3 Reasons to Keep Moving Through the Holidays,
and 5 Ways to Do It
December 2022
The holiday season is here and, with it, all of the joy, stress, business, and chaos that we’ve come to expect. At the studio, Decembers are the time when classes are booked ahead of time with gusto, and remain full-to-overflowing until the day before, when mass cancellations or forgotten schedules result in lower than normal attendance.
This tells me a couple of things. First, people want to remain active through the holidays. The desire is there! But, ultimately, hectic and unpredictable holiday schedules force people into positions where they feel that what has to give is their commitment to themselves.
So, in the spirit of making it through the holidays with your health goals intact, here are Three Reasons to Keep Moving Through the Holidays, and Five Ways to Do It.
Three Reasons to Keep Moving Through the Holidays:
Maintain Sanity
In a world that constantly preaches that the only value of exercise and good nutrition is aesthetic, it is easy to forget that moving your body allows your head to clear, your priorities to shake out, and your mood to elevate.
Moving feels good. It makes you happier. It decreases stress and anxiety. It helps you sleep. Moving for mental health should be a motivating factor always, but especially during the holidays. The holiday season is the time to forget about the aesthetic benefits of exercise, and focus on how you need that workout because you know it will keep you sane.
2. You Will Be Less Likely to Overindulge
Have you noticed that you are less likely to make poor nutrition choices after exercising? It just doesn’t make sense to do something so good for your body and then follow it with nutritional self-sabotage.
During the holidays, when we’re surrounded with many of our favorite foods, having that constant reminder of movement to keep us from overindulging can prove invaluable. Have the cookie! And enjoy the traditional foods you only get at this time of year. But keep moving to help yourself pass on seconds.
3. Define Yourself as Someone Who Cares About Your Health
We are all responsible for writing our own stories. If you’ve decided that you’re someone who cares about health and well-being, why would you allow your story to change drastically during the holidays? Health and the holidays can exist mutually without disaster.
Who are you? Are you the person who stays active, enjoys the holidays, and enters the new year feeling good about yourself?
Or are you the person who disappears from the gym/studio in December, loses control of yourself over the holidays, and starts January madly googling quick diet fixes and 30 day fitness challenges?
The choice is yours.
Five Ways to Keep Moving Through the Holidays
Schedule Your Movement Sessions
Whether it’s at the studio or not, put your movement sessions on your calendar at the beginning of the week. Then, treat those appointments as non-negotiable. Play whatever mind tricks with yourself that you need to play to keep your appointment with yourself.
When you make a commitment to do something for yourself, and then you give it up at the first hint of difficulty, the deep recesses of your brain are taking notes about how important you are to yourself. Bolster your self-worth by treating yourself with the same respect that you treat others.
If you wouldn’t cancel on your best friend, don’t cancel on yourself.
2. Take Movement Snacks
Yes, the holidays are different. Yes, the holidays offer a unique schedule challenge. Please, please, please realize that it might be impossible some days to get in a full hour of consecutive movement. But this does not mean that you throw in your movement towel! Can you do three sessions of 20 minutes? Six sessions of 10 minutes? It’s just as good!
Movement snacks might look like:
-Taking short walks after breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
-Accomplishing a holiday task (baking cookies, wrapping presents, etc.) and then running through a few of your favorite pilates mat exercises.
-Vacuum a room, do some jumping jacks. Vacuum another room, do the 100. Vacuum another room, take a dance break. Vacuum another room, get on the floor and stretch.
-Park at the furthest parking spot for your shopping to make sure you walk to/from, then get home, unload purchases and do your favorite spinal movements.
-Start your favorite holiday movie while sitting on the floor and do your favorite abdominal exercise followed by stretches.
-Move for 20 minutes before you shower for your holiday brunch. Then come home and take a walk afterwards.
The possibilities for fitting movement snacks into your day are endless!
3. Modify Your Expectations
Some days, despite your best intentions, it might feel like the cosmos is conspiring against you to keep you from accomplishing what you had planned. Give yourself some grace. It happens to all of us. Double down on your commitment to making it happen tomorrow.
4. Move With Your Friends/Family/Visitors
In December I am constantly getting messages along these lines: “My (insert family member/friend/etc.) is visiting and so I can’t come to class….”
Here’s my advice if you have visitors coming:
-Bring them with you! Ask which classes your visitors can attend. Your visitor will be thrilled to have a new experience, to get out of the house, and to do something with you.
-Gift your visitor with a duet session! S/he will feel special that you thought of it, and you both get oodles of individualized attention.
-Plan on taking your visitor on a walk rather than scheduling the class and then feeling bad about having to cancel it.
5. Come Up With An Excellent 20-Minute Home Routine
On those days when you need to rely on movement snacks, or when you’ve been traveling, or you find yourself at the end of the day and you need to do something, having a reliable, well-rounded, 20-minute home routine will save your sanity and your self-esteem. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, it shouldn’t involve any props, and it must be short and sweet (or down and dirty, depending on your perspective).
Here are three of my quick home routines:
Pilates Mat/Find Your Center:
-The 100
-Roll Up
-Roll Over
-One Leg Circles
-Spine Stretch
-Swimming
GYROKINESIS® Method/Core Strength:
-Arch/Curl
-Spirals
-Side Arches
-Body Circles
-Waves
-Hamstring Stretches
-Psoas Stretches
Get Sweaty:
-20 seconds jumping jacks
-20 seconds lunges
-20 seconds push-ups
-20 seconds walk/rest
Repeat 3 times
-20 seconds running in place
-20 seconds squats
-20 seconds tricep dips
-20 seconds walk/rest
Repeat 3 times
-20 seconds jump-squats
-20 seconds walking lunges
-20 seconds abdominal crunches
-20 seconds walk/rest
Repeat 3 times
-20 seconds boxer’s shuffle
-20 seconds squats with side leg lift
-20 seconds swimming
-20 seconds walk/rest
Repeat 3 times
Bottom Line: The holidays are wonderful! And they can be hard. Both things can be true. Just like how you can feel that there’s no time for yourself, and still find a way to make time for yourself.
Do not give up on your healthy, active lifestyle because it is December and the schedule gets dicey. Rather, realize that it is when times get busy and hectic that you have the opportunity to prove to yourself that you are committed to prioritizing yourself and maintaining your healthy lifestyle.