Keep exercising this festive season

The festive season is the time for distractions from training along with tempting foods and alcohol to scupper your training plans.

But a bit of careful planning can help to balance the “energy intake books” and leave you in a good position to kick-on in the New Year.

Try to implement these tips throughout the festive season:

• Try and avoid cancelling training sessions all together for social events, plan ahead and swap your usual evening run or ride for a morning session to avoid a social clash.
• If your time to do your longer sessions is limited, do some short high intensity interval training sessions (45-60 minutes) instead. This can help the motivation and keep the calorie expenditure up.
• A once or twice weekly fasted steady-state morning training sessions (up to 60 minutes) can enhance training adaptations and stimulate fat oxidation.
• Keep active, try and do a little bit of something every day rather than spending hours on the TV repeats as this prevents you from ending up in a positive energy balance.
• Avoid the temptation to snack on the traditional nibbles that can be high in fat and sugar for example; chocolate, crisps, sweets, pies, to mention a few, and swap for healthier alternatives such as nuts, fruit, natural yoghurt, and olives.
• Avoid going to parties and supermarkets on an empty stomach, we’re generally then more tempted to snack on the party food provided and buying the convenient, less healthy options in the supermarket.
• Saying no all the time is very difficult, so don’t be too harsh on yourself all the time. Trying to be consistently good 80 per cent of the time is much more sustainable and means that you are less likely to go for an “all or nothing approach”.
• Try and avoid excessive alcohol consumption, which is high in calories that offer no nutritional value. It also negatively impacts the recovery process from exercise as it adds to dehydration and hinders glycogen replenishment.
• Even in a cold winter hydration is still important. If you are drinking alcohol try and have a glass of water between each drink.

Tips from Science in Sport (SIS).