FOOD

Breakfast Start the day with cereals and porridge. Keep sugar to a minimum and introduce fruit to your morning routine. If you’re hankering after an occasional fry-up, grill your meat instead of frying it and choose lean sausages and back bacon.

Lunch

Go easy! Eat less than you’re used to or snack several times a day rather than sitting down to one big plate of food.

Dinner

A big evening meal is fine so long as it’s lean meat such as fish, chicken or occasional prime cuts of beef. Vegetarians should substitute lentils for meat in dishes like chilli.

Give yourself a goal

Keeping hill-fit over winter is a problem for all of us without mountains on our doorstep – but by setting yourself a definite goal such as doing the Welsh 3000ers, you’ll have the motivation to make it possible. However, if you’re going to achieve that goal, you must make the most of limited time by choosing a focused fitness plan such as this minimum-effort regime, as recommended by Jas Hepburn, training coach at the Highland Institute of Sport and an MIC with Glenmore Lodge.

STAY MOTIVATED

A goal is a great start

Set your sights on something big for spring, mark your chosen weekend in your diary and count down the days.

Motivate yourself

Plaster the inside of your kitchen cupboards with pictures of Tryfan – or whichever mountain is your goal. These visual reminders in key places will help keep your goal alive through the winter.

Get a partner in crime

It’s tough to face a mate and tell them that the dark, rainy after-work runs and abstinence from beer and chips was all for naught because you’re simply ‘not feeling up for it’.

Don’t stop

Exercising is like paddling a kayak: it’s okay to put hardly any effort in at all, but whatever you do, don’t stop. Momentum is the hardest thing to build and even if you reduce your workouts to half-hearted ten-minute affairs, never stop altogether. You’ll soon regain your motivation and raise the intensity.

Use your lunch hour

Exercise at least one lunch hour per week: it ensures you get a daylight workout; it breaks up the workday; and it leaves one more evening free to go out to the cinema, see friends or do whatever else you look forward to.

EXERCISE

Walking is one of the best maintenance workouts you can do. It’s great for fat burning and makes you feel good – essential for staying motivated during a dark winter. And the benefits are irrespective of venue: walk to work, around town or in the hills, for at least an hour at a time if possible.

Stairs are the perfect home gym. Shuttle up and down for 20-30 minutes to work your lungs and your leg muscles.

Running works all the essential hill-walking muscles and keeps your lungs in shape. Running uphill (or even upstairs) helps to raise your heart rate – and an efficient 20-minute run that raises your heart rate is far more beneficial than an hour-long jog.

Cycling is good for the leg muscles – but again, concentrate on raising your heart rate to get maximum benefit from each session.