April 2021

Create an Exercise Routine After the Holidays

A healthy lifestyle includes movement; but even with the best intentions, it can be genuinely hard to get back into an exercise routine once a holiday has thrown things off track.

If your getaway has interrupted your best-laid plans, don't worry. Here are three simple steps to ease back into movement after the silly season, without the guilt.

STEP 1. Schedule out your exercise for the week before it begins.

The easiest way to make exercise happen is to plan it in advance. While you're travelling home, grab your calendar and map out when movement could realistically fit into your week. Morning? After work? A lunch break? Once the kids are in bed?

Seeing your week laid out makes it much easier to spot the pockets of time you can carve out, and treating exercise as a scheduled part of your healthy lifestyle, rather than an afterthought, makes you far more likely to follow through.

STEP 2. Choose activities you enjoy!

When we've been out of routine for a while, it's tempting to throw ourselves into hard-core, punishing workouts, often as a way of "making up" for time off. But this approach rarely sticks.

Shaming or guilting yourself into exercise only tends to make you feel worse, and can keep you stuck in unhelpful cycles. A far better approach is to choose movement you genuinely enjoy, something you'll actually look forward to. And resist the urge to "binge" exercise; overdoing it early just leaves you sore, tired and more likely to give up (or get injured). Consistency beats intensity every time.

STEP 3. Gain some inspiration!

Getting back into a routine can feel uncomfortable and messy at first - that's completely normal. One simple trick is to choose a word, phrase or quote to focus on for the week to keep you moving toward your goals. It only needs to inspire you.

For one person it might be a single word like "strong." For another, it might be a quote like "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Whatever resonates, keep coming back to it until it settles into your mindset. What you believe, you're far more likely to achieve.

Don’t chase perfection, but run after your best self!

Getting back on track can feel overwhelming, but only if you let it. Instead, keep it simple: schedule it, make it enjoyable, and stay inspired. Don't chase perfection - just run after your best self.