5 Ways To Keep Yourself Healthy & Motivated This Festive Season
Fitness

5 Ways To Keep Yourself Healthy & Motivated This Festive Season

Posted

13 December 2021

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Let’s paint a scenario; you tell yourself ‘I’ll have a run after work’, but a colleague’s impromptu after-work drink came up instead. Or, you become tired after work and opt for a cozy night in, indulging on junk food while staying glued to the telly. We’ve all done that!

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As the holiday season is approaching, there is every excuse in the world to postpone your workouts, especially if it’s winter and all you want to do is curl up under your blankets. But we all know that a balance of healthy eating and exercise is important, even more so when it’s a season involving a lot of food.

So while you enjoy Christmas and the year-end festivities, don’t let your health and fitness slide. Let’s get ready to start the new year on a healthy note!

Fitspiration on Instagram

As somebody who have lived in cold regions, I spent less time socialising and making plans with people due to the cold and harsh weather (unless they are Christmas parties, of course!). Winter, Christmas lights, and enjoying a hot chocolate with marshmallows with your family and friends is the picture perfect Christmas; however, the coziness may become too comfortable; increasing fatigue and ‘low mood’. Spend time looking for ‘fitspiration’ models on Instagram. It will definitely get you off your couch! Use their home workouts and healthy recipe videos for inspiration!

Opt For Lighter Workouts

There are days when you feel drained from work, class or just the day’s activities. Your tiredness does not mean you have to ditch your workout! If you are not up for an intense HIIT or spin class, opt for a more relaxing workout. My personal favourites are hot yoga and pilates. Hot yoga is not only great for a body detox, but the gentle movements in the 40-degree heat can help loosen your mind and body. Furthermore, pilates is a great alternative to work muscles you never knew you had, and increase flexibility!

Eat Clean

The most cliche solution; eat clean. People assume that eating clean is not enjoyable. Very untrue! There are great alternative products that can be incorporated into your diet for eating clean. Replace processed sugars with natural sweeteners, whole milk with soy or almond milk, grill or bake instead of fry, dark chocolate over milk chocolate, coconut flour over all-purpose flour, etc. If you are new to eating clean, try to incorporate a clean diet for five days in a week, and leave your weekend to rest. After a month, try eating clean for six days in a week, and leave a day to rest. Not only will this improve your health, but you will be craving healthy food over junk food. A great long-term plan! In favour of eating clean during the holiday season, seek healthy and delicious recipes for here.

Set A Workout Playlist

One of my all-time favourite motivation; music. Blast out your favourite workout playlist and have a little boogie in front of the mirror before you exercise! Research states that listening to music is an effective psychological strategy to maximise your optimum workout session. Two important qualities of workout music are tempo and speed! A majority of workout playlists include fast songs with catchy or ‘danceable’ beats; but musical tastes differ from person to person. Whichever type of music you prefer, music competes with the thought of fatigue and will change the way you work out. It seems easier to run or complete your last set when Beyonce is playing in the background. Great moral support!

Reward Yourself

Choosing to exercise over any activity relating to food takes effort. Therefore, effort must be rewarded! Do not be ashamed of rewarding yourself with purchasing a new pair of shoes, manicure and/or pedicure, massage, etc. Rewarding yourself will only increase your motivation to push and work harder in the future (this applies to any situation in life).

References:

How to motivate yourself to exercise in winter
Let's Get Physical: The Psychology of Effective Workout Music
5 Great Tips to Motivate Yourself to Exercise During Winter
8 Ways to Motivate and Get Off Your Cold Weather Butt


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