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8 tips to help you shed those Christmas pounds
8 tips to help you shed those Christmas pounds
- Published
- 13. 01. 2026
- New year, new me. We hear similar resolutions all around us. But not everyone manages to stick to them, because they often set high, almost unattainable goals. "Start exercising and lose 10 kilos in January" sounds nice, but in reality it cannot be achieved without drastically restricting food intake. And by the first week of February, you'll have gained the weight back. That's why it's better to focus on changing your lifestyle, adjusting your diet, adding physical activity, and aiming for a more active and better quality of life rather than just losing weight.
Tips for Christmas weight gain that won't hurt
Once your body gets used to more exercise and a different diet, the pounds will start to melt away almost by themselves. Avoid terms like „diet“ and „weight loss,“ and focus instead on improving your health and lifestyle. It’s about how you feel, not the number on the scale. Losing a few pounds gradually is much more rewarding than drastic diets, which often don’t have long-term results.
To make it easier for you to become a better version of yourself, we’ve prepared 8 tips to help you manage your lifestyle change and make it easier to lose excess weight.
1) TIP FOR CHRISTMAS WEIGHT GAIN: Set achievable goals
We all know that losing weight without the yo-yo effect requires a long-term lifestyle change. So spread your „weight loss plan“ over several months and set goals that are truly achievable. Write a list of foods that are „good“ and those you want to avoid. Create a meal plan, shopping list, and schedule days when you will exercise. Sticking to a plan that you have written down is much easier than trying to keep it in your head.
It takes about three weeks to a month for your body to get used to a new routine, so for the first month, focus on scheduling sports activities and a meal plan that you will stick to. The weight loss will come naturally once you get used to the new routine. To avoid unnecessary stress, set a goal of just a few grams per week. Your progress doesn’t have to be measured in kilograms; just measure your measurements from time to time and use them as motivation. Short-term goals make it easier to motivate yourself to achieve long-term goals, you won’t be under pressure, and you’ll find it much easier to maintain your target weight.
2) TIP FOR CHRISTMAS WEIGHT GAIN: Cut back on three bad habits
Find out which eating or other habits are holding you back from reaching your dream weight. Maybe you treat yourself to two doughnuts for breakfast every day, maybe you drink sweet sodas, maybe you eat fast food for dinner. Make a list of three habits you want to give up and cut back on them. You don’t have to eliminate them completely, but instead of eating a doughnut for breakfast every day, treat yourself to one only twice a week and on other days try having a Matcha Tea Shake with fruit for breakfast, which will fill you up and give you energy. After a while, you may find that you only need to indulge in a doughnut once a week, or even not at all. When you first try to give up these habits, focus mainly on the positive side of things—whether you want to improve your health, sleep quality, or lose weight, you are doing it for yourself so that you feel better physically and mentally.
3) TIP FOR CHRISTMAS WEIGHT GAIN: Slowly but surely
Changing your lifestyle is challenging. Therefore, do not force yourself to eliminate all unhealthy foods at once and do not torture yourself by spending three hours at the gym every day. If your dream goal is to get in better shape and eat better, prepare yourself for a marathon, not a sprint. The first week, add more fruits and vegetables to your diet (we should eat about 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day), the second week, eliminate fried foods, the third week, white bread, industrially processed sweets, etc.
The same applies to physical activity – start with a 20-minute walk, extend the walk to 40 minutes the following week, and the week after that, you can replace one hour of walking with an hour of yoga, and so on.
4) TIP FOR CHRISTMAS WEIGHT GAIN: Exercise with joy
Losing weight inevitably involves greater energy expenditure. However, you don’t have to force yourself to work out if you’re not interested in it. Find an activity that you enjoy. There are tons of activities to choose from, from swimming to badminton to running to street dance. The goal is to find a sport you enjoy and look forward to doing. If you’re lucky, you might meet a cool group of people at the climbing wall, and your motivation to keep coming back will suddenly increase tenfold.
If you enjoy exercising, it will be easier for you to return to it with pleasure. You can also go for long walks or swap the elevator for the stairs. And you can exercise very well at home if you don’t feel like being around other people.
5) TIP FOR CHRISTMAS WEIGHT GAIN: Don't deny yourself food
If you have a daily habit of eating sweets, don’t ban them completely, but allow yourself to have them twice a week at first, or ideally once a week. You’ll look forward to them and enjoy them more. If you slip up occasionally, don’t worry about it. Changing your lifestyle is difficult, and none of us are machines. If you buy matcha chocolate almonds or matcha chocolate cashews and eat them all at once, don’t punish yourself for it, just shrug it off. It happens to even the best of us. If you really feel bad about your transgression, you can, for example, get off the bus two stops early on your way home from work and burn off the calories.
Another alternative is to make your favorite unhealthy food a reward. You should reward yourself from time to time for your hard-earned achievements. But if you don’t want to tempt yourself, the reward doesn’t always have to be food. Buy yourself a new piece of clothing or something else that will make you happy.
6) TIP FOR CHRISTMAS WEIGHT GAIN: Listen to your body
Each of us is unique and different types of diets suit different people. Some people are happier on a low-carb diet, while others prefer foods high in carbohydrates. Some people like to eat breakfast as the most calorie-dense meal of the day, while others don’t like to eat dinner after 6 p.m. Some people prefer to exercise before 6 a.m.
Pay attention to yourself, notice how you feel after each meal, and gradually change your habits accordingly. If you don’t feel completely refreshed after lunch, a cup of matcha can be a pleasant part of your afternoon routine. If that doesn’t help, maybe heavy meals don’t suit you – try replacing beef tenderloin with dumplings with chicken breast and grilled vegetables, for example. The same rules apply to exercise – if you have an hour of running planned but don’t have enough energy, everything hurts, and you have to force yourself to do it, stay home and rest. Your body is telling you that it needs more time to recover. If you still feel guilty, you can try a few yoga exercises and stretch rather than exercise.
7) TIP FOR CHRISTMAS WEIGHT GAIN: Drink plenty of water
Most of us don’t drink as much as we should. Have you heard the saying that hunger is thirst in disguise? Sometimes our bodies are so dehydrated that we try to quench our thirst with food. Insufficient hydration can also cause fatigue, bad moods, or nervousness. You don’t have to drink two whole liters a day, but definitely cut down on sodas and other sweetened drinks and increase your intake of unsweetened liquids. If you don’t like plain water because it’s „tasteless,“ you can squeeze some lemon into it, add cucumber, or try Bio Kyosun Rooibos, which is naturally sweet, contains no sugar, is purely organic, and is 100% caffeine-free.
8) TIP FOR CHRISTMAS WEIGHT GAIN: Include Matcha Tea
Finely ground matcha green tea is well known for its weight control properties. Just two cups a day are a great ally on your journey to a healthier lifestyle. Thanks to its high content of theine, the tea equivalent of caffeine, matcha provides energy for 3-6 hours, so when you’re struggling to wean yourself off high-calorie foods during the first month, you can draw energy from Matcha Tea. Matcha tea can also be a great source of energy just before sports activities and can even help you digest a hearty lunch. It naturally contains antioxidants and fits into a balanced lifestyle. Thanks to its caffeine and L-theanine content, it is associated with supporting concentration, mental performance, and overall well-being. With Matcha Tea, you are choosing a functional and thoughtful part of your daily routine. You simply can’t go wrong with Matcha Tea.
Changing your lifestyle is not easy. If you are sure that those around you will support you, share your plans with them. It can be particularly beneficial to share your plans with friends who have similar goals. You can go exercise together or have lunch at a salad bar. However, you can keep the information about your weight loss plans to yourself; in some ways, this is even better, because the more we talk about our plans, the less we want to follow through with them, as we have created expectations in others and feel under pressure. So feel free to keep your New Year’s plan to yourself, be kind to yourself, and if you don’t feel well in any way, consult your doctor or a nutritionist.