Avoid the Winter Weight Gain

When the mercury starts to drop outside, many of us move ourselves inside to where it's warm. Early morning exercise sessions are replaced with more time under the sheets and Saturday nights out with friends are instead spent curled up in front of the heater and telly. It's not until we go to strut our stuff at the beach in summer that we realise the damage to our shape these winter wonders have caused. But the good news is this doesn't have to happen to you this winter. Simply follow my tips to avoiding the winter weight gain:

1. Keep moving: Kill two birds with the one stone by warming yourself up while you get your daily exercise. Make sure you fit in an hour, particularly if you spend most of the day sitting down at a desk. I've found that registering for a sporting event that requires training such as a fun run or long ride or regularly training with a friend are both great ways to help you stick to your winter training schedule.

2. Wear tight clothes: How uncomfortable is it wearing your skinny jeans with a little bit of extra weight on your hips or around your waist? Use your tight clothes as motivation to keep the kilos off in winter and wear them once a week. Avoid lazing about in loose trackie pants all the time.

3. Fill up with vegetables: Steamed vegetables or vegetable soup are both fantastic choices for filling up on during the cooler months. They will keep you feeling fuller for longer, without the need to consume large amounts of unnecessary kilojoules.

4. Track it: Tracking the food and drink you consume is a great way of creating awareness and accountability for what you're putting in to your mouth. My clients who keep a food record are more successful in their weight loss attempts than others who aren't motivated to record. Which makes sense seeing the research says people who keep food diaries lose twice as much weight as those who don't write it down. If you'd prefer an electronic version of recording an iPhone app such as "Lose it" is also fantastic for tracking your daily intake and setting yourself goals. Whichever your preferred method, just make sure you keep tabs and you'll be more likely to succeed with weight and fitness management.

5. Don't get too cocky: Being confident in your ability to resist temptations is not always a good thing. New research published in Psychological Science found that people who felt most confident in their self-control were in fact most likely to give into temptation as they were more likely to expose themselves to more indulgent food situations. Avoid keeping too many tempting foods in the house, and if you do make sure you buy the portion-controlled variety and keep them in a difficult to access place.

6. Make it one or the other: Plan your indulgences ahead of time so that you avoid eating unnecessarily. If you're like me and occasionally enjoy your red wine with dark chocolate, make a choice and enjoy one or the other. Then, eat perfectly for the rest of the day.