1Rebel
It can be easy to let your diet and workout regime slip away during the Christmas holidays.
With such a busy social calendar, it can be hard to stay on top of your health. The diet slips and visits to the gym become few and far between.
In order to stay ahead of the festive pile on, we spoke to some people who are at the top of their game.
Here, head of fitness at London gym 1Rebel, Esmee Gummer, and the founders of fitness company Tone It Up, Katrina Scott and Karena Dawn, share their top tips on preventing weight gain throughout December. They also told us how to bounce back should an extra few pounds find their way to your waistline.
1. Sweat every morning.
The best way to keep active is to force yourself to move every morning.
"Things come up every evening, between holiday shopping, errands, parties, and family gatherings," said Scott. "Your day has to begin with you and what you need, whether it's meditation, grabbing a coffee and going for a walk or running."
2. Book a fitness session.
You're much less likely to workout if you only have a casual ambition to exercise in the evening. But if waking up early isn't your thing, make yourself accountable.
"We'll make a workout date or sign up for a class," Scott said. "There are hundreds of workouts I wouldn't have done if I hadn't signed up for them."
3. Try not to yo-yo.
"Having two weeks of bingeing then saying you'll get back on it after won't work," Gummer said. "If you want to go have a binge, and you know you haven't got time to train how you usually do, try and just do it once a week. Don't put it on hold - just keep a little bit there. Then when you get back into it, it's not going to shock you as much."
Scott added: "The most common mistake we see is looking at weekends as days 'off.' If you think about it, between Friday, Saturday and Sunday, that's almost half your month! Stay on track on the weekends and take your downtime to workout and push yourself."
And if you have an indulgent evening - or weekend - don't feel that you need to wait until Monday to start over.
"If you slip up, start fresh the very next day," Scott said. "Weight gain happens when we keep waiting for a fresh start, but we all know that things happen. If you can bounce back immediately and know that not all is lost, you'll be more balanced."
4. There's no such thing as "no time."
"When people say they can't because they don't have time, I say 'Don't tell me you can't, tell me you don't want it enough,'" Gummer said. "You need to decide - do I want to get to the end of this and feel rubbish, or can you really give yourself a little bit of time to keep a little bit there?"
"You're not doing it for your body, you're doing it for your mentality, and your mind will thank you for it at the end of the binge."
5. Find a balance.
Don't deprive yourself of the things you love over the holidays.
"I'm going to binge forever," Gummer said. "I will always go out. I love a night out, I love drinking, I love eating. But find the balance. If you slip down, know it will seesaw up afterwards then go back to a balance."
The Tone It Up girls added that it's best to fill up on healthy food first, so that you'll want to keep your dessert portions down.
"If you want that pie, go for it," Scott said. "Have a bite and share it with someone."