How to Stay Fit and Healthy During the Holidays: 5 Tips to Keep You on Track
The holiday season is here, bringing an abundance of food, drinks, and festive gatherings. Starting with Halloween and Diwali, we often spend the last two months of the year indulging—making it easy to lose track of our fitness goals. Here are five practical tips to help you stay on course and maintain your fitness during the holiday season.
1. Prioritize Your Goals
What fitness goals have you been working towards? Keeping your goals top of mind is crucial, as consistency is the key to seeing lasting results. During the holidays, many people get off track simply due to a lack of focus. To stay focused, place reminders of your goal where you’ll see them daily. Write down your goal and put it on your fridge or set a daily phone reminder with a message like, “Stay on track,” “Lose weight,” or “Get stronger.” These small reminders can keep you focused on the hard work you’ve already put in—and motivated to keep going.
2. Say No to Excess and Give Away Leftovers
The holidays often mean extra food, drinks, and treats—whether you’re hosting or bringing leftovers home. To avoid derailing your health goals, only keep what will help you stay on track. You don’t have to waste food, but consider giving leftovers to friends or bringing them to work to share. And yes, it’s okay to throw away extra candy if you find it tempting. Out of sight, out of mind is an effective way to avoid indulging too much.
3. Schedule Your Workouts
Workouts and physical activity are the foundation of fitness goals, but the holiday season can make sticking to your routine challenging. Block time in your weekly schedule for workouts to ensure they happen, even when things get busy. If possible, create accountability by working out with a friend or hiring a personal trainer. Planning ahead can make all the difference in keeping you on track.
4. Get Active with Family and Friends
If you don’t have access to your usual gym or equipment, try to stay active in other ways. Holidays offer unique opportunities for activity that don’t feel like workouts. For example, walk around the neighborhood with kids on Halloween, play touch football at Thanksgiving, or go for a family hike. Even a pushup contest with siblings or an outdoor game with friends keeps you moving. Engaging in fun, festive activities is a great way to stay active during the holidays.
5. Enjoy the Holi-DAY, Not the Holi-Month
It’s okay to enjoy holiday meals and treats without guilt. Often, a little extra activity, like walking, is enough to balance out a day of indulgence. However, avoid turning a single day of celebration into a week or month of overindulgence. Enjoy holiday meals to the fullest, knowing that one day won’t derail your goals. But remember, consistent overeating or lack of exercise for weeks can set you back on your fitness journey, meaning more work to get back on track in January. Instead, stay focused and enjoy the holidays without losing sight of your long-term health.
Remember, You’re in Control
The holiday season is a critical time that can either help you progress towards your fitness goals or set you back. Use these strategies to stay focused, keep moving, and enter the New Year feeling confident in your progress. Instead of starting over in January, let this be the year you build on the success you’ve maintained through the holidays. You’ve got this!