STEP INTO 2017

GET READY FOR YOUR BEST RUNNING YEAR EVER!

Words: Elizabeth Hufton

We’ve caught you – guiltily eyeing up your kit and deciding that run can wait till tomorrow. After all, it’s nearly Christmas, right? Who starts a new fitness plan now? If you want to have a great running year in 2017, it’s worth making your preparations now. Use our simple nutrition, habit-forming and training plans over the next few pages to lay the groundwork. Then, next issue, we’ll help you step it up to make 2017 your best running year yet!

We know life’s busy at the moment and it can be easy to brush aside your fitness plans, promising yourself a new start in January. You don’t have to go into hibernation now, though. Just by committing to a few hours a week of training, healthy food shopping and simple headspace will give you a great base for next year’s big push towards fitness. Don’t worry, we’re not going to ask too much of you for now. Just follow our simple schedule and you won’t have to put any effort into the planning.

FOOL-PROOF FOOD RULES

Relax, you don’t need to start calorie counting. Just use these basic guidelines to make sure you’re getting good nutrition into your body before the holiday shutdown.

Make a food diary to help keep temptation at bay

KEEP A FOOD RECORD

It’s well documented that keeping a food diary is one of the most effective tools for weight loss and maintenance, and it’s really the only way to know that you’re eating a balanced diet. But who has time to write down everything they eat right now? So here’s a compromise: take a snap of everything you eat on your phone, before you eat it. We’re not going to ask you to start beautifully arranging your beans on toast so that it looks good on Instagram (although if that’s your thing, go for it!). This is purely a visual journal for you to look back on at the end of each day. It also gives you a few seconds to pause before you grab another Quality Street…

PLAN AND SHOP

Don’t let your cupboards run bare down the week. Set aside an hour each weekend to plan your meals for the following week, then make a precise shopping list and buy only what’s on it. Bonus: if you only buy the healthy food you’ve planned for, getting around the supermarket will take half the time. Hosting a big family get-to-gether over the break? Resist the urge to stockpile treats. Remember, you’ll still be able to buy mince pies and mixed nuts the week before.