What you need to do after the New Year and Xmas excess? 🤔

At this time of year, after the Christmas and New Year inevitable excesses it’s natural to want to ‘get back on it’ and you may well think the way to do this is to go into overdrive – exercise excessively, slash your calories down to under 1000 a day, maybe do a ‘detox’/ ‘cleanse’ or throw money at a diet fad, cut carbs or other food groups… You may be beating yourself up and calling yourself a failure for eating so much over the holidays … Or you may just think ‘f*ck it’ and give up completely and continue over eating…

None of this will actually make you feel better or get you where you want to be.

Exercising excessively will only make you tired, prone to injury and probably likely to eat more in the long run. Slashing calories down to unsustainably low levels may work initially but it won’t last and you’ll end up rebounding and probably overeating even more – and you’ll be miserable! ‘Detoxes’ or ‘cleanses’ are just an expensive way to cut calories/replace meals – they result in rapid initial weight loss from water loss but aren’t sustainable… and they definitely do not ‘remove toxins’ – your liver and kidneys do that for you just fine! Cutting food groups out has a similar effect – yes you’ll reduce your calories but unless you plan on never eating those food groups again it’s not sustainable and it’s frankly pretty sad to cut foods you love totally out of your diet for life.

Saying ‘f*ck it’ will definitely be very liberating but if it results in you continuing to over eat then long term it probably won’t feel that good! Whilst you definitely do not need to lose weight (no one does unless medically advised) if you aren’t happy with your weight then longer term then you’ll certainly want to regain some control right?

Beating yourself up is definitely no good. It’s so hard not to – we are often our harshest critics – but let’s be honest here – you enjoyed a few weeks of good food and drink with family and friends, is that really a bad thing? Does it make you a ‘failure’ or a bad person? No! It makes you a human being – and it’s not something to feel bad or guilty about!

So what should you do?

Go back to your normal exercise /walking routine, eat balanced meals at a sensible number of calories, Avoid all detoxes/cleanses/ diet fads and save your money! Enjoy all the things you enjoy eating, but in moderation – skip the expensive fads and focus on these fundamentals! Oh and remind yourself you’re a brilliant human being!

🤗 Xx

Practical New Year’s Resolutions… ⭐️

Although I suggested alternative resolutions yesterday I’m aware that for many their resolutions involve making a fresh start at health and fitness. Often these will include to “lose weight” or to “get fit” or perhaps “eat healthier’. Now whilst these are all great goals they’re quite hard to achieve without some practical steps. They’re outcomes of changes you need to make rather than actual resolutions per se.

If you are making New Year’s resolutions about your health and fitness, then instead of making generalised statements try to focus instead on small actions you can take every day that will lead to those end goals.

So instead of resolving to lose weight, perhaps instead resolve to identify where the excess calories are in your diet. Are they coming from alcohol? Extra snacks? Take aways? Portion sizes? And then you can take steps to reduce them and therefore reduce your calorie intake (leading to fat and weight loss).

Instead of resolving to “get fit”, instead focus on upping your daily steps. Rather than choosing an arbitrary goal of 10,000 steps, instead commit to increasing your steps. If you’re already hitting 12,000 steps a day then aim for 14,000, if you’re getting 4,000 aim for 6,000 etc. Also consider adding some exercise 1-3 times a week. It doesn’t matter what that exercise is really just pick something you actually enjoy; dancing, running, weight lifting, swimming cycling etc.

Rather than resolving to “Eat healthier” commit to adding a portion of fruit or veg to every meal. Aside from the fact that it will increase your overall nutrition, it will increase fibre levels, and will probably help reduce overall calories as by filling some of your plate with fruit and veg you’re going to eat less of other, more calorie dense foods.

This approach is far better than making massive changes, subscribing to fad diets/detoxes/challenges etc which may well cause you to lose weight quickly but will also see you putting that weight back on once you’re back to eating normally again. Take small sustainable steps and you’ll find you’ll hit your goals and be able to maintain it within your lifestyle too! 🙂

Xx