How To Stay on Track This Holiday Season
As the holiday season is currently in full force and we look forward to the new year approaching, you may have a lot of thoughts or worries about your health and fitness running around in your brain. Many of you might be asking "How do I handle all the food, parties and busyness that can throw off my routines this time of year?!"
Well, never fear! The holidays and new year should be something we look forward to and enjoy so here are a few thoughts from Coach Clint & Coach Austin that hopefully help it stay that way for you!
Don't dread the holidays!
Look forward to a change of schedule and new ways to exercise! Instead of viewing being out of your routine as a bad thing, change your mindset to where you look forward to the opportunities to get to exercise in a new or different way than normal. We can so often get caught up in doing the same things over and over but the holidays are the perfect time to switch it up! Go for a walk with your family, try out a different style gym when visiting another city, the options are endless!
A few days off of your workout routine or a few unhealthy meals won't throw away your progress.
Can you throw away a full years worth of exercise and healthy habits with a few parties/bad meals? In the same way that you can't get in crazy shape by doing one insanely hard day of working out and clean eating, you can't throw away a whole year's worth of healthy habits with one day of bad eating and no exercise. Keep your healthy habit momentum going though! Don't allow one meal or one day where you went off track a bit to snowball into a week, a month, a year's worth of falling off the wagon. We call this the "all or nothing" mentality where you might be tempted to tell yourself, "well I already ate terribly, so I might as well..." Instead of falling into this mindset, allow yourself to enjoy that day or meal and then jump right back in to those healthy habits the next day.
Set realistic New Year's Resolutions
First off, don't wait until January 1st to start those new year's resolutions of yours... START NOW!
Secondly, don't set yourself up for failure! Rather than setting drastic, unsustainable goals (like going from 0 workouts a week to 5), make small changes that you will be able to sustain over time. You might be able to keep up with those drastic goals for a month or so but as soon as you fall s hort once, they put you at risk for feeling like a failure and abandoning those goals altogether. Instead, incorporate goals you can achieve and that will encourage you to reach for more over time. When it comes to the holidays, make your workout goals achievable and realistic too! You are much more likely to do a few 20 minute workouts than multiple, hour long workouts that you might just not have time for. A few 20 minute workouts are much better than those hour long workouts that you never got around to because you "didn't have the time."
We hope these thoughts help you have a healthy mindset going into the holidays this year! We hope you all have a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!
