Travel -- 1 day ago
Words: Guy Aubrey Devito
Christmas is a period of indulgence – the fatty goose, the moreish panettone and the never ending supply of mince pies always takes a toll on your stomach. However, by following a few simple steps, you can ensure that you stay lean in the run-up to Christmas – and remain slender after it.
FOCUS ON CARDIO
As muscle turns so easily into fat, you don’t want to be going into Christmas carrying lots of muscle. A very built physique is extremely hard to maintain, great for summer perhaps, but inappropriate for Christmas. Before a period of indolence and inactivity you want to have a low BMI to ensure that any muscle bulk does not turn to blubber. Running is obviously a great way to stay in shape, but if you’re not used to jogging, several short, high intensity sprints will burn energy just as well.
SLEEP PROGRAMME
You burn less energy when you’re asleep and so if you’re rolling out of bed at 11:00 every morning during the Christmas holidays – you’ll likely put on a bit of weight. You can handle this in two different ways; you can either endeavour to rise before 8:00 every morning over the holidays – or you can try and get as many early nights as possible during December. By climatising your body to an extended sleep cycle, you’ll ensure that it isn’t a shock to the system when you indulge in those midday lie-ins.
ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION
Boozing over Christmas – and the lead-up to it – is a given but overdoing it will hammer your fitness and lead to you putting on an excessive amount of weight. What people always seem to forget is that alcohol is sugary and highly fattening but that’s not to say that you can’t drink. Steer clear of cocktails and beer, which contain excessive amounts of sugar and have spirits on ice – without mixers, or mixers that don’t contain sugar (tomato juice, tonic water and ‘diet’ sodas).
EAT YOURSELF SLIM
Out of the fad diets from recent years, the Atkins diet is the one that has consistently been proven to be effective and the process of ketosis, whereby the body transitions from metabolising glucose – to body fat, in order to generate energy. If you focus your diet around proteins like eggs, poultry and red meat – and natural fats like nuts, olive oil and cheese – your body will be ready for the deluge of rich food that you’ll eat over Christmas.
