Spoiler alert

Just a few days from now, it will be Christmas day. A time where we celebrate, drink, binge, have fun and eat, eat, eat and eat. Actually, the country’s celebration of Christmas starts as early as September when you suddenly hear Jose Mari Chan’s famous hit ‘Christmas in our hearts’. Most often, people tend to overdo the celebration part and go party all out as soon as December 1 strikes in the calendar. Most athletes make it as an official start of their off season. There is still hope though for everyone to enjoy the feast this Christmas, but the invitation left and right, party here and party there makes it more difficult.

TRAINING: First things first. Schedule your off season training. Off season does not mean you have to stop training. Of season simply means focus on your base training or basic fitness level such as balance and flexibility, strength and conditioning. These are some workout session you need to put it during the breaks. 

NUTRITION: Enjoy the Christmas dinner or lunch but need to stay away from sugar, alcohol and high fat food. Moderation is the key. Others associate moderation like moderate in the morning, moderate during lunch and dinner plus a midnight moderate snack. This is wrong. You need to set quota, schedule and list down all your invitations. For example, Monday invitation is for sweets, cake and desserts but have them in moderation. Then on the next invites, you go for high fat food such as lechon, humba, hamonada, but you have to skip the dessert. On the Friday Party, it is alcohol day (if you love to drink), but again in moderation. Skip dessert, sweets, and high fat food and with enough alcohol intake, you can still get up the next morning for your base training schedule. During these 3 separate invitations, you are still loading up the correct proportion of protein, carbohydrates and fat.

The toughest part is to follow your training schedule during the off season and the best way to beat this is to sign up for a race in January. In that way, you will be forced to follow your training schedules. For me, I signed up races in January and February already - the Cebu Marathon, vertical run, Tayud Consolacion Cross-Country mountainbike race, the 7/11 run, and the SM to SM run. With all of these races signed up, I would unconsciously need to prepare for these. An added motivation is my target to beat my personal best 10km distance run set for 2020. Avoid doing too much as well in training, you need to put at least one to 2 rest day in every 2 to 3 weeks of training.

Find your inspiration and motivation to keep you going. In my case, my boot camp students from the Galleria group, the Hot Mommy’s and Metafit Tri team, keeps me motivated. Most of them get inspired by my fitness journey and transformation but little did they know that their fitness achievement also inspire me to push more in my training. Like for example when I am stressed and exhausted from work, it is our training schedules with the Hot Mommy’s boot camp in Galleria and simulation training with the Metafit team during weekends keeps me on my feet.

SPOILER ALERT! Christmas is not only the time to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Is it not time to find excuse to eat your heart out nor the time to find excuse not to train. Christmas is also the best time to soul search your weakness not only in sports but in your personal life as well, reflect on what you have achieved or done for the year. Have you been good or bad? Have you helped others? Have you been kind to your loved ones and friends? Once you have reflected on these things, plan out and stay focus on how make it better and achieve it for the next year to come. Good luck and may the spirit of Christmas be always in our hearts. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! www.alanchoachuy.com