January 11, 2019
Losing the Christmas weight: Our top strategies
Most people will have gone through the holiday period without worrying too much about their health or their diet. It’s a time for indulging in rich food, sweets and often a fair amount of alcohol, while generally not exercising too much. After all this rest and relaxation, you might well have gained a bit of weight.
This is understandable, and very common. However, now January has arrived, you might be aiming to lose some – or all – of the extra weight you’ve put on. Here at dacadoo, we’re always happy when people are deciding to be healthier. However, there are some wrong ways of losing those extra kilograms.
You might have seen adverts for weight loss teas or detox supplements, and while some may well be legitimate, many are nothing more than laxatives that have little to no positive effects on your health. There are also many crash diets advertised at this time, but a lot of these are not sustainable.
If you want to lose your Christmas weight, you need to make sure you’re doing so sensibly and healthily. This is not always easy, and will take longer than some of the crash diets claim. However, it is sustainable and much better for your body than anything drastic. Here are some of the best ways you can manage your weight after the holidays:
Take up regular exercise
Diets are all well and good, but many of them are not sustainable. Most people are not willing to spend the rest of their lives sticking to a diet, even less so if their food restrictions are drastic. However, exercise is something you can keep up in the long run, and it’s a great way of losing weight.
If you’re not very active, taking up something you can do regularly is a surprisingly effective way to burn fat. Exercise builds muscle, even if you’re starting out with something that isn’t particularly strenuous. This in turn speeds up your metabolism, meaning your body burns more calories at rest than before.
Combined with the calories your body burns while exercising, this means you can end up losing weight without needing to drastically change your eating habits. Assuming you’re not eating too unhealthily, you might end up becoming thinner without having to eat any less at all.
A good tip is to choose something you will find fun. You might have always wanted to try dance, for example, or martial arts. You’re more likely to be able to keep up going to exercise you enjoy than something that is a chore.
Make smart replacements
As we mentioned before, significantly reducing the amount you eat is hard to keep up in the long run. This means that even if you lose weight at first, you will likely end up putting it back on. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t change what you eat, replacing unhealthy foods with better options.
For example, if you buy ground beef, you can usually get higher quality options with less fat. You can also replace red meat with turkey, chicken, fish or vegetarian options like tofu for a healthier meal. This means you can eat the same basic meals, but without all the calories.
You can do a food audit to properly assess everything you eat and find out where you can make improvements. Small things like replacing full-fat milk with semi-skimmed, or eating a handful of nuts as a mid-morning snack instead of a pastry, can make a big difference over time.
You can also try to make sure your meals are made up more of vegetables and healthy proteins than carbs. Cut down on the amount of pasta, rice or potatoes you eat, and replace them with carrots, onions, celery or anything else that will go with your dish. It means you will be able to eat the same quantity of food, but it will be much healthier for you.
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