OH! Magazine - Australian Version December 2018 | Page 6

( FITNESS & MOTIVATION )
MICHELLE
BRIDGES
KEEP CALM
AND CHRISTMAS ON!
Michelle Bridges shares her technique to staying sane
during the silly season (and beyond)!
t is SO easy to totally trip over and
then trip out, during the craziness
that is Christmas – I get it, I’ve been there,
and I’m here to say – it is possible to flip
the switch, so instead of those
overwhelming feelings of crazy, you
successfully commit to keeping things
calm and carrying on! There are so many
emotions built into Christmas, the lead-up
to and then the days during and after.
How about this for a Christmas carol: ‘We
wish you a crisis-free Christmas’? I’m
serious!
I
As humans, we tend to look to our
memories of what has been before, and
we throw that projection into the future –
so if Christmas has previously always been
a dissolving of our discipline, and a deep-
dive into the dessert menu, we can wind
ourselves up with such crisis thinking –
projecting our expectations that it will be
that way again.
The thing is, what you think and what you
believe, is what you achieve. So if you
believe your past actions are influencing
your present thinking – where you project
that your Christmas will be a crisis of over-
eating and under-exercising – well it
frigging will be! BUT if you can take a
considered step back, before the
Christmas crisis looms up and crashes
over you, and instead construct a new
projection for yourself, then you set
yourself up with a structure for success
instead. Here’s how:
the time Christmas comes along, you’ve
got that habit deeply ingrained. So keep
your commitment to regular exercise right
through the Christmas period and you’ll
keep those excess kilos at bay!
Keep calm
Keep cooking
We all know from the first of January, that
the Christmas period will come around
again, so we have the whole year to
construct a new projection. There’s no
need to carry on like a Christmas calamity,
know that you CAN do Christmas – so just
calmly carry on as you have been doing for
the 11 months before it.
Keep a Christmas calendar
I’m not talking about a Christmas advent
calendar, but instead a Christmas
functions calendar. Put it somewhere
highly visible and add in your chosen
Christmas function events. Look at the
timings – commit to doing only one
Christmas event per week, so you don’t
disrupt the balance of healthy to
unhealthy, and you’ll keep on an even
keel.
Keep training
From the first of January, you’ve got a
whole year to build a training habit; so by
Like your training, from the start of the
year, you’ve had a whole year to commit to
building your cooking habit, and thus
controlling the calories, the portion sizes
and the nutritional content of what goes in
your mouth.
As Christmas rolls into view, keep cooking
– keep eating the ‘usual’ (healthy,
nutritious) food that you have been eating
for the last 11 months.
Use your Christmas calendar to slot in the
‘sometimes’ food events over the
Christmas period, and because it’s only
‘sometimes’ food, it’s not going to cause a
crisis.
Commit to this structure for success, and
you’ll stay in control this Christmas. Stay
in control this Christmas and you’ll
construct your positive platform to project
into the future, keeping Christmases to
come, calm. Carry on!
CONNECT WITH MICHELLE VIA:
Web: michellebridges.com.au
Facebook: Mishy.Bridges
Twitter: @mishbridges
Instagram: @mishbridges
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OH! MAGAZINE ( DECEMBER 2018 )