The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!

Temptation is everywhere. The box of chocs in the office, the special offers in the supermarkets, the endless opportunities to eat more, drink more and relax more. It is utterly beguiling and – before long- the fairy lights will go back in the roof space and there’ll be a long, flat January ahead.

There’s always a few people who push on through the festive period with their normal fitness routine or running schedule, but they can’t really be enjoying it, can they?

We know that exercise can help us to overcome so many of our demons, yet it’s often the first thing that bites the dust when Christmas rolls around.

Why not frame it differently?

There’s a lot to think of at Christmas, but your brain can do the thinking while you take a quick lap around the block. You’d be back in under 30 minutes but your mind will have worked through the questions whirling around your head. Taking a quick run is a lot like a system reset. You arrive back where you’ve started, blood pumping and feeling better than you did when you set off. Everything is just as you left it, but you’re seeing it with fresh eyes and a healthy dose of endorphins.

Fitting an exercise class in might feel like a mammoth task if you’ve got to travel to get there, but – with so many options available on streaming – you can take 20 minutes to get moving at home. You might give the Christmas tree a nudge every now and then, but you will feel all the better for it. Then you can tackle the Christmas wrapping.

This year, why not give yourself the greatest gift of all at Christmas? The time and space you deserve to take care of your body mind and soul.

Just Do It

Every little bit of exercise that you can include in your routine at this time of year does two very important things for you:

1. These moments that you carve out of your busy schedule will help to keep you on an even keel in terms of mood and energy. It will counteract some of the extra eating we all do at this time of year and help you to clear out some of the toxins that collect in our muscles.
2. You will feel amazing and invincible. While others snoozed in their beds, you got a couple of kilometres under your belt or did a quick HIIT workout, leaving you fresher than ever and ready to start the day.

It can be hard to take the first step, but that is the hardest part of all exercise. Don’t give it too much thought – just pull your trainers on and get moving. Your body is capable of great things, even if your brain tries to give you good excuses not to do it.

Instead of having a more hassled Christmas where you struggle to find time to fit exercise in, deliberately set time aside for yourself to do some exercise. No one will give you this time, so you have to take it for yourself. By ‘keeping ticking over’, you may find yourself less likely to reach for a sneaky mince pie, have a fourth glass of fizz or spend an entire day on the sofa.

Imagine a different January, without feeling sluggish, without having to splash out on expensive vitamins and without having to resolve not to spend another Christmas overdoing it.

Worth the effort? Hell yeah!