YES, you CAN lose weight for Xmas if that is what you want to do.
You can also decide to maintain your weight if you want to. It’s all a matter of choice.
But of course for this, you need to know what to do! Click here to get the low down on what foods, drinks are best to avoid and go for (videos + xmas season guide included)
Personally, I think putting in place strategies to maintain weight is a great balance so I can still have my wine & cheese… and my bread (I am French after all…), AND…. some chocolate😊
And that’s what my clients are mostly doing at the moment to be honest.
So, I thought it would be helpful to share the strategies I am using myself and sharing with my coaching clients right now.
1. Have a plan in mind
In any situation, you will handle things more successfully if you have a strategy!
Having a plan doesn’t mean you have to stick to it 100%, but it is just easier to stay “within the lines” if you know what those lines look like to you right?
Strategies commonly adopted by my clients:
Having a healthy snack ready for when they get home so they don’t jump on the pack of biscuits in the cupboard
Offering to bring healthy options that suit them or help with catering in a way that suits them
Plan not to plan.. Sometimes you just need to let go, enjoy special occasions and be okay with that (no berating the day after). Damage is not done in a couple of nights out (if these remain exceptions) – it’s how those nights affect your mindset and what you do in the times in between that counts
Strategies that are often created by my clients look as follows:
- Agreeing with themselves what and how many drinks they will have at social event
- Looking at restaurant menu’s in advance and deciding what to order that is aligned with their goals
- Eating a big healthy snack or plenty of protein&veggies before heading out so they don’t get caught off guard at social events and end up tapping into the sugary and carby options
- Having a healthy snack ready for when they get home so they don’t jump on the pack of biscuits in the cupboard
- Offering to bring healthy options that suit them or help with catering in a way that suits them
- Plan not to plan… Sometimes you just need to let go, enjoy special occasions and be okay with that (no berating the day after). Damage is not done in a couple of nights out (if these remain exceptions)- it’s how those nights affect your mindset and what you do in the times in between that counts
2. Remember you always have a choice
I do remember all these Xmas parties I was invited to, most of them I have to be honest I did not want to go as I could just imagine how it would make me feel and I would rather have a cool cosy night at home!
Look at your list of commitments. What do you really want to do, who do you really want to spend your time with and what are you doing because you feel you “should” / “have to”?
Some are a yes of course, and others are more like okay I will just show up for an hour and have a sparkling water.
The truth is you already know what you should be doing…
If you know your sleep, your energy and your time is more precious than showing up to some of these events then remember you have a choice, learn to say no and decline social invitations politely with grace.
There is NOTHING wrong with putting yourself first. It is NECESSARY!
If you really want to maintain your weight, then you have to discipline yourself a bit about food, drinks, sleep and other aspects of your life. It requires some level of self-management!
3. Take Aligned Actions
Very often my clients feel the guilt and berating that happens after a night out not eating good or drinking in excess, or too often.
This behaviour is more detrimental than the night out itself because of the knock on effect on future choices.
If you are working towards a health or weight loss goal, this forms part of your values. By working towards such a goal you are saying:
How I treat my body is important to me.
So when you don’t treat your body in a way that is aligned with this message (staying out too late, drinking too much, eating foods that aren’t nourishing or make you feel bloated or feeling awful), you are more likely to then feel bad about yourself.
This is where having a plan helps. When you make a plan, you most likely come up with it when you are in a state of alignment with your goals right?
Have you tried to make a plan when you are in a state of stress? It probably ended up like: “Oh well, I may as well go for it! It’s too late now anyway
Pay attention to your thoughts girls! When you think like this, you already know what will happen… and here again you have the choice to make a different decision.
Stress in all its form pulls us out of alignment and I am sure you will all agree that this time of year can be stressful.
4. Manage Stress
What I’ve noticed with a few of my clients over the month of December is that a few have already fallen “off the wagon” aka made decisions that are not aligned with their goals and values.
There are committed actions that are aligned with your goals and values (and part of your values can be to relax and enjoy yourself from time to time) and actions you take that aren’t.
So when I have clients that fall back into the vicious circle of taking actions that aren’t aligned with what they really want, I usually ask:
“What are the things you do for yourself?”
Self-care is often the last on the list after a whole list of all the “stuff” and “business” and “things” they are doing for others.
Not looking so good in the eyes of some people when we aren’t “busy”, right? So the tendency of keeping ourselves busy and over-commit is strong.
Sadly lots of women would be almost blank when answering the question.
When our identity becomes so deeply attached to all the things that we “do”. Instead of the person we truly are when we just “be”, we soon lose our connection to “self”. We are in a “dissociated” state. In other words, out of alignment.
The best prescription then is to give yourself things to do that allow you to “be”.
All of us should have:
Something small you do daily – could be as simple as closing your eyes and thinking of the 10 things you are grateful (about 5-10mins).
Something a bit bigger you do weekly – yoga, long walk, a magnesium flakes bath, call best friend. Some sort of sense of “space” to allow you to tap back in to you.
Something big that you do once a month – massage, get the mum or hubby to look after the kids for the day and do something just for you. Could be read a good book!
If you are still reading this, you might be thinking: but when is she going to talk about what to eat, when, why ??
The thing is people often know what’s good and bad for them (if you want golden nuggets on what foods & drinks to avoid and go for instead during the xmas period click here.
Most of the time it’s about the right mindset to manage areas of their life that is the problem.
If you can change the way you think, your behaviour will change.
If your behaviour changes your body and health will change.
Hope you find those tips (different) and helpful
xx