“Take care of your body. It’s the one place you have to live.”–Jim Rohn
This is my fifth installment of celebrating and encouraging movement for everyone. If you’ve read my previous pieces, you already know that my goal is fairly simple. I want to encourage everyone to move more in whatever manner works best for you, your body, and your schedule. I do not believe in one-size fits all when it comes to fitness and health goals. Instead, I am writing to explore techniques, habits, and motivations for incorporating more movement into life, even during the upcoming holiday season.
Why should you consider maintaining your movement/exercise routine during the weeks of Thanksgiving through the New Year celebration? There are many possible reasons, but only you can decide your why(s). Personally, it allows me to feel as if I have accomplished one positive thing for the day. If everything else derails throughout the day, at least I exercised–even if it had to be for a reduced amount of time. However, there are so many more valid reasons.
Increased movement and exercise is one positive way to combat the stress that often accompanies this season. Although stress isn’t a disease, per se, it is the body’s physical, mental, and emotional responses to external events, especially change, which often occur from Thanksgiving through the New Year celebrations. High levels of holiday stress can detrimentally impact mental health. However, being physically active throughout the holidays is a proven technique to significantly reduce stress levels.
Along the same lines, exercise during the holiday season can provide structure to your schedule. If you have already committed to moving more throughout your day/week, and you have already been consistently applying it, then continuing to follow through with that plan builds at least a sense of familiarity and comfort. Even if you have to reduce your time and/or days for physical activity, there is at least that semblance of reassurance that you are choosing to still take care of yourself, which can increase the likelihood of making another healthier choice throughout your day/week.
As counterintuitive as it may seem, exercise gives you more energy during the holidays. Harvard Health explains it this way. Increased movement and exercise increases oxygen circulation, which in turn, allows your body to energy more efficiently and therefore function better. Furthermore, exercise increases cellular level changes, including augmenting the production of mitochondria inside your muscle cells. Having more mitochondria translates to your body possessing an adequate energy supply. Plus, exercise boosts the production of the feel-good hormones that likewise make you feel more energetic.
Exercise and increased movement is a proven way to combat anxiety and depression, often associated with the holiday season. Let’s be honest, for many people, the holidays often serve as a reminder of loved ones and traditions lost to the past. For others, the increased requirements for more socialization, or so-called holiday-expectations, can trigger the desire to curl up in a fetal position and hide until the season is over. Furthermore, increased levels of darkness often precipitate seasonal affective disorders (SAD), a form of depression that affects approximately 10 million people annually. Physical activity is a proven method for reducing symptoms by releasing endorphins that increase positive feelings.
Physical activity can reduce increased sedentary behavior associated with late fall and winter months. Colder and/or inclement weather can reduce motivation to get outside and move. It’s only natural to want to stay in and watch sporting events, stream series, or watch old movies while noshing your way through comfort food snacks and often calorie laden beverages. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with these behaviors, too much inactivity is not beneficial to the body, mind, and even spirit. A commitment to physical activity, even if it is laps around your house on commercial breaks during sporting events or between streaming episodes will go a long way promoting your overall well-being.
In spite of all of these benefits, it can still feel challenging to maintain that fitness plan or movement goals you have established for yourself in previous months. However, there are ways that can help you overcome obstacles. The key is finding the ones that work for you as no one method/approach works for everyone.
Walk, march, or even jog around the neighborhood, if weather permits, or inside your house. Even walking, marching, or jogging in place is beneficial! If you don’t have time for your usual amount of time, such as 20 or 30 minutes, break it up into smaller time periods spread throughout the day. If that isn’t possible, even one shorter burst of activity is better than none!
Consider exercising with an app, DVD, or streaming platform. There are numerous apps and platforms that are free or reasonably priced. In fact, you can even look up “holiday themed workouts” on Youtube lasting anywhere from 10-30+ minutes!
Invest in personal, home exercise equipment for use during inclement weather, traveling, or when short on time. Resistance bands and tubing, jump ropes, and exercise mats are inexpensive, and easy to transport when traveling and/or visiting family/friends. The bands/tubing come in different sizes and resistant levels and require little training. In fact, most come with a workout plan or can be found online.
Think outside the box, but keep it simple:
- Wake up 15-20 minutes earlier for a short movement period.
- Be mindful of the number of steps you take throughout the day, and challenge yourself to complete more than the day before.
- Wear exercise shoes when shopping and add power walk breaks in between stores or consider more frequent walks to your parked car after a store visit to stow away bags.
- Rethink your lunchtime, if your job allows, and use it as an opportunity for a short walk.
- Challenge a fitness buddy to hold each other accountable to a realistic daily or weekly goal.
- Complete bodyweight exercises throughout the day, such as push-ups against desk, body weight squats and lunges, chair tricep dips, twists, stretch, and so forth. You might get a whole body workout by the day’s end!
- Set realistic expectations and plan accordingly. Consider reducing time/numbers of days per week, and then make a commitment to those.
- Make movement part of the family/friend traditions if possible. A family walk or dance session after a big holiday meal can not only improve digestion, but take the edge of any accumulated stress.
- Make a holiday playlist. It doesn’t have to be holiday music. Instead, create a special playlist that motivates you when your energy is low.
- Make sleep a priority too. A well rested body moves with greater ease.
- Hydrate consistently. (Think of all the added sodium in those holiday treats.)
The holidays do not have to derail your exercise/movement routine. There’s only one you and one body in which you live. Therefore, think of physical activity during the holidays as the one gift you can give to yourself. With a bit of flexibility, creative thinking, and determined mindset, you can continue to unwrap better health, one step, or choice of movement, at a time.
Steph Simply 