Now that we’re more than mid-way through November many of you will no doubt be thinking ahead to the Christmas holidays and planning your family visiting schedules and events.
For some of us here at Overland Park Boot Camp this can mean a lot of organizing and Christmas commitments often take priority over our own. One of the activities many of us set aside is exercise. It’s tempting to tell ourselves we’ll go to the gym tomorrow or go for that bike ride we’ve been promising ourselves next week. But it’s easy to just let exercise take a back seat and before we know it the dial (or digital display) on those scales is presenting a number we’re not happy with at all.
So to ensure you have plenty of stamina and positive vibes over the festive season it’s important to keep up your exercise program. And here’s a few tips for doing just that:
How to keeping exercising during the holiday season
- Be flexible. If you’ve an office party to attend the night you usually go to the gym then do both. Get up early and go to the gym then go to the office party later feeling virtuous and not regretful
- Just like you’d write in a meeting with your boss or an appointment with your hairdresser, schedule in a time to go to the gym, walk or whatever form your exercise takes
- Carry a pair of training shoes around with you so that you can walk when the opportunity arises ie into town, in the park, to a friend’s house
- Do fun, physical activities with the kids during the Christmas holidays ie a ‘Nature Walk’ in the woods, ice skating, cycling in the outback etc.
- Do shorter work outs which add up to the same exercise time as a longer one. That means doing sit-ups for ten minutes in between dusting the house and doing present shopping
- Here’s a novel one – learn to say ‘No.’ And do it without feeling guilty! If you don’t have enough time to complete your exercise routine AND help out at the local PTA get-together or organize a holiday meet for the family and numerous relations then it’s ok to put what’s important to you first for a change…
We hope you found the above tips helpful and we’d like to add another one, about food this time. There’s so much temptation around this time of year and you may feel doubly guilty eating treats if you haven’t been able to exercise as much as normal. What we would say though is don’t deny yourself. Have the odd treat now and then but do fit in exercise as well to give your body a chance to burn off those extra calories.
For fitness and nutrition tips see any of the coaches here at Overland Park Boot Camp.
