With Christmas only around the corner, it’s easy to get caught up in the preparations and celebrations while our regular routine goes out the window, leaving many of us with a lot of catch up work to do in January. While everyone is entitled to take their foot off the pedal and indulge a bit more over the holidays, you don’t need to undue months of hard work.

Follow these simple steps to keep yourself in check over the holidays:

1. Be Flexible – Work Exercising Into Your Day

Exercising over Christmas is probably more difficult than any other time of the year. You have more social commitments and more temptations in the form of food and alcohol. Whilst you may not be able to stick to your normal exercise routine over the holidays, try fitting in a walk/run or some body weight exercises such as squats, push ups, dips and core work.

2. Everything In moderation

While everyone is more likely to take in more calories than they need over the holidays, don’t go too mad and eat until you feel sick. Try sticking to reasonable sized portions. Another good tip is keeping the box of sweets and chocolates out of sight and reach. As the old saying goes - out of sight and out of mind!

3. Don’t Forget About The Fruits & Veggies

While everyone is more inclined to overeat over Christmas, this doesn’t necessarily mean a bigger intake of fruits and vegetables and those vital vitamins and minerals needed to stave off all those common colds and flus around this time of year. So don’t pass on those brussel sprouts and take an extra helping of fruit between meals as a snack to keep your body in tip top form.

4. Drink Some Water

Water is your friend! Not only does water help you to stay hydrated, it also helps you to feel full, decreasing the likelihood that you’ll single-handedly make that tray of Christmas biscuits disappear!

5. Savor the Experience

One of the best things about Christmas foods is that it is usually eaten only on Christmas. Take some time to enjoy these once a year delicacies and make sure you eat slowly to savor the experience. Not only will eating slowly heighten your enjoyment, it will also help you consume less calories!