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How To Stay Fit During The Festive Season


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How To Stay Fit During The Festive Season

It’s this time of the year. The festive season is around the corner. The beautiful time filled with friends, family, laughter, and … delicious food and calorie-rich beverages. It sounds great, but what about our health and fitness goals? 

Let’s keep it real: this time of year, it is difficult to maintain our regular routine. There are endless celebrations, holiday invites, and delicious seasonal food, so it can be difficult not to lose balance. And let’s not sweat it, let’s enjoy this time of the year with our loved ones. 

Being mindful, eating healthy, exercising, and sticking to a routine during this time is absolutely possible. In this article I will share some tricks and techniques that will help you more or less to stay on track toward achieving your fitness goals.

Plan Active Gatherings With Friends and Family

To maintain an active lifestyle during the holiday season, one of the best options is to bring family and friends together for enjoyable gatherings. But make an effort to make them active. Rather than sedentary festivities, arrange more outdoor walks, hikes, games, excursions, or activities for everyone to participate in. 

These activities can be going for a walk in the woods, playing games in the garden, a hike to a remote restaurant, archery, or whatever else your family is inclined to do. Such occasions help people socialize and make physical effort and share fun and laughter, the most important part of an activity. Hence, “fitness” does not have to feel like hard work -- it is more like a celebration or lightweight exercise. It’s all allowed as long as you move your body and increase your Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT).

Incorporate Short Workouts Into Your Daily Routine

Shorter workouts can be extremely beneficial for individuals during the festive season. In this case, even being busy during holiday times will not be a problem. It’s the season of preparation for the holidays, and spending a lot of time working out is not easy, but 10-15 minutes of exercise can still help. 

You can do this as a part of your morning routine. Just squeeze in a bunch of push-ups and squats first thing in the morning. You could also include short aerobic workouts such as HIIT right before lunch. HIIT is known to be very effective because they are intense but short. Or perhaps do some basic bodyweight exercises in the afternoon and convince you brother -- or even your Mom -- to join in.

Stay Hydrated by Drinking Plenty of Water

We may drink a lot during the festive season -- but not necessarily water. So, when I say “stay hydrated” I do mean ensuring you stay adequately hydrated with WATER to replenish your energy. Drinking enough water has lots of health benefits. Read my article about How Important Is Water in Your Fitness Journey to get all the details. 

One big glass of water in the morning will help you start the day energized. Also, one big glass just before a meal will reduce your appetite, which results in less risk of overeating and hence consuming less calories. You will feel better all round.  

Sip on some water frequently throughout the day as hydration is key. Perhaps use a reusable water bottle and keep it by your side all the time. If water alone is too boring for you, add a little twist of fruits or herbs. 

Pro-tip on the side: instead of buying expensive off-the-shelf electrolyte drinks, just add some sea salt, lemon juice and honey to your water. Same effect.

Choose Healthier Options When Indulging in Festive Foods

I get it. It’s really hard. All this delicious food. And sweets

During festive occasions, the holiday foods and treats are abundant. Still, being careful about our health remains important. Here are two tricks that work incredibly well:

First, find tasty replacement options. Rather than eating cakes and cookies all the time, replace some of it with healthier options. That could be anything you like, as long as it’s not full of sugar, trans fats and highly processed. Fruits are sweet too, or honey. Mix it with yogurt, add nuts, cinnamon or coconut. It’s the better option. And here is my recipe for a protein pancake

Second, portion control. Make a conscious decision about how much you load on your plate. Also, using smaller plates is a good trick. We tend to overload and then eat it all anyway even though we are not hungry any more. Work the other way round: load less on your plate in the first place. And promise to yourself to not refill. 

Set Realistic Fitness Goals for the Season

Setting realistic fitness goals is the most effective way to maintain sanity in the festivities. There is no point going into this time of the year with an ambitious workout plan. You won’t stick to it. And as a consequence, you’ll be frustrated -- and probably eat more shit.

Be aware of this and set achievable goals that will work with your holiday schedule. Do that for yourself if you follow and manage your own program, or if you work with a coach, he or she will do that for you. 

Also rather than planning long sessions, chip in shorter sessions but more. This will allow you to stay flexible with all other family and friends commitments. It is important that you do move your body. And like I wrote above, including all sorts of movements will be useful. Even in your daily activities, be conscious about moving your body. Take the stairs instead of the lift. Walk or cycle to the supermarket instead of taking the car. 

It’s all about balance and awareness. You also want to socialize and not be that crazy fitness nerd. And everybody will have a great time.

Try Weird Stuff: Experiment with Kratom Recipes

I have looked into various unusual things in my articles. Today let’s have a look at kratom. Shall we? 

Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) is a tree native to Southeast Asia. Kratom has pain-relieving effects like opioid drugs. It also has many of the same serious safety concerns as other opioids. So, in no way I am recommending excessive use of it. As always, please consult your healthcare specialist and make your own informed decisions. In certain forms, Kratom could be interesting. People sometimes use kratom against cough, depression, anxiety, and many other conditions, but there is no good scientific evidence to support these uses. Using kratom can also be unsafe. Side effects can be serious, so if you do experiments start with really low doses and consume it as blends in drinks, for example. 

Trainwreck Kratom is a blend of different Kratom strains and it can serve as an energy booster. There are many ways to buy trainwreck kratom. It can be found locally, or the best source to buy trainwreck kratom near me can be found online. However you source them, make sure that it’s a respected store and the product has quality ingredients. 

It’s always good to try new things and optimise your journey to well-being. In case of doubt, always consult a healthcare specialist. Make your own critical judgment and start small to be on the safe side. 

How To Stay Fit During The Festive Season

Manage Stress and Stay Consistent

As we all know, stress is the major enemy. So, take the festive season as an opportunity to unwind. It’s a good thing. Take time for yourself. Make sure to carve out time for relaxation and self-care. This can help you maintain a positive mindset towards your fitness goals.

Recognize that it’s okay to indulge occasionally. Focus on enjoying the season without guilt, understanding that one day of overeating won’t derail your overall progress. 

Finally, the mother of all success is consistency. Hence, try to maintain routine whenever possible. If you normally take cold showers in the morning, continue doing so. And even if your regular workout routine is disrupted, try to keep some consistency with, for example, shorter, effective workouts or active family outings.

Why It’s not Impossible to Stay Fit and Healthy During The Festive Season

The festive season is all about fun, good times with family and maybe -- only maybe -- delicious food. And this can be tough on our fitness goals. To stay in shape, try planning ahead by squeezing in workouts and making gatherings more active with hikes or games. Even short workouts of just 10-15 minutes can fit into your busy schedule, and don’t forget to drink plenty of water to help keep your appetite in check.

When it comes to eating, be mindful! Swap out some treats for healthier options and use smaller plates to control portions. Set realistic fitness goals so you don’t feel stressed, and remember that it’s totally fine to indulge a little. Just focus on enjoying the celebrations while keeping your health in mind!

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