‘Fitness’ is going to be the buzz word of the moment for the next few weeks once January 1st hits! You won’t be able to escape the New Year, New Me gym goers, juicers (ew) and healthy eaters - even if you try. But, if you do want to try and shift a little Christmas pudding then there are ways to do it without becoming a total gym-bore. These are the new ways to get and keep ft that are less ‘chicken and broccoli’ and more real life orientated.

1. Don’t count calories

Joe Wicks a.k.a The Body Coach has not only taken over the food and fitness world with his books but he’s made a lot of sense with his classic move more and eat well mantra. He recently took to his Instagram stories to talk about calories and how if you don’t count them, you will probably still lose weight.

Simply follow a healthy diet, don’t overindulge and know your portion sizes and don’t stress yourself out with counting every calorie. Sure, you should stick to roughly the number that you think you should need to either maintain your weight or lose a little weight but 50-100 calories either side isn’t going to hurt! Basically, his message was to simply eat healthily and not to sweat the small stuff like how many calories are in a piece of fruit. You’ll naturally be eating more intuitively and stopping when you’re full if your diet is on point. Cheers, Joe - that’s one less thing to worry about!

2. Anywhere exercise

Alice Liveing is another Insta-bod that we’ve definitely all seen before but I absolutely love her chilled out, love-yourself approach to fitness. Work out because it makes you feel good and if you don’t feel like it one day, don’t beat yourself up. Simples. She also makes it so easy to access fitness and shows the reality that you don’t need a fancy gym and expensive kit to look awesome. I mean, she does, but, it’s her job - it doesn’t mean we have to!

Alice has some amazing ‘anywhere’ workouts that are so easy to complete in your bedroom or living room with simple home items like a chair for equipment! Check this one out for size...

3. Know your ‘good’ from your ‘bad’

There’s so much marketing out there to tell us that things are ‘low-fat’ and ‘healthy’ when in fact they might just have exactly the same (or worse!) nutritional benefits as something that’s still in it’s normal packaging. Nutritionist and PT Graeme Tomlinson looks into the nutritional information for so many different foods and breaks down the reality of them and it’s so interesting. Check out this ‘healthy’ vs ‘bad’ cereal example below. Food for thought, right?

4. Don’t put yourself down

Personal trainer and marathon runner Tashi Skervin-Clarke has an awesome outlook on fitness and wellbeing. She says to ‘focus on being the best you’ and not competing or comparing yourself to anyone else. Yep, get off Instagram if it’s making you feel like crap. I’m serious. It’s so much better for your mental health than thinking you’re not as good as someone you’re looking at on your phone screen. We should use online fitness bloggers and personal trainers as inspiration and an at-your-fingertips source of knowledge, not to make us feel bad. Plus, this definitely isn’t their intent with their content either.

For 2019, the goals are to chill out a little bit more, stress less without counting calories and education around what’s actually in our food. I reckon that’s achievable and it’s sounds a lot more fun to me than gruelling diets and boring workouts.

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