The holidays have hit and you find yourself wondering how to balance fitness with food. This article will give you some tips and tricks on how to stay trim and avoid all the trimmings that the festive period brings.

Firstly, you must decide your level of commitment to your fitness journey; are you relaxed about it? Dedicated to reach a certain goal by a certain date? Maybe you have a holiday In January or maybe you aren’t overly concered and will relax this season whilst trying not to go overboard.

Like anytime of year, but more so in the holidays, write down any events you have that involve a little indulgence or alter your routine. For example if you have a work do, a family party and a trip out to the markets then write this down. Knowing what you have coming up means you can prepare effectively whilst still enjoying yourself.

Where fitness and fat loss is involved the first option is to bank some calories during the week to enable less of a blow out at the weekend. This could be eating 100 less calories per day than normal meaning that when the event/occasion arises you then have an extra 600 calories to spare. Therefore if you over indulged on treats/drink totalling 2000 calories then you will have actually only consumed an extra 1400 calories, thanks to banking the calories during the week. Do this for two weeks prior and you would only have consumed an added 800 calories!

The second option is to up your activity. The obvious method for any weight loss is to move more. This could involve taking 15,000 steps as day as apposed to 10,000 steps per day; burning an extra 250 calories! If you are a regular gym goer and don’t currently train 6 times per week then there is the option of adding one more day into your exercise regime, for example four days instead of three. Further to this, adding more cardio and HIIT workouts into your workouts will help create a bigger calorie deficit meaning there is a larger margin when it comes to indulgence.

Thirdly the most important thing to remember is that this is a time to be enjoyed. Do not feel guilty or be hard on yourself if events occur last minute and you haven’t prepared. Weight isn’t lost in a day so it will not be gained in a day. Enjoy it, start tomorrow fresh and keep active.