It’s our favourite time of year with sun, holidays, family and best of all, food!
It’s also the time of year to show off your Summer bod that you’ve been work out to achieve, but it can get pretty difficult to keep a healthy and balanced diet. While we’re all for enjoying and treating yourself over the Summer holidays, we know how hard it can be to stay on track when there seems to be a never-ending supply of sugary treats in the weeks before and after.
So we have come up with a few easy tips to stay on track these holidays, so you can look and feel good inside and out.
Simple Swaps
There’s an endless amount of substitutes for your favourite dishes and desserts, with a great healthy makeover. It’s the holidays, after all, so you don’t want to feel like you’re depriving yourself. So the trick is to make healthy foods as YUMMY as possible so you, or anybody else you’re making it for, won’t overdo on the Christmas calories.
Our range of premix snacks taste as great as they are healthy, so our protein or bliss balls are a great idea for chocolate substitutes if you want to try and avoid those tempting truffles this year. You can mix up the base ingredients and flavours you want so they can be healthy swaps for all different types of treats!
Another great combination with these Christmas substitutes are all the Summer fruits filling the shelves of your local markets too, like mangoes and cherries, so there’s no need for any FOMO if you say no to your mum’s Christmas pudding if you have a sweet tooth.
Get Enough Sleep
You probably have experienced this before: after a rough night’s sleep, all you want to do apart from going to bed is grab a big plateful of those high-calorie foods you’re usually able to avoid.
When you’re tired, it’s actually harder to resist those cravings and you feel less satisfied after eating because of your body producing more of the hormone “ghrelin”. But also studies have shown that sleep deprivation increases the brain’s sensitivity to the smell of food, whereas if you’re fully rested it’s easier to turn down unhealthy snacks and junk food.
Stay Active
It’s tempting to kick back and enjoy the hot weather, but it is super important for weight loss and maintenance to keep active! If sweating it out in the gym isn’t your thing at Christmas time, then just a walk around the park, playing frisbee or going for a swim are some great ideas to keep you feeling happy, relaxed, and healthy.
It’s a no-brainer that exercise is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle, and the average adult should be getting at least 30 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a day, it's important to try to reduce sitting for long periods also. If you’re out of ideas or sick of your workout routine, then this time of year is perfect for grabbing a few friends and trying something new, like that yoga studio you always see when you’re on your way to work!
Keep Hydrated and Busy
Boredom and thirst: two things that can really make saying no to those food cravings a real challenge. When your body is dehydrated, your body can mistake thirst for hunger because it’s having a tough time drawing glycogen (energy) from its stores, so it’s mistaken the lack of energy as needing more fuel!
Similar with boredom, do you ever feel so bored that you just…eat? Don’t worry, we all do it. Holidays are a great time to let yourself relax, and get busy with things that you don’t often have time to do during the year, whether it be a craft project, organising your room, or catching up with old friends. If you keep your mind distracted you won’t be mindlessly grazing while watching the TV.
Moderation Is Key
And finally, the most important thing is to moderate your food portions.
We can’t say you aren’t allowed to have any little treat around the Christmas period, but some ideas of how to keep a balanced diet while treating yourself is to keep those treats small: after you’ve had a taste of the chocolate, don’t go back for another 10. At meals, fill up on plenty of protein and vegetables so you feel fuller for longer, so you don’t overdo the dessert that comes after.
