The 12 Healthy Days of Christmas By Matt Roberts

HEALTH & FITNESS Counting calories is not always the best way to lose weight. However, understanding the energy content of the food and drink you consume, as well as knowing how effective certain forms of exercise are for you, is a good start. Imagine your body as a set of measuring scales – eat too much energy and you tip the scales and store it as fat. There is only one way to remedy this: burn more calories by increasing activity and make sensible food choices (sometimes hard over the holiday period). To get through the festive season without adding inches to your waistline, you need to balance the calories going in and out. Try these tips to help balance your body so that you don’t have to work twice as hard. Here are 12 healthy tips to help you build up to the big day…

Day 1: 14 December Go out for a moderate walk for an hour. Calorie saving: 200 calories.

Day 2: 15 December Swap all juices, teas and coffees for water or green tea. Calorie saving: 300 calories.

Day 3: 16 December Perform 20 minutes of cardiovascular interval training (20 seconds at a high intensity followed by 40 seconds at an active recovery pace). You can choose any cardio-vascular exercise, such as running or cycling. Calorie saving: 300-400 calories.

Day 4: 17 December Join a gym and have a workout – a lot of gyms will even give you a free personal training session when you start. If you already have a membership why not ask for a session with a trainer to refresh your programme. Calorie saving: 500-600 calories.

Day 5: 18 December Focus on filling your evening meal with green vegetables rather than pasta or rice. Calorie saving: 200 calories

Day 6: 19 December Treat yourself – have a mince pie! Calorie saving: 250 calories.

Day 7: 20 December Perform 20 minutes of cardiovascular interval training (one minute high intensity followed by one minute at a recovery pace). Calorie saving: 300-400 calories.

Day 8: 21 December Swap your chocolate brownies and mince pies for a piece of fruit such as an orange or apple. Calorie saving: 200 calories.

Day 9: 22 December Perform 30 minutes of body-weight resistance exercises such as squats, lunges and press-ups. Calorie saving: 300 calories.

Day 10: 23 December Avoid snacking on crisps or biscuits in the evening! Calorie saving: 150 calories.

Day 11: 24 December Time for a final calorie burn… Start with 30 minutes of resistance exercises such as squats, lunges and press-ups. Perform 20 minutes of cardiovascular interval training (20 seconds hard followed by 40 seconds easy). Go out for a moderate walk for 30 minutes and finish with a full body stretch. Calorie saving: 650 calories.

Day 12: 25 December Well done! By doing all of these things you have saved yourself over 3,000 calories, which gives you an extra day of eating so you can relax and enjoy Christmas Day. With the exercise and nutrition changes you have made over the past 12 days you are ready to enjoy yourself – all of the tips you have tried are things that you can carry into your everyday life after Christmas so you can feel fit and fabulous throughout the New Year.

Matt Roberts Personal Training offers bespoke programmes to help you lose weight, get fit and perform better. For more details: Tel. (+34) (0) 207 491 9989; mattroberts.co.uk.