We all know that the few short weeks between Thanksgiving and New Years can derail even the most dedicated athlete. While having access to fitness equipment in your home makes workouts accessible and convenient, you still need to plan your strategy. If you’re determined to maintain your fitness over the holiday season, consider the tips below.
Be realistic: December is probably not the month to plan on gaining significant fitness or losing ten pounds before your winter cruise. Creating a workout plan that you can maintain with a limited investment of time (think intense, short sessions) and planning your diet with a few reasonable opportunities for indulgence is likely to serve you better over the holidays than beginning high volume endurance training or a severely restricted diet. Check out this link for tips on making short workouts count.
Schedule breaks: Recovery is part of any well-planned fitness program, allowing us to avoid injury, as well as the mental and physical stress of overtraining. We don’t actually begin losing fitness until we’ve had at least a week off from our activities. If you know you’ve got a busy week coming up, plan for a few, light recovery workouts and let yourself enjoy the down time. For tips on avoiding holiday overeating during your less active week, check out this link.
Set Your Goal: Goal setting is an important part of any fitness program and is as important during down times as it is when training hard. Decide what you’d like to accomplish from your workouts over the next four weeks, whether it’s relief from stress, offsetting the calories consumed during holiday celebrations, or recovering from training hard this fall. For more ideas on goal setting and developing an effective holiday strategy, check out this link. Plan your December workouts with your goal in mind and you’ll find yourself ready to tackle the challenges of the New Year when January rolls around.