How to Stick to your Healthy Diet this Festive Season

Made good progress with your healthy lifestyle and fitter physique? You might be dreading the upcoming festive season, filled with family parties, indulgent treats at home and various other social gatherings bound to throw you off track!

But it’s possible to stick to your healthy diet this festive season. You just need the right game plan.

Maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle during the season of good cheer takes hard work, but with the right strategy in place you can stick to it, continue making progress through 2022 and be more successful in the long run.

Luckily, here at Instant Knockout we know what works and how you can stick to your healthy diet this festive season.

Here are some of the 6 top tips to ensure you can enjoy Christmas, keep improving your lifestyle and get the pro-athlete physique you’re working towards in 2022.

Let’s go!

1. Try not to overdo it

While Christmas is a time for fun and relaxation, it’s important to keep your fitness goals in mind. Remember to eat nutritious meals alongside all the treats, so that you’re not undoing all your good work. Eating at a restaurant can be difficult too, since you’re more inclined to eat more than you would at home.

One goal to offset this could be to decide what you’re going to have in advance. Try and choose meals that are packed with protein, vegetables and healthy carbs. Consider having just a starter or just a dessert. Or if you fancy both, try sharing a pudding with others.

If you just want to maintain the weight you’ve reached, you could practice portion control during the big meals and maybe increase your exercise around the holidays.

2. Make some food swaps

You can’t eat healthy if you have processed and high-fat foods around the house. This is even more likely to be the case around the festive season.

It’s important to remember nutrition choices you make can have a massive impact on your progress. In general, weight comes down to 70 per cent diet and 30 per cent exercise. Luckily, you can make some good festive food swaps that will indulge your taste buds and maintain your regular healthy eating habits.

Here are some examples. Swap:

• Chips and salted nuts for unsalted nuts/popcorn
• Crackers and dip for vegetable sticks and hummus
• Candies or desserts for frozen grapes
• White or milk chocolate for dark chocolate
• Apple pie for baked apples

If you’re on the go a lot, try to avoid grabbing something quick. Carry high-protein substitute snacks around to help keep your cravings under control and curb your appetite[1].

3. Indulge a little

The key to successful weight loss is to not be drastic. What we mean by being drastic, is following a seriously strict diet, where you cut out all your favorite snacks and don’t let yourself have any type of food you actually enjoy. This is even more difficult if you’re surrounded by all your favorite festive foods.

While being drastic might help you drop the pounds fast, it’s not sustainable and you’re more likely to gain the weight back once you stop dieting. What you should do is indulge, just a little, and eat healthy most of the time.

Two or three scoops of ice cream, for example, won’t kill your progress – just like eating a salad won’t instantly help you drop weight – but it will keep those sweet cravings satisfied and improve your relationship with food.

4. Consider alcohol intake

If you’re planning to drink alcohol during the holidays, it’s important not to let your guard down, especially since alcohol contains relatively empty calories.

Alcohol can reduce your inhibitions. This may also lead you to consume more calories from food too.

Try healthier alternatives that are lower in calories. Sticking to drinks like a gin and tonic, vodka lime sodas, a light beer, or some variation of drinks like these can reduce the calories you consume from drinking at social gatherings.

5. Focus on being consistent

Sticking to your healthy diet isn’t all about being perfect and making no slip-ups along the way. The holidays are only a brief period over an entire year, and it shouldn’t affect your progress too much.

Research shows that the amount of self-control we have is restricted[2]. Exhausting it through being too strict with your diet could make you overdo it when further challenges come up. You may be tempted to overdo it if you’ve been putting your body through a strict, cutting diet and then face a situation like a party, with lots of food and drinks.

In the end, fat loss relies on long-term consistency, not temporary changes. It’s all about what you’ll stick with week after week.

Have that treat, just not too much of it. The more consistent the diet, the more likely you can maintain your weight loss.

 The bottom line

It’s easy to get swept up in the holiday cheer and overdo it – but when you’re trying to get in shape, it is key to be mindful of your food choices. If you want to stick to your healthy diet this festive season, just be sure to keep things balanced.

If you look to keep things relatively balanced and try stay aware of the diet choices you’re making (and check they are mostly in line with your goals) then you can navigate the festive holidays with ease.

For an extra edge, try Instant Knockout Cut. It can help keep your appetite under control, give you the energy you need so you can get the best out of your body, control calories and shift stubborn fat.

Enjoy the holidays and from all of us at Instant Knockout – Merry Christmas and all the best for the new year.