Shape up and party: Ten ways to keep healthy and have festive fun

Ring out the bells

If Christmas celebrations always end up crowding out your gym time, make workouts part of your party.

“Go ice-skating with friends or even hire your favourite PT and ask for a bespoke Christmas-themed workout for a work get-together,” suggests fitness coach Caroline Bragg.

“Alternatively, organise with a friend to work out in the mornings and take it in turns to ring each other’s doorbell or phone to ensure you get up and work out.”

Morning workouts mean you’re not only more likely to stick to your fitness routine but you’ll burn more calories, too.

A Northumbria University study showed people who exercised before breakfast burned 20 per cent more calories than those who ate before their workout.

Roller-coaster restraint

Part of the reason it’s so difficult to resist temptation over Christmas is not just that there’s so much on offer but because we often let our usual eating routine slip.

“It’s very common to start skipping meals but the best thing you can do is stick to eating breakfast, lunch and dinner to help prevent your blood sugar levels roller-coasting,” says dietitian Juliette Kellow.

“Blood spikes are followed by crashes, which make you more likely to snack and give in to temptation.”

She recommends foods rich in protein, such as fish, eggs, lean meat and nuts.

“Protein will help make you feel fuller for longer, while snacking on almonds or vegetable crudités requires you to chew, which helps send a message to your brain that you are eating properly.”

Reindeer races

Just because it’s the festive season, doesn’t mean you can’t have a goal to help keep you maintain focus and motivation.

“At Christmas it’s easy to drift away from consistent training, which will make it more difficult to get back into it come January. Having a race to focus your training on is always a good idea,” says running coach Tara Shanahan.

“Be realistic about how much you can train and choose a race accordingly. Then make a plan and share it with friends and family so you are more likely to stick to it.”

With so many races, such as Santa dashes and reindeer runs, the focus can be on fitness and fun. If your local park run has a Christmas Day run then go for it. What could be a better present than a festive personal best? 

Drink from a tall glass 

If you want to cut down on calories while still having a good time, ask bar staff to serve your drink in a tall glass.

Research published in the Journal Of Consumer Research found bartenders poured 27 per cent more alcohol into shorter, wider glasses than into tall, thin ones.

Alternatively, try downloading app drinksmeter.com, which provides realistic calorie comparisons of what you have been drinking. For instance, two glasses of red wine is the approximate equivalent of four slices of bread.

Four glasses could equate to about half a loaf – and if that’s not enough to make you think before you drink, we don’t know what is. 

Seasonal supplements

Even with the best of intentions the festive season can throw your vitamin levels off balance and leave you more open to temptation and food cravings.

“Late nights and a change in your usual eating routines mean you can often become dehydrated and deficient in minerals and vitamin B.

This can affect your blood-sugar levels, which will contribute to you craving unhealthy snacks,” explains clinical nutritionist Manal Chouchane.

“Help to offset this by drinking plenty of water and eating green leafy vegetables, which are rich in vitamin B.”

New day, new challenge

Everyone loves an Advent calendar full of chocolates in December but with each treat weighing in at about 25 to 80 calories why not offset it with your own fitness chart?

“There are hundreds of free fitness workouts on YouTube so it’s easy to pick a new one each day,” Tara says.

“Alternatively, arrange to work out with a friend and each come up with a new workout every day.”

Keep the workouts short. A Tabata high-intensity interval training session of eight rounds of 20 seconds with 10 seconds rest will help you retain your motivation and is as effective in burning fat and calories as a longer workout. 

Plan for success

It is impossible to avoid temptation altogether during December so having a strategy for what and how you are going to deal with it will enable you to enjoy going out without going overboard.

“If you are going to a party, plan in advance how many canapés you are going to eat or what time you’re going to stop eating,” suggests diet psychologist Sue Bradley (eatingpsychology.co.uk).

“By creating a strategy you will be much more likely to be able to say no and you stay in control.” 

You could apply a points system to canapés and drinks – the creamier the cocktails or the more pastry-laden the foods, the higher the number of points.

At the end of Christmas, add up the number you have resisted and redeem the points against a list of treats, such as a weekend away or a new pair of shoes.

“It’s useful as a short-term measure to help give you focus on an end goal to take away the pain of not having the immediate gratification of a snack,” adds Sue.

A bag in the hand 

Invest in a clutch bag and make sure it’s so bulky you have to hold it in your hand rather than tuck it under your arm. Why? Because that means you will have only one free hand and if it’s holding a drink you can’t pick at food.

“It’s one of the simplest ways of ensuring you don’t overeat at a party, keeping your hands full,” says Juliette.

“It helps prevent you picking up something off the buffet table or taking something from a waiter.”

And when you do decide to nibble, keep away from beige-coloured food.

“It’s a simple rule of thumb as these foods, like pastries or breads, tend to be more calorific,” she warns.

“Switch instead to lean meats, smoked salmon or unsalted nuts, all of which are still tasty but will help prevent you piling on the pounds.”

Give in now and again 

Weightlifting is a great way to build muscle but you wouldn’t spend half an hour lifting weights then do it again 30 minutes later as your muscles would be fatigued.

The same is true of willpower. At Florida State University one group of students was asked to eat cookies while another was told to resist them. Each group was then given an impossible geometry puzzle to solve.

Those who had resisted the cookies gave up on the puzzle in eight minutes compared to 20 minutes for the group that had eaten the cookies. 

“Studies suggest that some willpower was used up by the first task, leaving less for the second,” explains psychologist Roy Baumeister, who led the study, published as Willpower: Rediscovering The Greatest Human Strength (Penguin, £9.99). See Bookshop on page 81. 

This means allowing yourself a few treats over Christmas could actually be good for your willpower and that avoiding festive parties after a stressful day at work might be a good tactic. If you have been hard on yourself all day you could feel you’ve “earned” too many fattening treats. 

Obstacle courses

Do you manage to resist the party treats only to succumb to all the Christmas-tree chocolates and salty snacks meant for the big day? In that case, create some obstacles so it becomes more difficult to get your hands on tasty temptations at home. 

A study by America’s Cornell University Food and Brand Lab found that women who kept soft drinks on their kitchen work surfaces tended to weigh 24lb to 26lb more than those who didn’t.

And a Swiss study showed that people who were given individually wrapped chocolates ate only 3.6 sweets rather than 5.3 when they were offered unwrapped chocolate.