Traditional mince pies. Photo courtesy of Nick J Webb at Flickr.com
It’s that time of year again when most of us go on the “seefood” diet – you see food and eat it (an old joke I know). There seems to be food on offer everywhere you go and you can easily end up eating and drinking to excess.
There’s usually no netball training or matches during the Christmas holidays, so your body gets dealt a double blow – you’re exercising less and eating a lot more. End result: you lose some fitness and gain unwanted pounds that you’ll be keen to shift come January 1st.
But when you do resume your regular exercise programme after a break, the first session back can seem a lot more effort than usual and you can end up with sore and aching muscles the next day. How to avoid this? Whilst, I don’t expect anyone to wake up on Christmas morning and bash out a few hundred sit-ups, try to do a little something over the festive period. Why not go for a swim or a run with a friend (weather permitting – we have snow in the UK right now) or try to attend fitness classes at your local sports centre.
Alternatively, there are lots of things you can do at home: knock out a few of those aforementioned sit-ups and add in some press-ups, dig out those hand-held weights that have been gathering dust under your bed or maybe even practise some gentle yoga to keep those muscles toned and supple. And, don’t forget to keep up those exercises I mentioned in last week’s blog post too.
Will I be practising what I preach? I will certainly try but I’m not promising anything! I do plan to keep going to my regular Boxercise class which will certainly help to burn off some of those mince pies but I shall be happy when netball training starts again too.
What do you do to maintain your fitness level during the holidays? Leave a comment on the blog to let everyone know your plans and how you get on.
Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hope to hear from you in 2010.
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