The Christmas period is one of the best of the year, but it is also one of the hardest to stay fit and healthy over. You are at your busiest socially, your spare time is taken up with Christmas shopping and getting everything ready for the big day. The pounds pile on and progress toward fitness goals is lost – it’s why everyone hits the gym in January after all.
But it doesn’t have to be this way! By keeping fit during the festive season you’ll keep up with your goals and you will be in a much better position come January.
Here are our top 5 Festive Fitness Tips for avoiding Santa’s naughty list:
1) Keep Training
It’s really important that you keep training and visiting the gym over the Christmas period. You need to maintain your muscle structure and fitness, whilst staying on track to reach your goals. Even if your sessions are shorter than usual, it’s so important to keep going.
We are staying open as much as we can over Christmas – here are our opening hours:
Our classes will continue to run too, so make sure you take a look at the timetables here.
If you can’t get to the gym as much as you would like you should still try and be as active as possible. Visit Winter Wonderland and go ice skating, get involved in the kids’ games and walk as much as possible when Christmas shopping. It all helps.
2) Train with a Friend
Christmas is a time for friends and family, but you don’t have to confine this quality time to the home or parties – why not train with a friend too? Research shows that people train better with a friend as it keeps them motivated and helps them to push just a little harder. It’s also more fun to have some friendly company!
As we are always looking to improve your Simply Gym experience we would like to gift you with the Simply Gym 12 Days of Christmas: You will be able to gift your friends with a 12 day pass to any Simply Gym, free of charge!
To gift the pass your friend needs to select the gym that they want to join here, enter your unique referral code and scroll to the bottom of the page to find the pass.
If you don’t know your unique referral code just get in touch and we will be able to help.
3) Eat and Drink Sensibly
We don’t want to be a Scrooge here, we want you to enjoy yourself and enjoy all that the Christmas menu has to offer, but try and moderate where you can. Yes turkey can be a great source of protein and support muscle growth, but if you eat too much you will unnecessary calories into your diet and this could lead to weight gain. Make sure you stock up on vitamins and nutrients where you can.
You should also watch your alcohol intake. Christmas is a wonderful time of year, full of parties and occasions. It certainly isn’t our aim to stop you enjoying a drink, but be careful to moderate what you drink.
Some alcoholic drinks — like mulled wine and beer — are very high on calories, whereas some drinks are low on calories— such as champagne and dry white wine. Keep an eye on what you are drinking, and make careful substitutes where possible.
4) Put a Plan in Place
Some people feel that they achieve more if they have a plan in place to follow. A plan can help you to do the right exercise at the right times, eat the right foods and moderate your drink, helping you stay fit this Christmas.
Have a chat with a member of the team if you’d like our input. We’d be more than happy to help.
5) Enjoy yourself. Earned it – long hard year
Finally, please have fun this Christmas – it has been a long, hard year and you’ve earned it. Try and reduce stress, as this can lead to fat storage so enjoy yourself! It has been a long hard year and you’ve earned this.
You’ll find that by exercising wherever and whenever you can, and by moderating your food and alcohol intake you will feel less guilty and enjoy everything even more.
