By Praveen & Maahek Nair, BodyProCoach
The holiday season is upon us once more and winter is here, cold weather encourages us to grab a couple of extra snoozes, avoid our tasks for the day, and continue saying “Maybe Tomorrow”. The holidays are the hardest time to stay on track in your fitness journey. This cold and cuddly weather makes you feel lazy, cookies, cakes and candies surround you from all sides, and a “built-in” New Year’s resolution gives us an excuse to avoid our fitness and go off track waiting for our resolution.
“Starting over” gives us an excuse to pause our fitness saying well come back with a “bang” making it our New Year resolution. Most of us do not realize that starting after a pause makes it harder to pick up where we left off. If we are already practicing fitness, picking up the routine will be easier. If you skip one day of workout, it’s ok to get back on track the next day.
Let’s look into Five Fitness hacks to survive the lazy, brutal winter.
#HACK 1: Don’t Avoid your fitness
Don’t Quit your fitness and wait to start again after New Year. YES, this is an in-built mistake we all make. The concept of “My New Year resolution is to get fit this year/ get those 6 pack abs” has ruined our fitness game. Pausing your fitness routine is like running in the opposite direction of the finish line and then trying to run back when you finally pick it up again. Instead, try waiting where you left off and avoid losing all the progress you’ve put into your body.
Tread the water and stay on track- One bad meal will not ruin your progress, just like one missed workout won’t hamper your fitness as long as you continue your routine.
#HACK 2: Never A Pattern.
Never skip the routine for two or more days “NEVER TWO OR MORE IN A ROW”. Not working out for a day won’t throw you off your fitness game. But skipping two days in a row can become a HABIT, like eating a big meal for two days. If you miss a workout, get back to it the next day.
Missed a day’s workout? No Problem, act like it never happened, continue your routine, and don’t skip day two because two becomes three, then a whole week, turning into “I’ll wait till Jan”.
Never make it a pattern: you miss a workout on a Wednesday go on a Thursday. If you eat extra calories for lunch make sure your dinner is Super Health! Follow this and you should be fine!
#HACK 3: Intermittent Fasting.
Consider this: It’s the holidays, and you are bound to eat some carbs. We can’t pretend like it’s not going to happen and act surprised. Let’s be smart about it! Negate the impact eating extra carbs can have on our waistlines by skipping a meal or two the next day. If you know you are going to have a HUGE lunch, you can have a super light breakfast or skip it altogether, the calories will even out eventually. Skip breakfast and lunch if you are about to have a big meal for dinner, it is called “intermittent fasting”. Intermittent fasting can help you keep those calories in check with many added benefits during the holidays.
#HACK 4: Big Meal? No problem Strength training is the key.
Time your workouts to get the most out of your big meals. Your calories get stored in one of 3 sections: “Energy burning”, “Fat storage” or “Rebuild muscle”. The calories you consume over the holidays will be stored as fat unless you decide otherwise. Give those calories a good reason to “Burn as energy” by Strength Training. By strength training before a large meal your muscles are broken down and need to heal, this healing will be fueled by the food you consume.
Work Smarter, Not harder!
#HACK 5: Back Up!
Always have backups for any excuse you could come up with this winter.
It’s too cold to go to the gym I’ll skip today!
Or
Ran out of ingredients, so I’ll just order a pizza at home.
It is easy to try and come up with excuses and we are bound to. Pre-plan ways to avoid these excuses.
Keep a spot in your house to work out in case you don’t end up going to the gym. Even 15 min a day is enough for a workout during the winter as long as you don’t completely stop.
In case of a food emergency, per plan and keep healthy options stored in the fridge that are easy to grab. We tend to make horrible decisions when the fridge is empty and we are hungry.
TIPS:
- Store ready-to-eat healthy meals in your fridge.
- Have Steamed vegetables to eat for emergencies
- Delete fast food apps from your phone.
- So you can train for 10 min instead of 20, so you can only do a few yoga poses or some basic mat Pilates. So, what? Do it, IT ALL COUNTS!
- Every small win counts. Swap one glass of calorie-dense drink for a glass of water or do a push-up or a small movement of exercise you enjoy as you get out of bed, It’s a win! Winter isn’t a problem because of one missed workout or indulgence, but because this tends to set off a chain reaction justified by the fact that, “If I can’t give 100%, then I’ll give 0%”.
Don’t make the same mistake, trust me even 20% counts. Don’t stop. Instead of your fitness being “off” this winter, just dial it down but keep going.