Christmas is the time of year when we all indulge ing (including me). It’s the perfect time to relax, eat and be merry.

Most of us have many meals out, treats at work, drinks etc. during the month of December.

I’ll let yo in on a secret this PT has been eating mince pies since November 🙊

The last thing on anyone’s mind is fitness and eating healthy. Which is OK with me! Life is a balance. You should be able to relax a little bit and enjoy time with friends and family.

The problem comes when January hits.

Ideally, you don’t want this to happen, but also you don’t want to be that person that says no to everything because well.........calories 😬

I’m telling you that you can have your cake and eat it (well almost), without the feeling of restriction.

Heres some life hacks to keep the pounds gained lower this festive period.

Eat slowly

This is one of my favourite eating hacks.

I use this with every single client I coach, no matter if they want weight loss or muscle gain.

Eating slowly helps control the amount of food you end up eating at a meal.

Your stomach takes time to tell your brain its had enough food and its full. Eating like a Labrador 🐶 and finishing your meal before the first mouthful of food hits your stomach isn’t enough time for your brain to get the signal to stop eating.

It also gives you time to taste and savour those delicious meals and treats 🍰🍫🥧🍦🍖

Simply eating slowly will reduce your calorie intake by 100s of calories while still feeling like you’ve had your fill of festive food.

Top tips for eating slowly

• Eat with friends and family as you’ll be talking as well as eating, this’ll slow you down

• Put your knife and fork down after each mouthful (I bet you’ve heard that before but it really works)

• Eat at the table and not in front of the TVPhoneTablet

• On each mouthful think about the taste and texture of the food you’re eating. Enjoy it 😊

Stop just before you’re stuffed (80% full)

This one is another super habit that’ll stop you from eating too much food in one sitting. It goes hand in hand with eating slowly 👍

What we’re aiming for is satisfied not stuffed.

Stopping just before you feel stuffed (80% full), just like eating slowly, will reduce the amount of calories you eat without feeling like you’ve restricted yourself.

What 80% full for you is a tricky one. It’s up to you to decide for yourself.

80% full should feel you’re satisfied with the meal but you could eat more if you wanted to. Any more food would send you over the top to that ‘stuffed feeling.

If you went all the way to feeling 100% full or stuffed in 20 or so minutes you’ll start to get that uncomfortable I’m gonna burst feeling 🤢

Fill your plate with meats 🥩🥓🍖 (well, protein foods)

Protein based foods help you feel satisfied earlier in a meal. This means you eat less food at each meal.

Fill your plate up with the foods below and try to eat them first.

• Meat (any sort)

• Fish

• Eggs

• Lower fat dairy

• Soya

Aim for at least 1 palm sized portion for women and 2 palms for men.

Fill your plate with veggies 🥦🥕🥒

Filling your plate full of veggies is a great stomach filler. Most veggies (that aren’t soaked in fat/oils) add bulk but with with low calories. This means you eat less 👍

You can still eat your roasties 🥔 but chomping down on those veggies first will definitely help you keep the calories lower.

Aim for a portion of 2-3 fists for men and women

Take a 10-20 minute walk after big meals

Most people throughout the festive period do sweet F’all. The attitude is “well it’s Christmas so I deserve a break”.

I’m not saying you can’t take a break from working out but most do literally nothing for 2 weeks. This means your NEAT (how many calories you burn throughout the day through living and daily tasks) becomes very low. This means you’re the chance of piling on the pounds over Christmas.

Walking is a great low intensity way of burning some extra calories which anyone can do. Adding a walk after a meal or two a day during the festive period will still feel like your taking a break but burn some extra mince pies 🥧

Walking burns on average around 200-300kcal per hour (more if you’re a big human or upping your walking pace). A 10 minute walk doesn’t seem like much but over 14 days that equates to (this is not an exact science) on average 50kcals each time you walk 🚶‍♂️

50kcal x 14 = 700 kcals 👍

1400 kcal if you do 20 minutes each day for 2 weeks.

When a pound of fat is said to be 3500 kcals its well worth taking that walk. It’ll also give you a break from watching dodgy Christmas movies 🎥

If you workout, do whatever you can

Any workout is better than nothing.

It doesn’t have to be the most intense or the longest, but keeping yourself topped up will mean you’re on a roll come 2nd January 💪

Out of sight out of mind

Mince pies 🥧 I can’t get enough of them. I’m up to 2 a day at the moment (if they’re in the house).

A simple life hack is to not have it in the house, or at least take them out of sight.

Put a box of biscuits or chocolates on the coffee table and I guarantee they’ll be gone within hours. Pop them in the cupboard and hopefully you’ll only get them out when you really want one.

Don’t restrict yourself too much

It’s Christmas! Enjoy yourself.

Restricting yourself too much could mean you up binging on more food.

Eat whatever you want, who wants to be that person that’s on a diet at Christmas.

Just try to apply some of the principles above (eating slow and stopping at 80% are the best) and hopefully you won’t put too much weight on. If you do, oh well its Christmas.

Right I’m off to eat another mince pie 🥧