The holidays are filled with dinners, drinks and more delicacies, and there is often no time for a work out. Sounds familiar? Yet this period does not have to be so unhealthy. Here are some tips for how you get through the holidays healthy.
1. Prepare yourself
Good preparation is half the job. You know you are going to eat more than usual, so make sure you get fewer calories the days before Christmas. You can also choose to fast for a number of days.
2. Exercise!
With all conviviality it is tempting to stay indoors all day sitting on the couch or at the table. But get moving! This can be anything from a number of (stretch) exercises or a running session in the morning to a forest, city or beach walk with the whole group.
3. Have a healthy and light breakfast
Start your days with a light breakfast such as oatmeal porridge or a smoothie. Very nice, a Christmas breakfast and lunch and dinner, but at the end of the day you are completely full. You are Probably still full from the night before, so choose a lightly digestible and nutritious breakfast!
4. Choose vegetables
Christmas dinners are often all about meat, but meat is pretty heavy for the intestines and difficult to digest. If you're smart, you mainly choose vegetables and/or fish, and limit the intake of meat and carbohydrate-rich foods such as bread, rice, pasta and potatoes. For comparison: your digestion needs about three hours to digest meat and 45 minutes to digest fruit and vegetables. There are plenty of delicious recipes with vegetables such as a soup, salad or oven dish!
5. Eat slowly
Try to eat slowly and chew more often. This is better for your digestion and this way you will also enjoy the food more. You also prevent yourself from overeating. It takes about 20 minutes before the satiety hormones have reached your brain. Only then do you feel that you are full and when you eat too fast, you have the chance that you overeat and get an annoyingly full feeling.
6. Drink water
You know by now that it is important for your body to drink enough water. Don't forget to keep drinking water next to all the coffee, tea and wine during the holidays. Water gives you energy and when you eat and drink something less healthy, water ensures that your body can dispose the waste better.
7. Little alcohol
When you have three or four days with dinners planned and when you are having a drink every night, you wake up a little less fit every day. Avoid a hangover and moderate the alcohol intake. That way you feel fitter and enjoy more of these days.
8. Enjoy!
Last but not least, don't forget to enjoy these days! It is very sad when you eat something that you later regret. Moreover, it is Christmas only once a year, so you can also let go a bit. When you eat something that perhaps does not contain the most nutrients, but you do enjoy it intensely (the taste, the texture, etc.), it is healthier for you than when you also punish yourself for it and have a guilt about it.