As we approach the holiday season remember to take the time for yourself and your health. With the end of the year here we all have additional commitments in the form of get togethers with family and friends, end of semester functions for the kids, and many more. With all these events happening it is easy to be tempted to gain more time by skipping your workouts. If you want to stay in control of your weight don’t give in! We all know that it is already going to be extremely difficult to stay on track with proper nutrition, so why would we want to give up the only other thing that gives us a chance to keep our weight in check?
Aside from needing the exercise to help balance the potential extra eating, think about this; the average holiday season running from Thanksgiving to New Years day is around 35 days long. This is more than enough time to adjust to a new habit of not exercising. So now not only will we have lost a month of working out, it will take at least an additional month to rebuild the habit back into our lifestyle. Also endurance and stamina adaptations that your body develops from exercising will decondition at a rate faster than it took to develop after 1 week of inactivity. So not only will you be trying to rebuild the habit into your lifestyle, the exercise will be more difficult than it was when you stopped. If sticking with the usual routine isn’t going to work, try to at least get something in at home. Another thing to do is when out shopping for gifts is to commit to doing some laps in the store or mall before starting the actual shopping. Also if you find yourself waiting for your children’s concert or athletic event to start, try getting some walking in with some of the other parents.
The key thing to always remember is that if you want to continue with your weight loss plan or maintain the success you have already achieved this year, you have to maintain the lifestyle that got you there.