Sticking to your Workout Plan and Diet during the Holiday Season

The best time of year is the holiday season, and although it is a time for giving, it can be unforgiving on your waist line. If you don’t consciously prepare yourself for the busy time of year with incredible amounts of food, you could end up five pounds heavier and sitting on your couch in January wondering when the last time you worked out was.

In order to prevent this from occurring, follow these easy tips to make sure you stick to your workout routine and don’t fall into eating bad foods, and plenty of them, during a holiday party.

Tips to Make Sure you Stick to your Workout plan 

• Make a Plan 

During the holidays there is so much to do, so if you don’t create a plan, you may put off working out. Schedule your workouts ahead of time – sign up for a class, so you are able to hold yourself accountable. Use a calendar and map out what workouts you will do each day, this way you have to look at it as part of your “to do” list each day. If you are someone who follows your lists daily, this will be an easy addition to your tasks to accomplish each day. You need to have a plan of attack going into the holiday season in order to maintain your workout regime.

• Find a Friend

In order to hold yourself accountable for working out, the best thing you could do is have a partner in crime.  Find a friend who needs support on sticking to their fitness programs over the holidays.  You can set up workouts with this friend, check in with them daily or every other day, and just be an overall support system for each other. Having someone on the same journey can keep you motivated and make sure you are accountable for maintaining your usual goals even though you are busy with lots of holiday fun.

• Wake up Early

Although it may seem daunting, especially with the temperatures dropping and your bed screaming for you to stay in it, nice and cozy, waking up early to workout can help you squeeze everything you need to into a day. With daily life being busier this time of year, the one major complaint is that there is not enough time in a day. If you wake up earlier, you can get in a workout before the rest of the world is up, and therefore, not risk missing a workout if you have other things to do or are stuck at work. This is definitely the best alternative, although it will take a lot of willpower to get yourself out of bed.

• Quality Workouts

Since your workouts are likely adjusted due to the holiday season, make sure that when you are getting them in, you are doing a quality workout. Whether you are doing circuits, high-intensity intervals, cardio, etc., you want to make sure you are sweating it out. If you do a more high-intensity workout, you won’t be doing as long of a workout time wise, so this type of work out is the best of both worlds. On the contrary, make sure to add in yoga or a walk, or something less stressful on your body, this way your body does get some active recovery and is not over stressed from too many high-intensity workouts, which could cause injury or fatigue.

• Missed a Workout – it is OK!

This may happen, life happens! Just don’t give up and create a habit out of this, and then there will be no reason to fret. Just pick up where you left off and give your best effort the next day.  Worrying about one missed workout too much can mess with your mindset, so just move on.  Don’t give up and continue on the next day. If the reason was because you didn’t have the time, then look above and make sure you always have your back up workout plan at your fingertips.

• Keep your Body Fueled

The holiday season tempts you with food that is, well, does not exactly reflect our normal healthy choices.  Your body is used to eating healthy, so you want to make sure you still fuel it with nutritional foods, this way you stay energized for your workouts. Balance out the foods you eat, so if you indulge in some of that holiday food, you are still eating your healthy foods and fueling your body in order to keep it ready for your workouts.

Besides working out, you will want to curb your unhealthy eating during the holiday season.

These are a few tips you could use to try and reduce your indulgences during this time of year.

• Portion Control

Most holiday parties have endless amounts of food for you to pick and choose from. Therefore, you want to make sure you control how great of a portion you take on your plate.  Instead of taking three helpings of potatoes, only take one. A way to mentally help do this as well is to take the smaller plates, which will control the amount of food you can fit onto your plate.  Since that is the case, just remind yourself to not go back for a second or third plateful!

• Choose Protein, Veggies, and Fruit

If you are at the buffet table with a wide array of options, choose the healthier way. Eating proteins like chicken or fish is a better option than trying out the pasta dish. Instead of getting a heaping side of potatoes, opt for the veggies. These are a good way to fill up, while allowing you to continue snacking on them the whole night if you feel you need to eat something. If you have the option of a salad, also adding these to the plate is a great idea.

These are a few tips that should help you stay on track with your healthy eating habits as well as getting those workouts in. Besides these, you need to tell yourself, “I can do it” and “I can eat healthy.” Leave yourself reminders around your house or at your desk, be creative, all you may need is just a little reminder in the places you frequent. Sticking with these tips will help keep you on track for a happy, healthy holiday season!