Welcome to 12 Days of Fitmas – the Northern Bootcamp guide to having fun, eating brilliantly and staying in shape over Christmas.
The 12 Days of Fitmas is our amazing guide to having fun and staying healthy this Christmas.
We don’t want to stop any of the celebrations, so this guide is about giving you short, fast exercise routines that you can do, to make sure you feel great throughout December.
It will also enable you to hit the ground running in January when most people are feeling depressed and sluggish – if you follow 12 Days of Fitmas you’ll have a spring in your step and you’ll be perfectly geared up for the cold months ahead.
The blog posts will be landing approximately every other day in the build-up to Christmas. They will include exercises and recipes that you can pick and choose to use as part of your normal routine in December.
Exercises
The exercises are all modular, so you can do as much or as little as you want, depending on how much time you have available. Of course, the more you put in, the more you get out.
You can pair the exercises together, or string them together into longer routines. If you wish to make them more challenging, we’ll suggest ways to do that, too.
The exercises will be grouped into three sets of four, so on the fourth, eighth and twelfth days, we will show you how to put them together into a mini-routine.
None of the routines should take more than 15 minutes – though we’ll be showing you how to develop the routine, too, in case you want to make it tougher, or if you are able to get outside and add in some bursts of running or skipping, for example.
Then, if you really want to challenge yourself, you can put all 12 Days of Fitmas exercises together to form one super HIIT routine that’ll get your heart pumping and will keep burning calories for days after your exercise.
In brief:
- Do as much as you can
- Fit these exercises in around your routine
- Watch your form – if your technique gets worse, stop exercising or rest
- Build each exercise into a longer routine to work every muscle group
- Some exercise is always better than none – even if you can’t do a full routine, do what you can. You’ll feel much better for it
Recipes
As with the exercises, we have grouped the recipes into three groups of four starters and sides, mains and desserts. They are all healthy, tested, balanced and delicious: all the festivity, with much less of the guilt!
By the end of the 12 Days of Fitmas, you’ll have enough ideas to put together a full Christmas meal.
In brief:
- Watch your portions – most people don’t eat as much as you think they will, especially over a several-course meal
- Avoid unnecessary fats, but don’t hide from them altogether – some fat is essential in your diet, especially if you are exercising a lot as well
- Try to cut out wheat if you can – we’ll be looking at this a lot in the New Year, but as anyone will tell you, Northern Bootcamp is mainly a carb- and wheat-free zone!
Ready, set, go! Start with day one of the 12 days of Fitmas here.
At any point if you want to ask any questions, please feel free to drop us a line via either of our social media channels, on Twitter or Facebook.
