If there’s one thing the Christmas holidays are synonymous with; it’s food and family, which are incidentally two things that make it hardest to stick to your weight loss and fitness goals. While it’s great to take a break, enjoy your family and some of your favorite food, it can also be a struggle to juggle your fitness while at it.

This fitness struggle season starts as far back as thanksgiving, and can stretch into the new year. That’s quite a number of weeks to hit pause on your fitness goals, which isn’t advisable unless for health reasons, so that it’s not harder to get back to it, and you don’t have to keep restarting every new year. 

So in this article, I’m going to show you five ways you can remain fit during the holiday season. But first, let’s start with why you should remain fit even during the holiday? Here are three reasons why;

• Typically the longer you stay away from fitness, the harder it is to get back to it. So if you stay away from your fitness because of the holidays, then it’ll be harder to pick it up again in the new year, which could also mean some progress could be reversed.
• You could gain the infamous holiday weight which will make it harder to pick yourself up which could discourage and slow down your progress fitness-wise.
• You’ll set an unhealthy precedent that’ll make it easier to put your fitness and weightloss goals on pause during a holiday, and since holidays are an annual affair, this is a dangerous precedent.

5 Ways To Stay Fit During The Holidays

Now for the reason you clicked on this article, here are five ways to ensure that your fitness and weightloss don’t suffer during the holidays. Check them out;

Set Realistic Goals:

 The starting point of everything is goal-setting and it’s no different for staying fit during the holiday. In this case, you need to set goals that are realistic. It might be unrealistic for you to say you’ll work out

Make The Provision:

Imagine going to fish without any equipment, and expecting to fish. Well, that’s how it looks when you’re expecting to exercise during the holiday without any fitness equipment. So whether you’re traveling to meet family or they’re coming to meet you, make sure your fitness equipment is available even if in reduced quantity.

When packing your bags, your exercise equipment and clothes as well should be in your bag. If you’re going to work out in a gym near home, make sure you already paid ahead so that you have more incentive to go.

Prioritize Your Fitness:

Everyone knows that the earlier you do it, and get it out of the way, the higher the chances of getting it done. The same applies to your fitness, the chances of getting it done are higher when you wake up and get it done immediately.

So don’t wait till everyone is awake, and breakfast is already being made before you try to go get your workouts in. No, wake up as early as you can, and get your workouts out of the way, so that you can carry on for the rest of the day. Even if you have a water drinking goal, it’s much easier to wake up and drink your water till you’re almost full on it, than wait till everyone is awake and drinking chocolate drinks first.

Make It A Family Affair:

The more the merrier is a saying that applies to your fitness as well. So it’s important to find activities that most or everyone in your family can participate in, and then suggest them to everyone.

While everyone may not be in the mood to do a super sweaty workout, most times they’ll be in the mood to go for a walk, you could convince them to try an activity-filled day where instead of going to eat or the cinema, you go to park where there’s a lot of walking and activity. You could even convince younger members of the family to play hide and seek, or run up and down the stairs with you, which are all ways to get your workout in.

Watch Your Portions:

It might be unrealistic advice to think you won’t eat any of the yummy holiday food. What’s more realistic is to enjoy it, while practicing portion control, and swapping some unhealthy items. While choosing what to eat, opt for the healthier items, and take a smaller portion of the unhealthy items. This way, you’re enjoying the meals, but without much danger to your overall fitness and weightloss goals.

Here’s a bonus point because I really love my community; try to ensure you’re part of the meal prep so that you can put in a few healthy options on the menu *wink*.

I hope this guide is super helpful, and you’re able to use these tips to stay fit this holiday and in subsequent years as well.