Merry ‘Fitness’ from the exercise community

MEDIA RELEASE: For Immediate Release
FROM: The New Zealand Register of Exercise Professionals (REPs)

As our year winds up, it’s time to reflect on the successes and challenges we have all faced in 2016 and look forward to a year ahead. The end of 2016 has been busy for those working in exercise and fitness, with over 800 exercise professionals attending the annual exercise industry conference FitEx in Auckland at the end of November. By attending FitEx this results in the latest exercise delivery methods and science being available to New Zealanders in the New Year to help get them feeling better, fitter and healthier.

One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself this Christmas is the gift of health and wellness, so while you are out celebrating, make sure you take time to look after yourself. It doesn’t have to be all about running marathons on Boxing Day. In fact a few weeks of less work stress, balanced indulgence on the food front, and some active family time will help to keep you in good health ready to face the New Year.

Speaking of the New Year, when setting those New Year’s exercise and health resolutions, make sure you get help and advice from a REPs registered exercise professional. Using a REPs registered professional will ensure that the professional or facility you choose follows industry best practice guidelines, meets education requirements, and continues to up-skill. But in the meantime, enjoy the festive season with some tips to help keep healthy while celebrating.

The festive food indulgence - It’s far too easy to keep your usual food intake and just add those extra Christmas treats on top. The secret to moderation is not giving up on all treats, or succumbing to all of them, but something in the middle. If you know it’s to be a feast of an evening, or a treat filled event, go light with your energy consumption over the rest of the day. When cutting back make sure you leave in all the nutrient dense fruit and vegies.

Keep moving and active - You may have seen the many reports and research that a workout session is not able to undo all the effects of a sedentary lifestyle, and that your incidental activity is as important as fitting in your scheduled workout. Over the break make sure you keep up moving about; even if your exercise sessions are intermittent, you can keep up the health benefits of incidental activity by walking and taking part in active relaxation.

Sugar consumption - When it comes to soft drinks and sugary fruit juices, it may pay to steer clear as research is showing that our bodies have a weak compensatory diet response when consuming energy in liquid form. When we eat more dense food, our body will respond by feeling full. However when consuming high calorie liquids our body does not have this response so we eat more, as we aren’t satisfied. At Christmas celebrations where we have access to and a tendency to eat more food, adding drinks to the mix can make a big difference. Stick to water.

If you are taking a break from your normal exercise routine, put the date in your calendar now for your return to regular exercise, be it a gym session, running or a session with your trainer.

Having a date set now gives you something to aim for, and will prevent the end of January arriving before you get started again.

Have a safe and relaxed holiday.

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