January 4, 2010
Okay Christmas. Now Christmas is not about dieting is it?
I’m not going to sit here and tell you I ate only lettuce, because personally I enjoyed my turkey and stuffing. And don’t worry. No-one’s going to have expected you to be well behaved and sip water at the office Christmas party. At our place we counted it as a great success if you didn’t wake up the next day in a skip. Okay so a Christmas Fact: You will probably have put on about 6lb over Christmas. Do not panic. You are normal. We can sort that in the now starting a fresh New Year.
You gain weight instantly as soon as you drink more than a couple of units of alcohol because of all the water retention. At Celebrity Fit Club we used to go off on a drinking bender the night after the weigh in, and I’d put on about 4lb overnight. But I knew that all I had to do was stop drinking, and after about four days, it will all drop off again. So don’t panic if your scales have suddenly shot up. You can’t diet all your life – you need a break sometimes or you go mad. We can deal with getting it all off again now Christmas is over.
Here’s some little tricks of the trade that I found helpful over the party season that can be helpful all year round:
- I hit the gym before a big night out. Let’s face it – you’re not going to do it the morning after so get it in now. At work we’ve started doing office runs at lunchtime – jogging around the Thames. It will put a glow on your face to get you looking hot to trot before a party – and it’s a nice chance to catch up with all the office gossip too.
- If you know you are going to a party with only drinks then take some food to work with you and eat before you go out. Slow burning stuff like brown rice, or rye bread that will help soak everything up. This will stop you getting ravenously hungry and going home via the kebab shop. A lined stomach may also stop you trying to cop off with your boss although I can’t promise that.
- Lots of celebs have started taking hip flasks to parties so they can keep an eye on how much and what they’re drinking. They take out a pre-measured amount of their favorite drink and sip that throughout the night. I got this tip off Cleo Rocos who takes a hip flask of 100% agave tequila everywhere and drinks just that and glasses of water. Quite often the only drink on offer at parties is a cheap warm white wine which leaves you with a splitting hangover – especially when you lose count of how many you’ve had.
- Stock up the fridge at home the night before a bender. If the fridge is empty you’re far more likely to just call out for a pizza or grab a takeaway as you won’t want to face the supermarket on a hangover. I pre-mix a glass of carrot , ginger and orange juice the night before I go out, and make myself a breakfast, so there’s something waiting for me as I crawl to the kitchen on my knees in the morning.
- On Christmas Day itself like most, I ate and did whatever I wanted. Look, there are occasions like this that you’ll find all year round. Don’t worry about it. Take your Appesat. Go for a run in the morning, or take the dogs for a long walk if it helps you to escape the madness of all the relatives being round, but don’t beat yourself up if you end up consuming a million calories and not moving an inch. Enjoy it. As long as you make sure you set yourself a timescale for all this stuff.
- And now you must throw out all the crisps, chocs, biscuits, pastries, booze and get back on the healthy programe again. Personally, as I feel guilty throwing things away, I am arranging to go and visit friends and neighbours I hadn’t seen for ages and take all the booze and uneaten boxes of biscuits with me as a “gift” so they end up on their shelves rather than mine….
We all come back after Christmas slightly bigger in the bottom, but if you set a deadline for the debauchery it’ll all come off again.
Sharon
