Between holiday foods and your busy social schedule, it's understandably difficult to stay on your fitness regimen. However, the holiday season is the ideal time to continue pursuing your efforts because fitness can help to reduce the stress associated with the holidays and keep your weight at a healthy level, according to the American Council on Exercise. Because you are likely to be short on time, holiday fitness requires doing more exercises in a session in less time than you normally would.
Set Achievable Goals
When assessing your schedule of work, family and holiday commitments, it's important to establish realistic expectations for your fitness schedule, according to the American Council on Exercise. If you aim for an hour's exercise, yet know you will not be able to meet this goal, there is a chance you may give up entirely. Instead, set a more realistic goal, such as 30 minutes a day, or even 10-minute exercise sessions broken up over the course of a day.
Instead of aiming for weight loss over the holiday season, set your goals for weight maintenance instead. This can help you to keep your eating and fitness habits more constant. Instead, save your weight-loss goals for New Year's resolutions.
Combine Efforts
If you need to catch up with loved ones, double your efforts by inviting a friend to walk with you or using a hands-free headset to call a family member. You also can turn events into exercise opportunities by proposing a family touch-football game or organizing an ultimate frisbee game during a get-together.
Do More with Less
Identify the exercises that help you achieve your fitness goals as quickly as possible. One option is interval training, which involves alternating among several exercise stations in order to get in a single powerful training session. Taking 25 to 30 minutes, you can alternate intensity levels on the same machine or can create a boot camp using different exercises. One example would be to perform three minutes on the treadmill, three minutes jumping rope, three minutes lifting weights and then repeating the circuit. Because interval workouts are an anaerobic activity, they challenge the heart in a different way than simply staying on a treadmill for the same amount of time, according to CBS News. Don't forget a cool-down session at the end of your workout in order to prevent injury and muscle aches following exercise.
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