window. You may plan a workout and either be too tired or too busy. That’s ok!

You are doing well, your diet is on track, then there is the work do where you drink too much and just have to have pudding. You feel awful the next day and you eat too much again. What do you do? Cram in an extra workout to work it off? Starve yourself for a few days?

Christmas is a time for indulgence and spending it feeling bad about what you have eaten is no fun.

Beating yourself up and maybe skipping a meal to make up won’t actually make any difference, and it certainly won’t improve your mood!

A survey of 2,000 young adults, commissioned by Cancer Research UK, revealed that one in four 18 to 24-year-olds and a third of 25 to 34-year-olds have skipped a meal before an evening out to 'make room' for alcohol in their daily calorie allowance. Scary stuff!

My advice is don’t work yourself into a frenzy over calories. Indulging on Christmas pudding and chocolates for a day won’t do any long term harm. You will however end up feeling down and upset with yourself if you spend your time stressing about how much weight you may or may not put on.

Stay focussed on a goal centred on being fit and healthy, take a few days off your routine and get back on track as soon as you can.

I would love to hear how you manage this time of year and what effect it has on you. Let me know what your top tips are maybe they can help someone else?

Here’s to a fantastic Christmas.

Kirsty xx

p.s. if you are thinking about your New Year’s Resolutions you can access my FREE email course on setting goals, its called the Wheel of Health and it will help you set health and fitness goals that are actually achievable you can download it here.

p.p.s. I hate putting my email address into those things too! Don't worry I won't be sending your masses of spam, just a load of valuable information and I promise not to be offended if you choose to unsubscribe.