Enjoying Christmas holiday with family and friends doesn’t have to equal gaining weight and getting fat! You still have enough time until Christmas to come up with a plan and rethink your way of handling delicious food over the winter holidays – all in the name of enjoying yourself and not gain unnecessary weight!

Planning before Christmas holiday

The first stage is planning: the greatest thing about Christmas (besides being able to spend it with family and getting awesome gifts) is that you know exactly when it is – so you can prepare for it! Here are the steps you need to do before Christmas holiday gets you:

1. Cut back on the calories the week before Christmas

I’m not talking about a new meal plan or a new diet. All you need to do is cut back on the occasional desserts that you are having. Just think about all that delicious sweets and meals you’ll be enjoying with your family during Christmas time! It’s way worth it than having two spoons of Nutella right now!

2. Hide all the treats

Put the treats out of sight so you don’t end up tempted to try them! I made a mistake of getting “healthy” versions of Christmas candy and it was displayed in a beautiful bowl in my room as a nice part of Christmas decoration. Well, the Christmas candy lasted 3 days! Whenever I walked around and took a glance, I ate one. It was gone in 3 days – and it was supposed to be for guests. The fact that it wasn’t regular but healthy candy made it worse: I didn’t feel bad when eating it, because it’s healthy! However, the calories did show up on my hips – because we all know that hips don’t lie.

3. Plan your workouts for the Christmas holidays

Come up with a Christmas holiday season workout plan! I tried so many times but I could never stick to my regular workout plan during the holiday season. There were family visits, travels, unexpected obligations that needed to be handled, changed gym opening hours and it all led to me skipping my regular workouts. One way to handle this is to have your workout plan altered so it can accommodate your busy Christmas holiday season as well.

Tip while travelling: I incorporate morning yoga to stretch out and to feel like I did something good for my health that day. It’s a 15 minute Sun Salutation sequence that wakes my body and gets me ready for the day. It doesn’t need a lot of space and it’s really handy to get you started to a busy day.

Tip while family is visiting: Check gym opening hours so I can squeeze in an hour of gym before my family wakes up. But you can come up with another plan for working out while you are spending time with family: take long walks together. You are lucky if you have visiting kids: feel free to play with them by running around the house or around! They will be happy to play and you will get your daily dose of exercise – it’s a win-win situation!

Tip while running errands: I try to use my bike whenever I can to get a daily dose of cardio workout and get myself closer to my desired bubble butt!

4. Keep yourself warm

Throw on a sweater or turn the heat up! If you are cold, you are more likely to just sit on the couch with a blanket and do nothing (which is absolutely okay too). If your muscles are warm, you are more likely to engage in physical activity. So keeping yourself warm highers your chances to go for that walk or run around the block or hitting the gym. Or just keep warm by moving!

5. Plan your Christmas holiday meals

Rethink your traditional Christmas holiday meals: aim to use healthy, unprocessed, natural ingredients. Choose fruits and use herbs and spices instead of eating sweets! Think about how you could  use more vegetables with your current traditional Christmas recipes! Look for additional sources of protein! Plan to have healthy snacks such as veggies, fruits, nuts or cheese instead of sweets!

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