Metro Paper Article
It’s worth while trying to get a little extra exercise in leading up to Christmas, and start straight away, firstly to give yourself a little weight safety cushion, try to lose a few lbs. prior to Christmas as you know the Christmas delights can easily put several pounds on you. Secondly it’s worth while getting a head start on your mates, work colleagues who are planning to start exercising in the New Year. Thirdly, no doubt most people will be heading off on Xmas parties so inevitably booze and food will be the order of the night and those extra lbs. are waiting to be added, counter act this with a few good sessions aweek in the gym.
Let me give you an idea how much exercise one must do to clear these excess lbs.
1 x lbs. of fat = 3500 calories, 200 calories = 1.5 miles running approx. = 17.5 miles running to clear 1lbs of fat. Now on average most people will consume around 7000 calories on Christmas day alone, not taking into consideration the office party, Christmas eve, boxing day and New years, one could increase their body weight by upto half a stone over the festive period.
Christmas is a very busy time for most, not just at work, your expected to take part in Christmas jollies with colleagues and customers and create a magical time for family and friends. No wonder so many people get so stressed this time of year, however exercise is a great stress buster and especially aerobic exercise e.g. Running, Rowing, cycling, power walking and swimming. This type of exercise releases endorphins into the system known as the happy hormone. Endorphins are natural pain killing substances found in the human brain, these are released when exercising, which will give you the high or sense of euphoria that can actually help you feel more positive, not only that as you’ve just exercised the body is fully oxygenated and therefore helps with your energy level and helps you to deal with stress better.
If you already exercise on a regular basis and are fit but perhaps need to improve your routine, try the following: Vary your programmes, Try to have 3-4 different programmes on the go and rotate them, change the order in which you do you exercises. Try adding extra exercises between each routine. E.g. add some press-ups between your runs, do some swiss ball squats before you do the rower and sit-ups before you do the cross trainer. This will help to shock the body, stimulate the muscles and keep the body guessing.
Use a circuit style programme to improve your stamina, try doing as many reps as you can in 40 seconds on a strength machine and then 1 minute on a cardiovascular machine, repeat and then move on to the next.
Try setting yourself aerobic challenges to improve cardiovascular strength, power and speed.
Upright cycle 5km, fastest time
Treadmill fastest 2miles
Rower fastest 2000mtr
Perhaps you’re not fit and the gym environment doesn’t float your boat, there are still loads of healthy, easy activities to do. Let’s start with power walking, it’s cheap easy and you can do it just about anywhere. Get your trainers on and walk, start with 20 mins fast walking and gradually build that up, increasing by an extra 10 minutes per week, 4 times aweek.
When you get home, turn your living room into your personal gym and follow these simple but effective exercises.
Chair squats. Stand with your feet shoulders distance apart in front of your chair and lower your bottom until it just about touches and return to the standing position. Repeat 10 times and increase by 5 every week. This will tone your legs and bottom.
Box press-ups. Kneel on the floor and place your hands down on the floor in front of you until on all fours.
Bend your elbows allowing your chest to almost touch the floor and return to the start. Repeat 10 times and increase by 5 every week. This will tone chest, back and arms.
Stomach crunch. Lay on your back with you knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Place your hands on your thighs. Try to touch your knees with your hands by squeezing your tummy muscles. Repeat 10 times and increase by 5 every week. This will tone your abdominal muscles. If you live and work in London and use the tube, perhaps you could use the stairs instead of the escalators.
If you are planning some exercise Christmas day, start the day with a walk, or take out the new bike or roller blades rather than starting with champagne or in my house Baileys. This will help to blow away the cobwebs of Christmas Eve and kick-start your metabolism before you off load all those Christmas goodies.
Use Boxing Day as an opportunity to get away to the coast for a long walk, jog or cycle to freshen up and burn those extra calories.
Leading up to Christmas, this is always a quieter time in the gyms, so it’s a great opportunity for those who feel a little self-conscious to get familiar with this environment helping them to progress and improve their general health as well as those who are anticipating a high calorific festive season, again a good opportunity to lose a few pounds helping to fight back against the bulging waste band.
Another alternative is to Detox before Christmas.
Detox, well everyone’s doing it and I think there’s no better time to get your system cleansed before you unload all that Christmas stodge on the unsuspecting bowel. A detox can be used prior and post Christmas. There’s no real science to being good to yourself, your just giving your body what it needs and nothing else. Your body craves nutrition so that’s what you should provide the body with, nutrients. Try for 3-4 days, some may get headaches which are normally associated with withdrawal symptoms to chocolate or coffee (caffeine), alcohol etc. The body stores foreign substances and toxins in it’s fatty deposits, so, in many cases, people may be carrying upto 10 or more pounds (4.5kg) of unhealthy mucus-harbouring toxic waste. Ever wondered why your tired, have PMS, digestive disorders, headaches, joint pains, bad breath, allergies, constipation, poor memory, depression, insomnia, excess weight and so on. For a time, your body will struggle to protect itself from noxious toxins by trapping them in a ball of mucus or fat so that they are impeded from triggering adverse immune reactions. But this will only last temporarily. Before long, the toxins will seep into the blood stream and into the cell membranes, disturbing metabolic functions.