Why you must not feel guilty at Christmas and New Year

I want to start off this post by wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas and New Year. I hope you drank lots, indulged in all of the food and spent quality time with your families and had a well deserved time out from normal day to day life. I certainly did -for two . whole . weeks. Whoops.

As we probably all do, I definitely over indulged, which is totally normal for this time of year. However, with over indulgence, comes guilt, shame and anxiety. Well for me anyway, but I am sure these feelings are experienced by others following this too. All of the heavy food, and excessive alcohol leaves us feeling puffy, bloated, holding onto lots of water and just generally not good. Couple this with a hangover and you just feel awful. On Boxing Day, I was so sluggish, felt heavy, lacked energy and I did not like what I saw when I looked in the mirror. But at the same time, Christmas was the most special day filled with laughs, family, friends, fun and love. And in a year’s time, when I reflect back on this Christmas, I am not going to remember how nasty I felt the next day because of what I consumed, I will reflect on the fun memories of Christmas. When it comes down to it, everything I ate and drank will not effect my life in any long term way.

The period of Christmas and New Year (and pretty much the whole of December to be honest) do not reflect our normal routine, so we can snap our bodies back into shape just by going back to normal life. It is inevitable that our looks will change slightly during Christmas. Getting back on track is what January is for ;) And I am determined to get myself looking even better than I did before Christmas.

There is times where we need to respect our bodies and make healthy choices when it comes to food and drink and stay as active as our lifestyle allows us - this should be around 80% of the year. But there is also times where we treat ourselves for all the hard work we do for the rest of the year, and this is things like Christmas and holidays. Sometimes what is good for our mental health, is not so good for our physical health, but it is needed.

I definitely fell into the guilt trap on the 26th but was equally not ready to give up the bad habits just yet, so this lead to more guilt and upset which lead to worse behaviours to be honest. But I need to remind myself that I work hard for what I look like, I have taken a whole week off weight training (and I usually train 6x per week) so I will see some changes during this period, and it is important to be okay with that because I am on holiday. Now I’m home, I will get back into my healthy routine and then some for a little while, so I’ll be even better than I was before Christmas. Guilt is not needed, this time is to get all my unhealthy habits out of my system so I am mentally ready to absolutely smash my health and fitness goals in January and throughout 2020.

So don’t feel guilty - it’s probably the most unhealthy thing you can do throughout this festive period. You deserve time off, and it is normal for us to want to indulge once in a while, we are only human. Just use this over indulgence to fuel your motivation and healthy mindset towards kicking your January fit goals.

And if you need an extra push - I am here to help! Just drop me an email if you need help with fitness and nutrition online or in person. Hope everyone has a fit year ahead!