Christmas Holidays and Staying Healthy and in Shape for Summer
It’s time for the Christmas break and whilst most people are being Merry and eating and drinking everything in sight, there is a few dedicated individuals that are hoping to increase their gains in the gym or maintain their current shape without gaining excess fat. For those people I decided to do up a handy list of ways you can make this time of the year easier on your physique:
1- Drink Green Tea: Green Tea is very high in antioxidants and it also dramatically boosts the bodies fat burning capabilities. It increases the metabolism of fats and is a thermogenic. So swap a few soft drinks for a green tea drink, or use Green Tea capsules.
2-Increase your consumption of low GI foods: Eating lower GI foods will keep you fuller for longer and will also ensure you don’t put on any excess fat over the break. Low GI Foods give a steady more controlled rise to the blood sugar and don’t lead to as much fat storage as High GI Foods. Good low GI foods include Vegetables, most fruits and Nuts.
3- Increase Fiber Intake: Fiber is great for the digestive tract but also has the added bonus of keeping us fuller for longer and stopping us from overeating. Hence it is a great way to decrease overeating during the Christmas break.
4- Increase calcium supplementation: Calcium is not only vital for bone health but recent studies showed that supplementing up to 800 mg per day of calcium increased fat loss. You may be asking how calcium would assist fat loss? Well it’s because calcium has been shown to stimulate the breakdown of fat, inhibit the making of new fat, and increase the loss of fat in waste that leaves the body, this would usually be absorbed.
5- Drink water with every meal: Research proves that drinking water makes us fuller and also decreases the amount of food we eat during meals. Sometimes we mistake thirst for hunger.
6- Train with high intensity: We all know training can take a back seat during the holidays and with all the parties and socializing it can be hard to fit a session in. The best way to make the most out of the limited time we have to train is to focus on more intense sessions. Shorter and Higher intensity sessions have been proven with research to lead to more fat loss due to the fact that oxygen and energy usage is much greater during high intensity training. This is great information for holiday trainers with limited time to train. Recent research has also shown that endurance and sports performance can be maintained with two high intensity sessions in a week if you are time poor due to family celebrations or any other priorities that take up your usual training or recovery time.
7- Supplement with protein or increase protein intake: Increasing your protein consumption through shakes or lean meats is a very effective way of dropping carbs and fats from our diet and reducing weight gain. Even better is to utilize shakes over the Xmas break as most people, young or old, struggle to get the suggested 30% of energy intake from protein by eating meats. Therefore, supplementing with whey protein powder that is relatively lower in energy than meat and has no fat content but still filling is the way to go. Whey protein also has the added advantage of being absorbed faster compared to meat protein.
