Let’s face it, the vast majority of us eat and drink more in December. Those of you who don’t clearly have a halo above your head and do not need to read this, the rest of you should.
In December if you have, for example, 4 more drinks than usual per week, a big meal out and even sneak in a couple more bars of chocolate, you can EASILY consume an extra 2000 calories a week, and in the month of December it’s common to eat over 14000 calories than other months of the year. That extra 14000 calories will find its way to your waistline, hips or butt in the form of 4lbs of body fat (3500 calories = 1 pound of fat). If you can visualise strapping 4 packs of butter around where you typically put fat on that’s how much many of us will store extra in December – AT LEAST.
There is good news though, I have a way where you can keep it off over December and still treat yourself with alcohol and all that tasty food. Yes once again I am advocating exercise as the magic cure for not looking all dumpy and bloated comes January and the inevitable depression. This time though all you need to do is balance out you’re over eating and drinking. This really is very simple to do……
Firstly, download the app MYFITNESSPAL. This is a fast and simple method to track EVERYTHING you put down your throat every day. It will even tell you how many calories you need to maintain your weight. MYFITNESSPAL also estimates how many calories you burn from exercise (you can also put these in directly if you have a heart rate monitor with calorie counting on it). Here is the clever (but damn simple part). If you over eat/drink or know you are going to then get out there and exercise off the excess – EASY!
For example let’s say I am going out for a few beers on Saturday night, 4 beers is around 800 calories. Well I know that in an hour and 15 minutes hard run I can burn that no problem. In effect I go for a run to punish myself before my “treat” of beer in the evening.
You may well just be going out for a meal and know from MYFITNESSPAL that you’re only going to go 300 calories over your daily limit. Well most people can powerwalk 300 calories in 30-45 minutes.
So there you have it, getting up off your backside and powerwalking for less than an hour will go a long way to not having that feeling in January of “S*** I am fat!” However, perhaps more importantly you will be in the habit of using MYFITNESSPAL 2013. Using a diet tracker is how ALL my successful Bootcamp girls in Bedford and Personal Training clients get great results. Don’t wait until January; start tracking your calories now; it will give you much faster results with your training.