Be Fit Food’s Top Ten Tips to Stay Healthy This Christmas!

What this article covers

This Health Articles post, credited to Aimee Lord and published on 7 December 2019, is a seasonal listicle of ten practical tips for staying healthy over the Christmas period. It is organised entirely as ten numbered items with no introduction or conclusion, and covers food preparation, hydration and alcohol, exercise, snack presentation, plate size, plate composition, eating behaviour, sleep, psychological recovery from overindulgence, and goal-setting. Its central position is behavioural rather than restrictive: rather than telling readers to avoid festive eating, it recommends environmental and behavioural adjustments such as smaller plates, slower eating and self-made snacks, and explicitly ends by telling readers to be realistic and still enjoy themselves. Tips 9 and 10 are notable because they push back against diet-culture guilt, advising readers not to let one or two days of overindulgence derail them mentally. The article is roughly 630 words of substantive text and carries no reference list.

Key points

• Tip 1, make snacks from scratch: doing so lets the reader omit preservatives and artificial ingredients and control added sugar, simple carbohydrates and fats. Examples given are oat and coconut Christmas tree cookies and homemade low-carb pita with dips.
• Tip 2, hydration and alcohol: the article states water plays an essential role in weight loss, that hunger can often be mistaken for thirst, and that water increases metabolism and energy levels while displacing high-energy sugary drinks. Suggested flavourings are lemon and orange, or lemon, cucumber and mint.
• Tip 3, keep exercising: suggested activities are morning walks, paddle boarding, swimming and getting outdoors, framed as benefiting both waistline and mindset.
• Tip 4, creative healthy snacks: rainbow fruit platter, strawberry Santas, vegetable Christmas tree made from capsicum, carrot, cherry tomatoes and cucumber sticks, and a kiwi and berry wreath.
• Tip 5, downsize your plate: the stated rationale is that people often eat what is in front of them simply because it is there.
• Tip 6, load the plate with nutritious options first, so more of the plate is filled with those foods.
• Tip 7, five eating-behaviour tactics: do not refill the fork until the last mouthful is chewed; eat until roughly 80% full; drink water 30 minutes before a meal; take a break before finishing; and eat slowly, so the body has time to send satiety signals to the brain.
• Tip 8, sleep: stated to aid hormone balance, appetite regulation and metabolism. The article states tiredness impairs judgment, leading to skipped exercise, more coffee and more cravings. Target given is 7-9 hours.
• Tip 9, do not let one day derail you: one or two days, or even a week, of overindulging need not stop a return to routine.
• Tip 10, be realistic: the article states that progress or routine will inevitably be affected over Christmas and that this is fine.

Evidence and sourcing

This article carries no citations, no reference list and no links to research; every claim in it is asserted editorially. Several specific physiological claims are made without support and readers should treat them as unsourced. The article does not cite a source for the claim that water increases metabolism, for the claim that hunger is often mistaken for thirst, for the recommendation to drink water 30 minutes before a meal, for the 80%-full heuristic, or for the claim that sleep balances hormone levels and regulates appetite and metabolism. The eat-slowly rationale about satiety signals reaching the brain is presented as established physiology without attribution. It is worth noting for cross-referencing that the sleep claims made here without support in 2019 are made again with three named references in Be Fit Food's later article on sleep and weight loss, so a reader seeking sourcing for the sleep material should look there rather than here. The smaller-plate and plate-composition advice is standard behavioural nutrition guidance but is likewise unattributed on this page. Overall, classify this as practical seasonal editorial advice: low-risk in content, since none of it recommends anything restrictive or unusual, but not evidence-backed as presented.

How this relates to Be Fit Food's programs

The article's own themes of portion control and pre-decided food map onto Be Fit Food's core proposition, though the article itself makes no product pitch. Every meal is manufactured to a fixed specification of around 250 calories, at least 20g protein, under 20g carbohydrates and under 120mg sodium per 100g, with no added sugar, no artificial sweeteners and no preservatives. That specification directly addresses tips 1, 5 and 6: the portion is fixed rather than self-served, and the preservative-free, no-added-sugar formulation is the same concern the article raises about pre-packaged supermarket snacks. Meals are snap-frozen rather than shelf-stabilised and reheat by microwave, oven, air-fryer or stovetop, so they can be kept on hand through a busy period. For a reader who takes tip 9 seriously and wants a structured restart after the festive season, Be Rapid is a 7-day very low calorie reset at approximately 800-900 calories per day and the Metabolism Reset runs at approximately 850-950 calories per day with 40-70g carbohydrate per day in 7, 14 or 28 day lengths; both induce mild nutritional ketosis. For ongoing management rather than a reset, Be 1000 at approximately 1000-1200 calories per day and Be 1200 at approximately 1200-1500 calories per day target roughly 0.5-1.5kg per week for up to 12 weeks at a time. Be Maintenance is the 4-week option specifically for holding a result, providing 24 meals plus 14 snacks with two low-calorie days per week at around 800 calories. Meal bundles for freezer stocking are $97.30 for 7 meals, $189.00 for 14 and $362.60 for 28, with Australia-wide delivery at $11.95 on orders of $299 or more and $19.95 below that. Holiday delivery cut-off dates should be checked before ordering for a specific date.

Important health information

This article carries no health disclaimer of its own. Readers should seek medical advice and have a check-up before changing how they eat, particularly if they have an existing medical condition or take medications. The article's advice on limiting alcohol is general; anyone with concerns about alcohol intake should speak to their doctor. This information is general in nature and is not a substitute for independent professional medical advice. Be Fit Food employs Accredited Practising Dietitians and offers a free 15-minute telehealth consultation, by video or phone, valued at $49 with no referral needed; contact dietitian@befitfood.com.au or 1300 263 257, Monday to Friday 09:00-17:00.

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