Festivals are integral part of our culture and they will always be. It’s not just for what they represent but also a time to connect with people who are integral part of life especially now after COVID.
You will see so many articles and posts telling people from ‘Avoid Sweets’ to ‘Starve till such days’ which only showcase that being fit and leading fitness lifestyle is a constant sacrifice for you as well as the people around.
Hence people with either give up or just delay to start their journey towards being a better version of themselves.
In reality, you just need to follow few flexible guidelines during these festive days & just get back on track after. This is the exact same thing we do with our WORK.
It’s difficult to get back to work after a gap but we all know how important it is & that there is NO OTHER WAY!
Same goes for eating well & exercise.
Below are few important points you would want to keep in mind during & after festivities –
Don’t Try and Compensate
Most people will see a bump in weight which is quite common.
The increased weights isn’t all fat. It takes a surplus of 7000kcal to gain 1kg of fat.
That’s a lot of food to be had in couple of days (for most :-P)
The increase is weight mostly due to water retention caused by increased Carbohydrate intake.
Just get back to your regular diet and it shall come down in following days.
Picking up where you left off
If there is a long gap in workout routine, it would be better to take it slow for initial few days being back.
No matter what activity you are involved in, few days of break won’t cause muscle mass or strength or endurance.
Though it might not be the best idea to directly pick up from where you left.
Get back to usual to routine in initial couple of days and plan as per your recovery/feel.
Planning ahead
Year-end are full of occasion & for my mentee’s, I make sure to structure their plans well in advance.
One easy thing that anyone can do is to drop calories intake leading up to the occasion (200-300kcal than current) and have a little bit more freedom during the occasion because most will always go overboard during such time.
Rather than compensating after, just get back to your original routine which is much easier.
Lastly enjoy the process. Festivals are part and parcel of life and they will always be there but then so is your fitness.
You can’t buy it & you can’t ask anyone to do it for you.
No matter how fit you think you are now, it will all go away unless you can make eating well and exercising part of your lifestyle.
Anshul Dhamande is a Premium Fitness Coach at Fittr and faculty at Institute of Nutrition and Fitness Sciences (INFS).
Working as a Data Analyst for a few years, he saw the lifestyle majority of us have and hence the issues & diseases we are prone to if we don’t make changes.
The misinformation in nutrition and training which was hurting more than helping people made him realise that he wanted to help spread correct information and help people change their lives.
Hence, over the last 5 years he has been able to help over 1200+ people one-on-one as a coach at Fittr, an online health & fitness platform as well as educate people by being a part of a fitness institute (INFS).
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/anshuldhamande/
Twitter – @anshuldhamande