How to Stay Healthy Over Christmas

December should be a time for celebration and being merry, but all the festivities can result in some poor eating habits that will affect our physical and even mental health. It could be caused by slacking with your exercise regime or perhaps overindulging in sweet treats. Whatever the case is, we’ve put together a couple of useful tips to help you stay healthy and fit over Christmas without restricting yourself too much.

Find food alternatives if you have a strict diet

Whether it’s a carb-free or low-sodium diet, you’ll want to look for alternatives to typical Christmas foods that you want to avoid. This will ensure that everyone has a delicious meal at the table and will save you having to skip meals or eat something completely different. You may need to make a few compromises, but it’s a great exercise in sticking to your diet through thick and thin.

Don’t neglect your exercise routine

If you’ve established some kind of routine for exercise, make sure you don’t neglect it. Whether it’s going for a walk, heading to the gym for a light session or even just doing some HIIT workouts at home, make sure you don’t neglect your routine. If you don’t have the right equipment or prefer not to go to the gym over the Christmas holiday, then consider seeking out an alternative such as HIIT to keep the muscles working.

Don’t underestimate breakfast

Breakfast is still going to be an important meal of the day, even if you’re anticipating a big Christmas lunch or buffer later in the day. Give yourself a generous bowl of porridge and fruit to give you plenty of carbohydrates to keep you energetic throughout the day and also control your appetite so that you don’t binge on your favourite foods.

Keep drinking water

With so many delicious drinks and alcoholic beverages available over the holiday season, it’s easy to neglect drinking the most basic liquid of them all; water. We suggest drinking even more water over Christmas if you plan to drink alcohol. After all, you don’t want to wake up feeling dehydrated or hungover, so keep reminding yourself to drink more water and you’ll feel much better after the holidays are over.

Don’t limit yourself too much

While staying healthy over Christmas is important, we also suggest that you don’t be too harsh on yourself. For example, don’t skip out on Christmas dinner or lunch with your family due to your diet. If you have strict nutritional requirements then find alternatives or offer to cook your own meals–don’t just isolate yourself from the rest of your friends and family for the sake of your diet.

We hope that these tips have been helpful for helping you maintain your health over the Christmas holidays. Above all else, make sure you enjoy yourself and watch your limits. It’s easy to binge on alcohol and unhealthy food over Christmas, but as long as you’re watching what you eat and have some level of self-control, you should do just fine.