THE Christmas markets opened last weekend. I didn’t manage to get down to the opening but when I do I will definitely be having a nice warm cup of mulled wine.

The famous whisky bird advert has started to appear on TV and those office parties are right round the corner.

Alcohol seems to have a huge place at this time of year with the supermarkets really starting to promote big reductions and bulk buy offers on all different alcohol products.

As a rough guide in one class of Prosecco (105ml) there’s 70 calories and in a bottle 500 calories. That’s a quarter of a woman's daily calorie allowance and potentially a 30-40 minute workout.

If you like to enjoy a bottle of red with a meal this serves up 125 calories per glass and for those that like a beer a 350ml can or bottle is around 155 calories.

This might not sound much but typically these are all extra calories on top of your daily amount and if you have these on a regular basis all these calories just store as fat around your waist line!

Not only this, but as most of us will have found out at some point in our lives, (some a lot more than others) is that when you have something alcoholic you tend to eat more too and this isn’t typically more salad or fruit. This could be a kebab, pizza, chips or even just slices of toast at home all of which again are extra unnecessary calories, which if you are striving to achieve that health and fitness goal this can just stop you from getting there.

As I always say to every personal training client, if you like to have a drink then that’s fine but this must be limited to once a week maximum and be very conscious of how many you are having and what you are having extra with these drinks.

If you feel you do maybe drink a bit more than you should, make a food and drink diary over two weeks. Be as honest as you possibly can, logging everything that you eat and drink and it may surprise you how many extra sneaky calories you are having.