How to Stay Healthy During the Christmas Party Season

While planning your Christmas party outfit, makeup and hair style is important, it's just as important that you feel fit, healthy and relaxed.

To help us make sure we're feeling great this festive season, we've spoken to nutritionist Charlotte Stirling-Reed to get her tips on how you can stay fit, boost your confidence and look your best this December with a few healthy tweaks.

A Healthier Mindset

A healthy body starts with a healthy mind. Surround yourself with people who motivate you, or pair up with a friend for a joint health plan. This way you are able to support and motivate each other every day.

Delicious and Nutritious

To help you stay on track of what you are eating, keep a food diary. Doing so will let you see what your diet looks like and when you deserve a treat. Think about the 80:20 rule and just try to eat well most of the time.

You can easily avoid sugary or overly salty foods by packing homemade meals with you to work. This will allow you to be mindful of what you are eating, not to mention save up a few pounds! Having said that, don’t guilt trip yourself if you gave in and had an unhealthy snack - remember that everyone makes mistakes.

Charlotte’s Top 5 Feel-Good Food Tricks:

Invest in a new, smaller dinner plate which can help you eat around 20% less
Always keep hydrated
Aim for around 50% of your plate coming from veggies to help fill you up
Swap some meat-based meals for plant alternatives e.g. nuts, beans, lentils and chickpeas
Go online and search for recipes for leftover ingredients to create healthy, delicious meals

Keeping Fit Without Noticing It

Getting into the gym can get trickier when the days get colder and the nights are longer. But this doesn’t mean that you should feel bad or guilty about it. Here are a few ways you can work out without actually working out:

At Home:

Try marching, squatting whilst brushing your teeth
Do heel presses while making your morning coffee
If you have a stepometer, start it up from the morning

On Your Commute:

Take the stairs and walk up escalators
Walk to your destinations
Get off the bus a stop earlier
Stand up on the bus or tube

In the office:

Where you can, schedule meetings just outside the office and enjoy the walk there
Try using an exercise ball to sit on at your desk to build core muscle strength