It’s coming up to the festive period and many of us already have several Christmas parties booked in to our diaries meaning binge eating and excessive amounts of boozing. So, I thought I’d put together a short guide for avoiding the winter bloat and some effective ways to maintain motivation even when sometimes you just don’t  feel like getting out of  bed.

  • Reduce Alcohol Consumption – Because your body can’t store alcohol and must metabolise it right away, other metabolic processes suffer. Your body won’t metabolise sugars and fats as efficiently during the metabolism of alcohol. Drinking heavily also cause your metabolism to slow down contributing contribute to weight gain. Everything in moderation.
  • Avoid Sugar & Starches – The problem with starchy foods that are “refined,” as in white bread, white rice and pastries (the usual christmas treats), is that there is very little fibre and nutrients to make you feel satisfied. No matter how many calories you consume, you always feel like eating more. As a result, you are at risk of eating too much, and that means weight gain.
  • Do Full Body Workouts – Full-body workouts are made up of the big compound exercises.  These are excellent because you’re using more than one joint while performing the exercise, improving your exercise efficiency by working entire muscle groups and increasing your fat burning potential and it will keep you warm!
  • Eat A High Protein Diet –  High-protein diets can bring a quick drop in weight because limiting carbohydrates causes a loss of body fluids. High-protein diets cause substances called ketones to be released into the bloodstream. The ketones make losing weight easier by lowering appetite, meaning you won’t want to continually stuff your face.
  • Find A Training Buddy – When you answer to no one but yourself, it can become a habit to cancel a workout, especially during the winter months. If you have a workout buddy counting on you to be there for an exercise session, you’ll be less likely to cancel and you can both be the envy of everyone else at the party.
  • Hire A Personal Trainer – Trainers come with built-in motivation. There’s nothing like booking your first appointment to get your butt in gear for training during the winter months. A trainer provides some serious accountability so even when you don’t have a session you won’t want to binge and let him or her down at your next session – plus you’ll be one up on everyone else for the summer!

Hope you found these tips useful. I don’t want to come across as a Christmas killjoy but you’ll thank me when spring starts up again.

Happy Training,

– Adam White

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