These Holiday Fitness Tips Keep You Active No Matter What

For so many of us, regular workout and exercise routines come to a grinding halt as soon as Thanksgiving hits.  They don’t begin again until New Year’s resolutions guilt us into trying to recover from a month and a half of backsliding.

This isn’t to imply that we should skip out on all celebrations and avoid all cookies. However, it does mean that you’ll need to look for some specific holiday fitness tips that will allow you to keep on track despite all the traditions and obligations you have until the new year begins.  After all, you’ve been working hard. Regardless of whether you’ve been trying to stay more active for a few days or for the last 11 months, the last thing you want to do is lose ground.

Use These Holiday Fitness Tips to Keep Up This Season

The following holiday fitness tips take your tight schedule, traditions, and obligations in mind and will still ensure you’re staying active on a regular basis.  You may not progress forward as you currently are, but you are far less likely to find yourself moving backward, which is the key target at this time of year.  Speaking of that…

1 – Make Your Expectations Realistic

There are parties, heavy meals, cookies, gatherings, and so many extra hours of shopping, cleaning, decorating and preparing.  You are not going to have the time and energy you usually would.  Don’t expect that you’ll be able to lose weight or build muscle or speed as you typically would. Instead, make maintenance your goal for December.  Be proud of yourself if you don’t lose the progress that you’ve already made. This will help to keep your workouts helpful, not stressful.

2 - Plan and Prioritize

You know your days and weeks are going to be busy. This is especially true when entertaining and/or travel are involved. Plan ahead to know just how you’ll be able to squeak physical activity into those days, even if it means walking laps around the waiting area of your airport gate or doing some early morning yoga to start the day with some positive energy. This is easily one of the most important and effective holiday fitness tips you’ll ever practice.

3 – Exercise as a Family

Decide to stay active together. By using this holiday fitness tip, you’ll help to motivate each other to move around, but you’ll also enjoy the added benefit of social time as you do it! For instance, do your yoga as a group or head out for an after dinner walk to look at the Christmas lights every evening. The occasional snowball fight or snowman building is a bonus!