Social events aren’t making you fat…..

Today we have another excellent blog from our Featured Coaches Elly and Ryan at “Hodgson Health”, covering the topic of the festive season and how to avoid heading into January with the usual lack of motivation and feeling generally unhealthy.

We know, it’s getting to that time of year where many of you will find the weight creeps up, the social occasions, with the Christmas parties and often stresses with, what to get the kids, family, friends, and everywhere you look there’s food involved.

Then at the other end of the spectrum you have those who perhaps want to lose weight or stay in shape and feel the need to enjoy (or pretend to) things like sparkling water and a salad.

We know how easy it is to enter the new year feeling frustrated, throughout our 7 years in the industry we see the same trend happening with people every January, ultimately starting a new year where they feel lower in confidence, energy and happiness than at any time the previous year.

Whereas at Hodgson Health, we strongly believe we should be starting the new year feeling fitter happier and healthier than the previous year. After all, after a couple of weeks enjoying time with your family and friends you should be feeling refreshed.

It’s easy to see and feel the lbs slip on, then before you know it, January is here and it’s back to square one. We know it’s very common for weight to creep on over Christmas but it really doesn’t have to be like that. Because if you are trying to lose weight and staying in a calorie deficit daily you will not be putting on weight.

Just what tends to happen is after a ‘heavy night’ (or two) it’s easy to do two things-

  1. Relax and not exercise (i.e. not burn as many calories)
  2. Opt for fast convenient foods (eat more calories)

What this then does is easily helps you slip from being in a calorie deficit, where you will lose weight, into being in a calorie surplus which will make you gain weight.

Now, we know it may seem like hard work but it’s easily avoidable and we are going to share with you how. Firstly we want you to focus on you TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) that way you can still enjoy booze and food on the Christmas social occasions.

So with clients we get them to focus on little things that we believe can HELP you which could be as simple as increasing your steps by 10% each day, this will help burn extra calories.

Then the other way is reducing the input (calories consumed) on the days you don’t have the social occasions so that you remain in a calorie deficit over the course of the festive period. By staying in a calorie deficit you will not put weight on and you can still enjoy your Christmas guilt free. A great to keep an eye on the calories you consume is of course the Flex Food App.

So for us the answer is extremely simple, in theory, watch what you eat on the days where you are in control and not busy socializing and focus on being active, that way you really can still make progress over the festive period.

For more information on how you can enjoy the balance of life and still move forward with your health and fitness goals feel free to drop us a line.

Ryan and Elly Hodgson

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www.hodgsonhealth.com

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