Happy Easter everyone! The Easter holidays can be a fun and exciting time, whether you’re busy setting up Easter egg hunts for the little ones (I can’t wait to do one for Poppy this year!) or simply enjoying a few quiet days with family and friends.
Chocolate and food are a huge part of the Easter holidays and can easily disrupt your usual ‘healthy’ routine. It can feel like an excuse to eat as much chocolate as we can along with the hot cross buns and other sweet treats. The supermarkets don’t help as they have aisles dedicated to Easter chocolate and goodies to tempt you with, and that’s before you get any chocolate Easter presents! However, with a little bit of planning, you can still enjoy the festivities whilst staying healthy. Remember: in a healthy diet, nothing is off limits (unless for a medical reason).
Don’t stress if you have overindulged in chocolate or had an extra hot cross bun (it is allowed 😊). Just follow our tips on how to stay on track over the Easter holiday, and beyond.
New to a healthy diet where you CAN eat chocolate?! Follow our tips:
- You don’t have to stick rigidly to your ‘healthy’ diet all the time. That would be extremely hard and not sustainable. Remember there are no ‘bad’ foods – just bad quantities! Try to be mindful of the food choices that you make, and fill up on healthy choices such as fruit, vegetables and protein. Consuming too much sugar can be detrimental to your health, so while you should absolutely enjoy the Easter treats if you want to, just be careful with quantities. [Restriction often leads to binging, so don’t restrict chocolate from your diet and then binge as this is worse for you then just eating a little every so often, I don’t think there’s a day Hannah goes without chocolate!] Have a healthy breakfast such as eggs, which are high in protein and will keep you feeling fuller for longer, and a lighter dinner to balance out what you are eating. You could keep the Easter eggs for Easter Sunday so that you can be mindful of how much you have eaten. Enjoy your Sunday lunch and fill your plate with vegetables, meat and some carbs which will help to fill you up and stop the nibbles later on in the day.
- Make sure that you are drinking enough water. It’s easy to forget to drink enough during the holidays, especially when you’re busy with activities and socialising (I always drink far more water at work than I do at home!). Staying hydrated is essential for maintaining good health so aim to drink between 2 to 3 litres a day. Remember that your brain can confuse hunger with being thirsty and make you think that you’re hungry when, in fact, you are just thirsty. Tea, coffee and sugar free drinks all count towards your water intake.
- Make the most of the holidays and get active! Hopefully the weather will be starting to get a little warmer and the nights are now getting lighter so go for a long walk, jog or a bike ride. If you find that you are out of your normal gym routine, substitute other things such as a trip to the park with the kids, include a picnic and a run around with them. Try setting up a little assault course in the garden for the kids (and you) to do. Include things like an egg and spoon race, bunny hop race, jumping jacks and throwing beanbags at a target or into a hoop 😊. Write exercises onto pieces of card and get the kids to choose one, then do that exercise for 45 seconds and have 15 seconds rest whilst you pick another one. Repeat for 5 to 10 minutes. Make the exercises fun such as star jumps, skipping, touching your toes, rocket jumps and mountain climbers. You can adapt the exercises to suit your child’s age. If you are able to, do your normal training too (you can even add on an extra 5 minutes), whether that’s going to the gym, doing a fitness class or going for a run. Exercise helps to regulate your appetite, so try to include something over the holiday weekend, even if it’s just 10 minutes, like this Core workout.
- Sleep is essential for good health so make sure that you are getting enough. Eating habits such as excess food and drink can play havoc with your sleep so watch your alcohol intake and the amount of high fat foods that you are eating. Turn off any tech such as phones, laptops and the tv at least 30 – 60 minutes before bed. Relax and unwind by reading a book or having a lovely hot bubble bath, or try listening to some meditation as you fall asleep.
- Remember, Easter presents don’t have to consist of chocolate. Other lovely ideas in place of eggs can include flowers, a plant, a book, a trip to the cinema, candles or bath and skincare products. As Poppy is still so young, we monitor the amount of sugar she eats, and this will be her first Easter Egg (as no added sugar should be consumed under 2 years so she didn’t get one the last few years). Instead she got puzzles, games and little toys, as well as doing lots of crafts which we will do again this year too!
- Take time for yourself to relax and unwind. You don’t need to fill every bit of time with doing chores, jobs and activities. It’s vital for your health to rest and recharge so reduce the amount of time you spend looking at a screen, put off that ironing until later and enjoy some self-care instead.
- Don’t give up! Don’t write off the Easter weekend and feel frustrated if you’ve eaten more or moved less than you wanted to. Remember that you’re on a journey and that journey will have bumps in the road, but the main thing is to keep going! Get back to your workouts when you can, and try to incorporate some movement and exercise into every day. Even a 30-minute brisk walk or a 10-minute bodyweight workout can help to improve your fitness levels, motivation and your mood. Consistency is so important when it comes to health and fitness so, by all means, have a couple of days off if you want to but get back into your routine as soon as you can. You’ll feel so much better for doing so 😊
Enjoy your Easter eggs without guilt (I hope I get one as I’m really looking forward to it!) and, remember, we are here to help you carry on with your fitness journey 😊.
Have a great Easter from your W Fitness team! 😊
Much Love
Caroline & Hannah xx