3 Simple Steps to Burn Off Those Christmas Pounds
Environmentally Friendly Soy
In many ways, Christmas has been a little different this year. Depending on where you live in the world, you have most likely been restricted, to varying degrees, from seeing family
members, work Christmas parties far and wide have been cancelled and those reunion
drinks have been pushed back into the new year. The Covid 19 pandemic has already
impacted our lives in so many diverse ways and the curtailing of our festivities is just another hurdle that we must cross as we move towards a vague semblance of normality.
But people have more than compensated for the challenges thrust upon them and Christmas has remained, for most of us, a week of great excess, filled with indulgences of food and alcohol, as it would be under normal circumstances. We have polished off mountains of mince pies, countless bottles of obscure liqueurs gifted to us over the years and enough meat to open up a small butcher.
Naturally then, most of us are preparing ourselves for a post-Christmas health drive to get
our bodies back in working order. But what is the most effective way to burn off those
Christmas pounds? With so many weird and wonderful techniques available on the internet it can be easy to lose sight of the basics. So let’s return to the fundamentals of a healthy lifestyle to form the basis of your January routine.
Diet
You are what you eat, as the old saying goes. And this lesson stands true. Your diet is
probably the most important aspect of your health so getting it right is a vital step towards a healthier lifestyle. Some people might find it very difficult to break out of unhealthy eating
routines, especially after the luxury we have grown accustomed to over the festive season,
but it is vital that we start here. The two most important areas of our diet that we might need to change are meat and carbohydrates.
Many types of meat, particularly cheap, poor quality red meats contain lots of saturated fats which are bad for our hearts and make weight loss far more difficult to achieve. Carbohydrates meanwhile, are less bad for us –in fact, we need them to give us energy– but they crop up most regularly in our diets. Many people increase their consumption of one as they try to cut out the other but this is not advisable.
Rather than fundamentally changing your meal plan, try replacing meats with healthy
substitutes made from soybeans (make sure they use environmentally friendly soy).
Similarly, search for products that emulate the texture and taste of carbohydrates like
pasta but which are made from pulses or vegetables.
Exercise
When people think of exercise they seem to believe that this requires them to go running
every morning or pay for an expensive gym membership to force themselves to commit to a fitness regime. But this will be hard to adjust to and so it is unlikely to be sustainable.
Exercise can simply mean a long walk a couple of times a week, cycling rather than driving
to the train station on your way to work, or a few lengths in the local swimming pool. Start
slow and build up gradually.
Mental health
This is likely to be an overlooked difficulty of the pandemic. It sounds simple but keeps in
regular contact with your loved ones, even that means forcing yourself onto yet another
Zoom call. It will do you the world of good. A bit of exercise and a healthy diet will also have great knock-on benefits for your mental health as well!
Burn off those winter pounds and treat your mind, body, and soul to a healthy 2021.
