Home   >   Weight loss   >   How to Diet Over Christmas

How to Diet Over Christmas

By on December 17, 2013

If you are in the middle of a diet that is going alright for you right now, it can be retry frightening when you look and the up and coming festive period. You’ve already started to eat more junk food because you needed to go Christmas shopping after work and didn’t have time to cook dinner. You even grabbed a pretty unhealthy chicken, bacon and mayo sandwich from the local deli because you needed to pop to a shop to return a gift you have bought in the wrong size. It can seem almost impossible to continue with your diet over Christmas but we are here to show you that it doesn’t need to be!

For example, if you know you are going to a party tonight and there will be plenty of booze and finger food to enjoy, don’t pile your plate high at lunchtime. Have a healthy breakfast to set you up for the day, a light lunch, and a couple of healthy snacks in between. Count your calories throughout the day and figure out how many you have left for that day. This is how many you can spend on your boozy delights later on. You don’t have to miss out… It’s about being sensible and rather than thinking of it as a sacrifice, why not think of it as a compromise?

When you are trying to lose weight, you need to burn off 3,500 calories to burn off one pound of fat. Studies have suggested that the recommended amount of calories that you should be eating on a daily basis if you are trying to lose weight is around 1,400 calories per day. Grab a piece of paper and a pen and write down how many calories you’ve had already today. Even better than this – you can download an app for this on most smart phones. Some of them even scan the item to tell YOU the calorie content. It’s like the lazy way to calorie count! What more could you possibly want?

32c6740a8bb60ce152af0215ed1c7920

As we’ve already mentioned, Christmas diets should involve COMPROMISE and not SACRIFICE. We talk a lot more about this in some of the other articles regarding Christmas weight loss. Why not check out a few of these to learn more:

You’ll be surprised at how the smallest of changes could make the greatest different. When you consider that you are on a calorie restricted diet that should include no more than 1,500 calories per day, that one extra roast potato could make all the difference. Depending on what sort of fat it has been cooked in, taking one less spud could save you up to 100 calories. That’s pretty impressive when you think about it! You could even save almost as many calories (80) when you add a few ice cubes to your glass before you pour the wine into it. The ice cubes will melt and dilute the wine, and you’ll fit less wine in your glass. What’s not to love about that when you are trying to diet at Christmas!?!

Of course, you should learn about what sort of foods you should be eating. Half of your evening dinner plate should be filled with vegetables. That might seem like a lot but if you consider that this could be cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, peas, carrots, sweetcorn, etc., making up half a plate doesn’t seem quite so hard to achieve, does it?

A selection of garden fresh vegetables for a healthly ldiet and lifestyle.

Out of the other 50% that’s left on your plate, two thirds of it should be the protein of your meal – turkey, chicken, etc. The remaining third is allowed to be the treat – roast spuds, stuffing, yorkshire puddings, etc. If you can fit a more protein and a smaller “treat” section on your plate, the healthier the meal will be!

Dieting over Christmas doesn’t need to be the scariest thing int he world and with a few smart tips (most of which you can learn from some of the other posts on the site) you could avoid the trap of piling on the pounds this Christmas!