Short and sweet (literally) today as it’s nearly Christmas! And I thought it might be good to offer a little reminder that it doesn’t always have to be about the nutritional value of the food you’re eating. Food serves a purpose beyond pure fuel – it’s also an emotional activity. We enjoy eating and we enjoy food, and we enjoy the associations we make with food.
So you could wake up on Christmas morning and have a nutritious breakfast of poached eggs and avocado on toast, and a small cappuccino. It will undoubtedly taste delicious and set you up for your day. Or, because it’s Christmas, you could decide you’d rather enjoy the perfectly acceptable breakfast of 5 celebrations, 6 Terry’s chocolate orange segments and 6 gold
coins! It’s only a day, and unless you’re eating chocolate for breakfast everyday you’ll be fine. And as you can see from the comparison – if calories are what’s important to you – there’s not much in it anyway! lol!
Managing the amount of calories we consume can be especially difficult during the festive season. Ideally, we want to find a happy balance between joining in with the fun without going totally overboard and ruining our healthy eating regime!
This is the advice I give my clients:
#1 Spread the damage – if you have an event coming up try to cut down kcals in the days leading up or after. I’m not suggesting you starve yourself as that will result in overeating later. Instead try to save 100-200 kcals a day for a few days to buffer the social event e.g if you have a Friday party where you may overeat/drink by 800-1000 kcal, reduce your daily intake by 200 kcal from Mon to Thurs. You’ll barely notice 200 kcals a day!
#2 Cut the Booze – Drink is the biggest contributor to weight gain during the holidays. Often we drink socially over several hours so it’s hard to track. You could stick to low calorie drinks – but what if you don’t like them? The best thing is to drink what you want and control the quantity instead. Plan for a set number of drinks (e.g 4/5) of whatever you like. That way you’ll appreciate it but not feel deprived. In addition drink a big glass of water before you start (as you’re bound to be dehydrated from all the festive rushing about) to help prevent you being thirsty and knocking back the first drink too fast. Have a glass of water after every couple of drinks too.
#3 Keep Active – incorporate a little activity in to your Christmas Day. Face it – we’re all going to over eat on Xmas day (an average of 4000 – 5000 kcals). You’re not going to burn that off in one day, but it will make you feel good if you get active – maybe an early morning run, or a post lunch family walk, or an evening walk to look at the xmas lights!
#4 Don’t Stress – try not to stress too much about those extra Christmas day kcals. As long as they’re not representative of your normal intake the effects of the overindulgence will be short lived. Get back to your normal eating and training pattern as soon as you can after the festivities and you’ll be back on track in no time!
At this time of year all the coffee shops bring out their range of festive coffees and hot chocolates. You’re out Christmas shopping, or meeting up with friends and family, so you just grab a quick festive drink to enjoy and get you in the festive spirit. You’ll drink it in minutes, and possibly have a snack with it, without really thinking or noticing. But that’s ok, because it’s just a festive hot choc, and it’s Christmas….
These drinks do vary but are all pretty high calorie. This particular example is a Cafe Nero salted caramel brownie hot chocolate and comes in at 476 cals and 42.6g sugar.
On the other hand that selection box contains 5 chocolate bars, with less calories and sugar. Now whilst I’m sure you could eat a selection box in one sitting (I certainly could) most people probably wouldn’t . You’d probably spread it over a few hours or possibly days, rather than eating it all in one go and certainly wouldn’t have any extra snacks with it (unlike the hot choc).
Christmas is definitely a time to relax a bit on calories and certainly a time to focus more on sharing memories and happy times with people you care about. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be aware of the calories in some of the treats you are having.
Knowledge is power so being aware of the calorie content of things, and also of our own perceptions of the things we consume is always a good thing.
If you want the festive drink – have it and enjoy it. If you want to eat your way through a selection box in one go then go for it. Just be aware of the calories so you’re making an educated choice!
At this time of year it’s quite likely you’ll end up overeating/drinking at some point. You hop on the scales in the morning and to your horror you’ve put on several kg seemingly overnight! Like most of us the first reaction is probably to feel demoralised and demotivated, think all your weight loss efforts have been wasted and assume you’ve put however many kg of fat on overnight.
However the scales are not a very accurate measure when it comes to changes in bodyfat levels. Short term, significant, fluctuations in scale weight are normal and natural – especially large ones that seem to happen overnight. These do not mean changes in body composition, so you haven’t suddenly put on X kg of fat. Rather they tend to be related to water levels – intra and extracellular hydration.
Even if you did eat an extra 20000 calories in one day then you STILL couldn’t store that all as fat. Some would be expended in physical activity and metabolic processes, including the cost of digestion itself etc. The extra weight you see on the scales in short term fluctuations is water retention and food volume.
The reasons for it may include – a really big meal the night before, especially one that might be high in fibre, or red meat (which takes longer to digest). It could be due to your workout routine recently which can lead to short term fluid retention in the muscles. General hydration levels and salt levels will also impact it – especially if you had high levels of salt in your diet the day before. Hormones play a massive role – particularly for women and can cause fluctuations of up to 5kg due to water retention. Lack of sleep or high levels of stress will also cause you to retain fluids. Carb heavy meals and alcohol do exactly the same thing too – you retain fluid – short term. Now that is NOT to say you need to avoid any of these things – you should be working out, you should be eating carbs etc but it may help to explain any fluctuations you see.
So if you overate on one day and your scale weight is up, then before you let it get you down, just stop and think about all the reasons it is probably fluctuating. Focus on being consistent with your calories over the long term instead, and use things like the way your clothes fit, or longer term trends in weight gauge progress (i.e. if you want to weigh yourself daily then take an average each week and use the trend of that average to gauge if you’re making progress). Remember it’s the average calories consumed over weeks or months that matter – not days!
This festive season there’s bound to be lots of socialising and If you’re trying to lose fat/weight it can be a challenge to keep things under control. Here are some tips to help reduce those extra cals.
#1 Be realistic
Saying “I’m not going to have any alcohol / desserts at all” isn’t realistic, but perhaps “I’m not going to drink at every Christmas party” might be more doable?
Decide which events are worth relaxing a bit for. One event a week is a good target, so choose the special events and then don’t worry about them, just relax and enjoy having whatever you want to have that day/night.
# Make a plan
If you’ve decided which events to relax at that means there are some events where you will want to be more careful. So you need a plan. First thing to remember is the reason you’re there is to share time with people in your life. Focus on the people and the activities rather than the food and drinks. Ensuring you’ve had something to eat before going to drinks events, or have dinner plans in place for afterwards. If it’s a dinner then just try to make the best possible choices, fill up with veggies and get some protein in, and drink lots of water. Stick to lighter beers, prosecco, white wines, clear spirits with low cal mixers etc and avoid sugar-laden cocktails.
# Plan for problems
Try to think about the possible obstacles in advance. Are buffets your weakness? Are canapes / nibbles your weak point? Have some alternative plans in place; for buffets commit yourself to one plate of satisfying food only. Make a decision before you go not to dip in to the nibbles and ensure you’re not too hungry when you arrive so you’re not starving when they come round. Making an active decision before you even get there will help you to resist them more easily.
You have to be realistic about the situations you’re facing. There’s no point planning on just eating carrot sticks all evening, you will fail, no question. So be smart about your strategy and honest about what you can manage. If you have a friend going with you share your plan with them, they might be keen to help you and give you some moral support – it’s a lot easier to say no to those canapes when you’re both refusing them.
Every Step Fitness 