Holiday Weight Gain Wreaked Havoc On My Health

The holidays can be stressful, and if your workouts went by the wayside and comfort eating replaced your sweat sessions, it can be tough to hop back into a healthy routine. But even if the holidays lead to some weight gain, now is the time to jump back on your treadmill and restart your health and fitness journey.

Start By Being Kind To Yourself

For some people, their first instinct when it comes to slipping up with their health, be it during the holidays or any other time, is to berate themselves – saying very negative, and sometimes degrading, things to themselves about their bodies and habits. But this instinct can be seriously detrimental if you want to successfully get back to working out and eating healthy.

If you struggle with being negative with yourself when you have a slip-up, consider this – would you ever speak to your best friend or loved one the way you speak to yourself? Perhaps not, so there is no reason to be harsh with yourself. Instead, try thinking something like, “Slacking with my health and fitness can’t stop me for the rest of my life.” By reinforcing positive, forward-focused thinking, you can help yourself far more than with negative thinking.

Commit To Working Out

If it’s been a while since you worked out, you shouldn’t try to go right back to the same kind of workouts where you left off, as cardio and strength levels tend to decrease even after a few weeks of inactivity. And to avoid injuring yourself or feeling discouraged from the start, just commit to 2-3 workouts a week and work your way up depending on your fitness goals.

By choosing a reasonable amount of workouts to commit to, you will find it is easier to fall into a consistent routine and eventually add more workout days. Perhaps re-evaluating your past workout routine can be your starting point and work up from there if need be.

Even if you happen to take time off for the holiday season, commit to getting straight back to your routine, so you avoid feeling down and out about falling off the wagon a little.

If you find that you aren’t as engaged and get bored with your workouts, you may want to see if there is something you can add to shake things up. Luckily, NordicTrack has a variety of fitness equipment available that are enabled with interactive virtual training, so you can continually reinvent your workouts and keep yourself focused.

Find An Accountability Buddy

One way you can help yourself stick to your renewed holiday health resolutions is to find an accountability buddy who also has fitness goals they want to reach. By having someone to check in with and potentially workout with, you can enjoy some external motivation when the internal motivation wears thin.

It can be tough to find someone in person who is willing to commit to the level of health and fitness you are looking to reach. To overcome this challenge, check out iFit® and its wonderful fitness community where you can find support, tips, and encouragement from other like-minded people.

Focus On Eating Whole Foods

Rather than turning to quick fixes like detox teas and fad diets promising quick results after each holiday feast, turn your dietary focus to eating unprocessed, whole foods, particularly leafy green vegetables which are high in key nutrients and will help you sustain your health and physique far more than any fad.

Choosing to eat whole foods may require a reset in some habits, as it may require you to cook at home more. But it is both more cost-effective than eating out and frozen foods, as well as being better for your body overall.

Remember Health And Fitness Is A Lifelong Journey

In the end, maintaining your health and fitness is a lifelong endeavor and deviations from the perfectly healthy path is to be expected, especially during the holidays. What is most important is that you don’t allow these times in your fitness journey to seriously derail you from your ideal healthy lifestyle.