CHRISTMAS and New Year are on the way… I know, shut up Chris but in reality it’s not too far off, which means a few days of us all over indulging in turkey, stuffing, chocolate, mince pies and mulled wine.

Every year there are millions of people shovelling all those goodies in their faces, then New Year hits with a bang and before they know it they’ve put on a tonne of weight. They will then start the New Year with the resolution that it’s their year to get abs for summer!

But why leave it until then? Start your New Year’s resolution early by burning off unwanted fat now, so that when you do have that little bit extra over Christmas time it won’t be as tough to burn off. You’ll already be killing it in the gym, out running, in one of my killer circuit classes or even training in your own living room. You will have built up a good momentum to just hit the ground running (no pun intended!) in the New Year.

There’s also all those Christmas and New Year parties that we all get invited to. Wouldn’t you like to look and feel amazing in your dress or suit and not have to feel uncomfortable having to squeeze into your outfit?

Any changes to your fitness regime and lifestyle should be long term and not just to look great for Christmas, but having short term goals will start you off focused and will help motivation levels stay high especially as it’s starting to get cold and wet.

My tips would start with being realistic.

Don’t set your goals too high as not achieving them can really knock your confidence. Only have a small number of goals to chase after and monitor them regularly with measurements or times that you want to beat. Constantly mix up your training to keep your body guessing each session and also to stop boredom kicking in.

Don’t be one of those people that stops training as soon as their Christmas holiday begins. It takes between 20-60 minutes to get a good workout done, so there’s absolutely no excuses except laziness for you to miss out just because it’s Christmas.

And with the weather getting a bit damp and dark, always have a back-up plan. For example if you was planning to go outside to train and it’s pouring down, down just miss the session have an indoor workout ready instead!

My last piece of advice is to just enjoy the transformation and the journey of a fitter lifestyle now and don’t make it too hard for yourself when Christmas finally arrives!