The Christmas period is coming up so fast!!! It’s nuts! Along with the silly season, usually comes a tonne of events full of delicious food & drinks! My first words of wisdom to you all - let yourself indulge a little! We all work our butts of all year long at the office & in the gym. We all push ourselves to be healthy, which is amazing! Come Christmas time, we are absolutley allowed to treat ourselves to A) enjoy life and B) reward our efforts.

I have a huge sweet tooth. HUGE! Chocolate especially … I physically cannot hold back 99% of the time, especially if there are Reese’s Pieces anywhere near me. Ask Josh - I am a shocker. During December & January when a whole heap of parties & functions pop up, routine usually goes out the window. It gets quite tricky when it comes to finding time to prepare & cook all of your meals at home. If that’s the situation you are in too - don’t let is stress you out & don’t feel like your alone! We all surrender to a routine-free period of time!

To combat losing control over my favourite healthy meals… and instead indulging a little more in yummy Christmas cooking, I just work a little harder in the gym.

Adding 10-15 extra minutes to your usual workout is a great way to start! Or if your time poor, grab a skipping rope see if you can squeeze in 5-10mins of skipping after work. Skipping will get your heart-rate up quickly & it will burn off some of those extra cheeky calories. You’ll sweat them out … trust me!

The below 20 min workout is also a goodie if you’re at home or away over Christmas. I posted it a while ago but I thought it was a good one to remind you all of as you don’t need anything to do it except a positive attitude and some water!

I always like to start my workout with 10 minutes of skipping

10 Burpee’s

50 Bicycle Abs

20 Jumping Squats

15 Push Ups

50 High Knee’s on the Spot

Plank for 30 seconds or 1 minute for the challenge

Then start all again

Repeat 3 times if you can !

You’ll surprise yourself … with every rep you do, it’s likely you’ll be faster as your body warms up. Our bodies are INCREDIBLE … so treat them with some TLC.

As the weather warms up there is NO excuse not to get outdoors as often as you can. Not just to lie in the sun, but to get moving! Walking to work, walking to the coffee shop, walking to get your lunch (instead of ordering Uber Eats) and/or taking your pets or kids to the park and running a muck with them. These are all easy and amazing ways to get outside and get active. If you catch a train, bus or a tram to work maybe you could hop off 2 or 3 stops earlier that usual and walk the extra distance? Listen to some music or a Podcast & treat this as “you time”. All this requires is setting your alarm 10-15 mins earlier - easy!

The hit of fresh air will do wonders, let me assure you. Not to mention the rush of endorphins. Most of the time, happiness & motivation is just a walk or a workout away.

I’m not a big drinker myself, but if you’d like to do a little detoxing before Christmas or after NYE, I’ve popped a link here to my best buds website, A Conscious Collection. I love this mag as it’s jam packed full of health & wellness! I urge everyone to follow @aconsciouscollection - and quickly as I’m sure Brooke has some yummy Christmas recipes coming out soon!

I wanted to share two particular articles however, featuring delicious drink ideas for those who are looking to cut back on the booze. Take a look at the two linked blog below … yum!

The featured drinks are low in sugar & packed in flavour. Look how YUMMY and fresh they look … and imagine how great you’ll feel in the morning sticking to this (or at least swapping out a few alcoholic drinks). I’ll be swapping one of Josh’s beers for one of these when he least expects it… for sure! haha watch out Joshy!

On the topic of drinks, each morning I’d recommend adding a spoon of Vital-All-In-One into your smoothie, a glass of coconut water or just some chilled water. This is a perfect way to keep yourself cleansed & nourished all year round. Vital does wonders for your energy levels and general wellbeing, so you’ll feel awake & ready to celebrate what should be a joyful, relaxing time of year. Bloating is something we all feel a lot more of during the silly season, so be good to your gut & allow Vital to restore it’s health.

So everyone, while I urge you to always go for the healthy option, come Christmas time don’t be too hard on yourself! The one thing I’d say is indulge but don’t overindulge … we all know that feeling when we have to undo out jeans before they burst!!! Drinks stacks of water, wear a smile & be GOOD your body & one and other.

Life is too short not to enjoy ourselves! If you have any yummy holiday recipes, I’d love for you to share them below!

Thanks for the shots Ed Purnomo!

Elyse x