The winter blues are a thing! Days are shorter and the nights are dark. This is the time for many when the elusive motivation falls away.
On top of this, Christmas is looming. Party season is upon us, and the tendency to overindulge is commonplace.
This time of year is a time for celebrating and enjoying the warmness, feeling cosy and all the good food. However, it doesn’t need to be a time where you gain lots of excess pounds, let your fitness slip and start the new year feeling like you have an even bigger task to get back on track.
Making one small, positive health and fitness choice each day from now, adds up to a lot of positive choices before the new year. It’s this form of habit-building that will make health and fitness an enjoyable lifestyle choice, rather than a never-ending chore.
Here are my top tips for beating the winter blues and enjoying the festive period, without derailing your health and fitness:
Don’t treat Christmas like a month-long bender
Enjoy your Christmas party, relax over Christmas Eve, Day and Boxing Day. The rest of the month try to stay semi regular with daily movement, exercise and nutrition.
Get a workout buddy
This can be an excellent way to help you stay accountable and get you through the darker nights/ mornings at this cold and wintry time of year.
Be organised
Lay out your workout kit the night before bed, get up and put it on before you do anything else. If you sense that you are talking yourself out of doing a workout, nip that in the bud & go get changed. This really helps as once you are changed, you might as well go.
A missed workout is not the end
If you skip a workout, don’t just write the day off, go out a long walk, do anything, just get some movement in.
Plan around your party
If you have a party night out planned make sure that your other meals that day are nutrient-dense and high protein.
Don’t waste any Vit D chances
Use the few crisp sunny days that we have to get outside and soak up some much-needed vitamin D. Go for a long walk, a run, a whatever. Just get outdoors. Wintry walks can be great for the whole family to get involved.
Hydrate
Make sure that you are consuming plenty of water. It will keep you hydrated, lessen the hangovers, help with water retention, even help to keep your skin and lips hydrated and less dry in the cold weather.
Condense your workouts
Most gyms stay open until about 23rd December and most are quiet this time of year. This gives you more opportunity to go in, get it done and get out within 30-40 minutes. Utilise supersets and functional fitness to get the most out of your precious time. Or, get a few 30 minute home workouts in. They all add up.
Christmas is really not the time to get really hung up on fat loss, it’s the time to relax, have fun and enjoy time with friends and family. However, it also doesn’t need to be unnecessary over indulgence for a month long period. Flip the nariative on it’s head that you have to eat and drink way past your fullness levels. Eat sensibly, stay active and avoid going into the new year feeling like you have a mountain to climb with your health and fitness.
Lots of love
