Training in December

It's December, which means you're soon going to have a social media feed full of personal trainers telling you how you should eat and train over Christmas. Today I'd like to offer an alternative viewpoint to most of what you're going to be told.

The illusion of a black and white choice

There tends to be two popular philosophies on this topic.

The first is that people should not worry in any way about what they eat for the 2 weeks around Christmas. Trying to stick to healthy eating and training during this period of rest and love is 'toxic diet culture'.

The other camp will tell you that you shouldn't use December as an excuse to eat and move like crap, setting yourself up for a miserable start to January. People who start their resolutions in December are the ones who are more likely to succeed, and all that.

The secret third option

At the risk of sounding like an edge-lord centrist, I'm going to say that both approaches can be terrible when applied to the wrong person. The answer is actually more nuanced.

You see, if you're someone who trains their ass off and is hyper vigilant about eating healthy, Christmas can be a well-deserved break for your body and a chance to enjoy your food more. However for many people, their entire year is a break from moving and enjoying their food. Cutting loose with no restrictions is probably not what they need.

Additionally, you also need to be honest about what tradeoffs you are actually going to be happy with come January. Choosing to train as normal and be restrictive with food means missing out on some aspects of socialising and rest. But the opposite approach means you're going to have more work to do come January. And both of those things are absolutely fine, if that's what you want.

What am I doing?

To use myself as a real-world example, I want to enjoy myself at Christmas, but not so much that I set myself up for a miserable month of training and body image in January. So I've planned 4 nights In December where I am going to allow myself to drink and eat as I please. I am going to continue training, but may drop from 5 days per week to 3, so that I can make the most of the free time during the break to do other things. I will be getting in big walks to offset the extra food and increased sitting time.

Whatever approach is right for you, is actually only something you can answer. Don't let a stranger on Instagram dictate how you choose to approach the Christmas period.