Missed workouts are common during the holiday season. With the busy nature of this time of year, it comes as no surprise that many people relax their diets and skip a few days at the gym. If you are looking for ways to stay motivated to exercise this holiday season, look no further! Plunkett Fitness has a few tips for keeping this motivation alive even during the busy holiday season.
1. Find a Training Partner
One of the best ways to stay motivated is to find someone else to help motivate you. If you start working out with a partner, then you can both hold each other accountable. When you have someone who is also relying on you for workouts, you are less likely to skip your exercises.
If you don’t have a friend or family member that can help hold you accountable, you might consider finding a personal trainer. A personal trainer will be able to do so much more than craft workouts for you. They can help you determine the best times to workout, and they can even help you find unusual ways to stay active on days that you can’t get your normal workout in.
At Plunkett Fitness, our personal trainers are experts in motivating our clients. We specialize in both fitness and nutrition, so we can also help clients make better food choices during this difficult time for diets.
2. Keep Tracking Your Progress
It isn’t easy to stay motivated if you don’t see your progress. Even though your diet and exercise routine could be derailed a bit during the holidays, keep tracking your progress. You might not see things going the direction that you want, but it will help you stay motivated to keep working toward your goals.
Also, many people are highly motivated by the numbers on the scale, the inches they are losing, or whatever other metric they are using to track progress. This could help you avoid the extra-large piece of pie at dessert or prevent you from overeating. It could also help you stay focused on your goals and continue going to the gym even when you are exceptionally busy.
Keep a record of your progress during this time. If you are still meeting your goals, you can give yourself a reward of some kind. Maybe if you stay on track, you can have a second dessert at a family holiday party or an extra glass of eggnog. Choose something that you really enjoy to ensure that you will focus on reaching your goal.
3. Create a Schedule
One of the best ways to stay motivated to workout during the holidays is to schedule it into your time. While this may seem silly, budgeting time specifically to working out will give you a better chance of actually working out. It is also much harder to make excuses when the task is already planned.
When creating a holiday workout schedule, it is okay to not plan as many workouts as you are used to in a week. You can also plan for shorter workouts. Your goal should be to plan workouts that you can actually stick to during this busy time. Don’t focus as much on your normal schedule, because that will just lead you to think about what you are not doing.
4. Do Shorter Workouts
If you don’t have an hour to spend in the gym during the holiday season, don’t stress. Instead, find ways to get shorter, more intense workouts in a few times a week. HIIT workouts are the perfect solution for those who are short on time. In just 20 to 30 minutes, you can burn a lot of calories and work up a good sweat. Knowing that you can spend less time on your holiday season workouts and still see results is a powerful motivating tool for many people looking to lose weight.
5. Get Active as a Family
It can be hard to work out during the holidays when you know that you are going to miss out on time with your family. It doesn’t have to be this way. Try involving the entire family in activities that will keep you active. Take the dog on a long walk or hike your favorite trails. If it is too cold to go outside, you can dance or take a fitness class as a family. Whatever it is that your family likes to do together to stay active, use it to your advantage during this busy winter season.
To learn more about personal training at Plunkett Fitness, give us a call today at 913-390-3360.
