The stolid, austere reality of January is upon us, and is usually the time we all set about correcting the excesses of Christmas. But how best to go about it? Balls.ie caught up with Derval O'Rourke this week for a few tips as to how best to do it.
1) Don't set yourself crazy goals. If you've been out at Christmas and you've hitting it hard, the worst thing you can do is to decide that in a month you're going to run a marathon. Have your goals be applicable to where you actually are. So if you have been going a little bit mad, go for the small wins, try to get out two or three times a week to start, and then build up. I'd say go for something short term for the next month, to get yourself through to the end of January and beginning of February, and reassess from there.
2) Personally, I try to do two relatively hard sessions a week, and outside of that I try to move for at least twenty minutes every day. I respond to that, but you have to be individualised, and note you respond well to and what you don't, but I think that's fairly basic and most people would respond well to that. If most people did two tough sessions a way, and take twenty minutes every day to get their heart rate up, and that could be something as simple as walking a portion of your commute to work, and up the pace a small bit.
A hard session is anything between 35 minutes and an hour of relatively hard work: where my heart rate would be raised and where there is a structure on a session. So last Saturday I went to the woods and did an eight-minute jog to warm up, then I did some sprint drills and then I did 3 x 120m hills, 3x120m on the straight and I repeated that. Anything that pushes you more than a brisk walk I count as a session. Personally, I like to get outside as you don't have to pay anything to go outside, so no expensive gym membership.
3) Instead of taking things out and punishing myself, I try to add things in. As soon as someone tells me it's Dry January and I can't have any wine, all I want to do is drink my wine. So what I would try and do instead, every time I make a dinner, I try to make sure I have a portion of good green veg with it, because I'm always forgetting to eat veg. So instead of me going, 'okay, I can't eat this or that', or no bread and all these things people do I go, 'add something in'. But by adding something good in, you end up doing less of the bad things. It's a more positive approach, and better than beating yourself up in January over whatever damage you did over Christmas.
4) Another thing I've been trying to do is to run one day a week with a training partner. I've been trying to do fitness on my own, and I find it incredibly boring. That's a big thing: try to get out with someone else. There are so many people trying to get fit and get a good routine in January, find one of your friends who is trying to do something as well, and organise to meet them. If you organise to meet them twice a week, it's much more difficult to cancel on someone else than on yourself.
5) Try to cook from scratch. If you have three or four go to dinners that you can cook from scratch, especially stuff you can bulk cook. So if you can do something like a Chilli Con Carne, cook it in a big pot so that you have it for two or three nights. Maybe do something like a beef stew or a chicken stew, very balanced stuff so that you're getting good quality protein in, you're also getting some colours in there so you're getting antioxidants with your vegetables.
Cook from scratch, get from colours in, and just have some awareness about what you're putting into your body. Going too strict in January makes it too hard to hold on to that for February and March, so going for the small wins in January is key.
The Fit Foodie by Derval O’Rourke is published by Penguin Life and is out now
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