Maintaining fit during the festive season
‘Tis the season to lose control, with Christmas just around the corner we want to equip you with small, easy ways to take control of your fitness during the busiest month of the year.
Our top tip is to create a routine, a simple list of tasks you wish to accomplish during the day is a great way to organise your mind first thing in the morning. Extra planning can reduce the stress of this busy period, and less stress leads to less anxiety, better mental health, and less chaos. Anything that you can’t manage that day can be moved over to another day. Try not to overload your day and factor in time to relax, by having a physical view of your day you can create time to exercise and not feel like it’s a burden when you are short on time.
When it comes to fitting in workouts consider small home workouts. This is a good way to save time and money while maintaining your fitness, it also gives you the flexibility to exercise whenever you want. One way to do this is with yoga, while being very relaxing, yoga allows you to go at your own pace. With yoga, you are able to improve your physical flexibility, improve your strength, and relieve physical pain, all while tailoring each movement to your own body and your personal needs.
Now, let’s get to the good stuff or shall we say bad…alcohol. This festive period is the time when all the variations of cocktails and good wines come out. Between the different types of beer, wines, and sweet cocktails, it can be very hard to stay disciplined and keep away from them all. Well, we’re here to say that you don’t necessarily have to.
Let’s start with wine, while most wines may appear to have the same calorie count, rosé wines are usually higher as it is a sweeter wine and having a lot of rosé can cause unconscious weight gain. Sugar content is something to watch in any alcohol when it comes to monitoring your fitness, premixed drinks often have a higher sugar content than those you mix yourself. Beers are made with grains, so they are naturally high in carbohydrates, consuming too much beer can tip the scales of your blood sugar, making your body work harder to rectify this change. Light beers are a great alternative, while they have lower alcohol, they also have lower calories and sugar levels.
On to the harder alcohols, Vodka is a sugar-free option when mixing your own drinks. Drinking spirits like Gin, Whiskey, Tequila and Rum neat (without mixers) prevents calorie intake from mixers, but remember, everything in moderation. Using soda water with a squeeze of lemon or lime can be a great alternative to using high-sugar fizzy drinks as mixers.
When it comes to the abundance of delicious festive food that is around to temp us, we advise eating smaller meals more frequently rather than a big glutenous meal, as hard as it may be to refuse, this can help your body process the food and doesn’t train your body to expect more food in one sitting.
And the most beneficial part of them well but yet we all run away from…good old exercise! Exercising regularly can help to improve digestion and can also help prevent bloating after meals. Another tip is incorporating small sessions of planking or hip lifts when watching tv or even chatting on the phone can be an easy options to maintain your fitness without trying too hard.
With these strategies, we hope that you have some new ideas to implement seamlessly into your daily lives. One last tip is to not overdo it, try rotating your daily exercises so that you don’t drain your battery. Change between exercising one day and stretching the next, this season shouldn’t be overwhelming, we hope that these tips can help you to avoid the new year’s desperate diet! Remember to enjoy yourself while taking control of the chaos.
And last but not least, PaFIT Strength team wish you all a very Merry Jolly Christmas and an amazing New Year! 2023 may it come strongly blessed with health, love, peace, happiness and prosperity!