It turns out we can’t put it off any longer, as it seems Christmas is officially here.
But if the arrival of Santa’s imminent sleigh makes your healthy habits come to an abrupt halt, this time of year can be difficult to navigate.
Luckily, the experts at Common Purpose have devised five tips to help you stay on track and not reverse the hard work you’ve put in throughout the year.
Enter A Maintenance Phase
It’s probably not realistic to expect to be making huge strides of progress over the festive period. Remember that every day that you don’t regress, is progress.
Then, come January, you can hit the ground running.
Delay Gratification
When it comes to maintaining your training and healthy nutrition habits, try your best not to start too early.
Where possible, try to maintain some form of routine and discipline, but it’s also OK to set aside around seven to 10 days in the calendar for some guilt-free festive fun!
Think Movement
Christmas is a great time to wrap up warm and head out for long walks with family, friends and dogs! Plan some kind of activity every day.
This doesn’t have to be strenuous exercise, and your joints, muscles, brain, mood and digestive system will really benefit from these ‘movement snacks’.
Relax, Recover, Restore
When all is said and done, this time really is for enjoyment and relaxation. Life can be stressful, so view this week as an opportunity for mental and physical rejuvenation.
Enjoy the downtime responsibly, keep the work emails at bay, spend time with friends and family and savour this time, which only comes once a year.
Set A ‘Return to Training’ Date
Although the beginning of the festive period is ambiguous, we can probably agree that by the first week of January, normality resumes. Choose a day this week to return to your ‘normal’
exercise training.
Setting a specific date ahead of time massively increases the chances you’ll get the ball rolling again.
