Are You The Weird One At Christmas?

Simply having a gluttonous Christmas time....

The shopping, the planning, the cost, the pressure to have the perfect Facebook tree picture as soon as December arrives. You only have to walk down the street or turn on the tv to see, hear and smell Christmassy paraphernalia. You know that soon you’ll have to start eating more than you want to, exercising less and stressing more.

So why not just to stop for a minute and think about how you can make it easier on yourself? Being able to ignore all the madness around you and focus on what you want your Christmas to be is a start.

Get Kim's Top Five Festive Tips below... 

At Christmas, most people will eat to excess and then collapse onto the sofa, surrounded by Quality Street, feeling bloated and sleepy. Do you really want to be like most people? Getting out for a run on Christmas Day is fantastic. It’s quiet, with barely any cars on the road. It’s usually crisp and cold, perfect running weather. You’ll have burned some extra calories so won’t feel guilty about having an extra slice of Chocolate Orange.

Most people might think you’re odd, but surely the strange behaviour is not taking care of yourself,not enjoying the fresh air andnot getting some peace for yourself on a day that you don’t have to go to work.

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Get Kim's Top Five Festive Tips below... 

At Christmas, most people eat an obscene amount of food, then complain about how they need to get into a better regime in the New Year. Worse even than that is the waste. You only have to Google ‘how much food is wasted over Christmas’ to come up with some shocking figures. 2 million turkeys, 5 million Christmas Puddings, 74 million mince pies: £64 million of food in total according to The Guardian. So not only are we eating much more than we would ever consider at any other time of year, we’re also so greedy, we can’t judge how much we actually need.

Surprisingly, not a lot of weight is gained over this period, but feelings of guilt and lethargy abound. Maybe, instead of buying 3 boxes of mince pies, two Christmas puddings and a bottle of Advocaat - that no-one even likes - spend that money on something that will benefit you. New running kit is always useful!

Of course, treat yourself to some chocolate, a slice of Yule log or a glass or two of port: if you’ve been training and racing all year, now’s the time to celebrate. But, there’s no rule that says you must eat until you feel sick every day for a week. Your body will thank you for it if you continue to give it healthy, nutritious food most of the time, and you’ll get back into training much quicker if you don’t feel like the Christmas goose.

Here are my top tips to get through Christmas healthily & happily:

• Stop and think before you eat, especially between meals. Think about how much you are eating and whether you really want it or not?
• Keep training in the same way that you are used to. If you want to run every day over the Christmas period, do it, just get laced up and get outside.
• Be kind to yourself. Don't stress at this time of year especially when you should be relaxing, it will only get you off to an equally stressful new year.
• If you have food that you don’t want, think about how to make use of it. Charities will take unopened, in date food; you could re-gift long life items or you could give things to local raffles as prizes.
• Don’t be the same as most people. Be the nutter that’s out running in a Santa hat on Christmas Day. Spread the festive joy without spending a penny!