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How to stick to your fitness program over the holidays

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winter fitnessHolidays are good for a lot of things: socializing, watching football, shopping and connecting with your family. The one thing they are not good for is keeping up with your fitness program. With so many holiday treats around the corner, coming up with an excuse to skip exercise becomes easier than ever.

Unfortunately, ignoring your workouts during the holidays is likely to have a drastic effect on your weight-loss endeavor. By New Year’s, all your hard work throughout the past year could be completely undone.

How do we stop that from happening?

Take out of your fitness program anything you will not have time doing

Well, the first thing you should do is acknowledge that the holiday season will take a toll on your exercise schedule. With all the holiday obligations you need to deal with, blindly sticking to your fitness program could easily turn out to be an exercise in futility.

Rather than ramping up the workouts, your primary goal should be to do your exercises the right way – even if that means freeing up some of your schedule. Take a long look at your exercise habits, and take out anything that you know you won’t have time for during the holidays.

Keep fitness a priority in you daily schedule

Now, this doesn’t mean fitness should stop being a priority for you. Following your workout schedule is still very important, especially if you’re eating more than usual throughout the holiday season.

Maintaining your fitness level is a good way of reminding yourself to stay healthy and lose the unnecessary weight. For this reason, try organizing your day and prioritizing your tasks the evening before. You can allow yourself some cheat days here and there, but make sure to treat them as an exception to the rule.

Be flexible with your daily fitness program

Other than keeping up with your fitness activities, some flexibility can go a long way. If your day is particularly busy, you can skip a trip to the gym and go for a long jog before heading to work instead.

Need to go to a grocery store? Park your car a little further than usual and take a 20-minute walk to get some blood pumping. Any kind of exercise that you can fit into your busy schedule will help you achieve your fitness goals. So, don’t be afraid to improvise and for this purpose LIFETOLIVEIT gives you some very good tips and ideas for physical exercises to lose weight and build muscle.

Change your scenery to stay motivated to exercise

If you’re struggling with motivation to stay fit and focused, changing your scenery is likely to help you gain a different perspective. Providing your family is fine with it, you can take them on a backpacking trip or a snowshoeing weekend getaway.

In addition to allowing you to spend some quality time with your loved ones, these types of trips can provide plenty of exercise – as long as you’re up to the challenge. Whenever you feel like slacking off, think of how good you’ll look on the beach come summertime.

Consider some indoor physical activities during the cold winter’s days

One other thing to keep in mind is that cold weather can often derail your fitness program. Though walking can help you get in better shape at essentially no cost, what happens if the outside conditions are just too slippery for your liking?

Again, this is where some improvisation comes in really handy. Instead of going for a run or bicycling, you can hit the local gym and do some cardio workout on a rowing machine to lose fat. Also, instead of trying to stay upright on ice, consider hitting up your local ice rink and playing some hockey. If you don’t have an ice rink in your neighborhood, a frozen pond could serve the same purpose. For the

Put on warm clothes for outdoor activities if weather is cold

If cold weather is bothering you, a layer of thermal underwear will keep you warm and stop you from sweating too much. However, it’s important to recognize when the outside conditions are just too hostile. Some days, the air will feel too cold to breathe in, which can lead to exercise-induced asthma.

If you’re not careful, you could soon be dealing with symptoms such as chest pain, wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath. On days such as these, the best course of action would be to stay indoors.

Plan some bodyweight exercises when you need to stay at home

Of course, this means you need a home exercise routine in case of emergency. Fortunately, you can always rely on a big variety of bodyweight exercises to build muscles. Routines such as Pilates, yoga and aerobics require no equipment at all, and can be done in the safety of your home. Additionally, you can build your own fitness center by getting a stationary bike, treadmill or any other piece of equipment you would like to own. This method might be more convenient in the long run, as it eliminates the need for a gym.

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