3 Tips to Stay in Shape During the Holiday Season

As featured at the Department of Health Website, written by Laystrength's Founder.

It’s that time of the year where celebrations are everywhere and there’s a scheduled food trip every single week. How do you stay in shape and how do you prevent gaining too much weight then?

Here are 3 things you can do to stay in shape, without missing out on all the fun and memories with your loved ones. 

#1 – Accept that this might not be a good time for Personal Records 

No matter how hard you try, you just know that this time of the year is different. Your routines are interrupted, your sleeping schedule may become a mess, and it will be twice as hard to say no to all the food that will be offered in front of you. 

Knowing that, don’t be too hard on yourself during this time of the year. This is the time to celebrate with your families, your friends, and the people that matter to you. 

Don’t think that you lack discipline every time you “slip” and find yourself eating too much during an occasion. If you do that, you will most likely punish yourself by starving yourself the next day and that is not a good way to build a relationship with your food and with your fitness journey. 

It will be counterproductive to your goals so you must understand this first before proceeding to the next ones. 

Got it? Okay, if you’ve understood number one (which simply states don’t be too hard on yourself), you may now start to consider the other things below that you can do to stay in shape. 

#2 – Try transitioning to a full body workout split 

If you will have less exercise sessions due to all the outings with your friends and families, a Full Body Workout split may work in your favor. 

Other common workout “splits” (Split = simply how you divide the muscle groups you train within a single week) are Upper and Lower Body split, Push and Pull split, or the popular Bro split where you train the chest and triceps, biceps and back, then legs and abs. 

If you’re looking at the time constraints during holidays, even doing one full body workout in a single week will not be too bad.

Because that way you know that you trained all your muscle groups even if you miss another workout session due to unplanned outing extensions this season. 

#3 – Exercise longer on days with no occasion 

Your weeks may be filled with lots of dinners, food, and alcohol (if you’re at the legal age). Given that, it will likely take you another day just to recover from your night out. 

A realistic workout frequency for many people will be twice a week. For beginners, 30 minutes may be considered long.

For exercise enthusiasts, 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes may be sufficient just to maintain your shape. 

If your aim is just to maintain your health, aiming for 150 minutes per week, no matter which days or how long your sessions will last, will be enough to keep your health in check.

Make an effort to squeeze in your exercise sessions, train smart, and consciously decide if that dessert or food is really worth the calories. 

If you do all the things written above, you will be more likely to stay in shape during the holiday season without missing out on good memories with your families and friends.

Written by: Lay Mijares

Lay Mijares is the Founder & CEO of Laystrength, Inc. and a fitness coach who has helped thousands of people to become fitter.