December is lethal for weight gain!

It is the one month of the year where more damage is done than any other time of the year. For some, the party season even begins in November as they have so many functions to attend and will carry on through to the end of the first week in January when the schools and many businesses return to work. I have one particular client who has around 15 functions to attend and on each one there is a large amount of food and alcohol on offer.

If you are somebody who attends a lot of functions involving colossal calorie consumption or even if you stay in and tell yourself ‘Ah it’s Christmas! I’ll sort myself out in the New Year by reigning it in and going to the gym.” If you do fall into that bracket then ask yourself this question:

As each year goes by do you ever lose your Christmas weight and KEEP IT OFF or despite your promises to sort yourself out as each festive season rolls by do you gain weight, year upon year, decade upon decade?

If that is you and you are bigger now than you ever thought it imaginable to become 10 years ago then here is my advice…

Get used it and get comfortable with the fact that you are going to be even bigger at the start of 2021.

“Oh Paul, that’s not very helpful or motivational!”

Well it’s the truth! If you want someone to tell you that you can do it with a bit of will power and a calorie controlled diet then go and talk to a big gym chain or a slimming club. They’ll feed you with as much sympathy and false hope as you want. Sign on the dotted line sir. Or better still, save yourself the money and sort it out yourself. You can do it with your super will power that you are going to muster up. You’ve not actually managed to do it for each of the 10+ years previous mind but this year you will because enough is enough!

As the title of one of my favourite Depeche Mode tracks states – Dream On! It’s not happening and deep down you know very well it isn’t.

The reason it isn’t going to happen is because eating colossal amounts of calories and not exercising much at Christmas is what you DO. It is also very likely that is what you DO at most other times of the year too, mostly every weekend I expect.

If you look at the type of person you might want to behave like – a healthy person that eats right and doesn’t get drunk all the time then you’ll find they don’t do that much at Christmas either and on the days they do, it is very likely that the next day they will consume very little and no doubt put a ton of exercise in there also. For example, a self righteous smug person like myself on Christmas Day will always do a humdinger of a sprint or weights session in the morning (I know that’s difficult for a lot of people, I’ll let you off with missing that one) but even if I don’t then Boxing Day is the special one. No breakfast, train harder than ever and that is damage limitation.

Even if you do that though, the likelihood is you will still maintain the extra weight gained because it’s a one off. You won’t change just because it’s Christmas or New Year.

The next paragraph is the important one…

The time you will change is when you find the situation you are in unacceptable and you are no longer prepared to tolerate it. That is the ONLY time you will change because when or if that ever happens, you will change what you DO. You will find you rarely consume obscene amounts of food. You will find you exercise more. You will find you get sufficient sleep and you will find you choose activities in your life that aren’t so conducive to gaining weight. That is when you will change.

So, until that happens (if it ever does), tuck in, fill yer boots with mince pies and sherry and get on the carousel once again.

Ho! Ho! Ho!