#361: 5 Tips for Fitting in Exercise during the Busy Holiday Season

Hey ladies, welcome
to the last podcast episode of November. Here we are. Right in the middle of the holiday season two, I hope you are having a great month a great day. If you are listening to this, you know right when it comes out, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. So there’s that I didn’t say last episode, but I think I was just ignorant of the dates I recorded. But I hope that it was wonderful. And you know that you are feeling good and staying healthy during this holiday season as well. So we are in the last episode for November, which means December is obviously right around the corner. And if you would like to join us for some fun, effective quick workouts, come join us in the chasing greatness group. There’s a two week free trial if you just want to try it out. But there’s pre recorded videos in there and your workout plan for the month.

So one great strategy in this holiday time is to take your workout frequency down, but keep it effective. So if you normally work out five, six days a week, we’re dropping that down to three to four. So that’s exactly what I did all year long that she’s here in this group that it’s usually five or six video workouts, that so you can do on your own time. There’s also PDFs and things like that if you’d rather work out just what the PDF. But in December specifically, I dropped the frequency down to three with an optional fourth so that it’s really realistic and doable for you. And I think that’s the best way to set yourself up for success. We talked about this a little bit way back in October and the preparing for a healthy holiday season to take down the frequency or duration of your workouts. And, you know, I think that’s really key, even before this conversation today is keeping realistic expectations but then holding yourself to them. So not just that’s like very counterintuitive. Sometimes we’re like, okay, we should still work out like five or six times a week. But then you actually end up working out zero times a week because it was just too unattainable. Once you missed one you already felt like you failed, you got like the fear failure cycle, and then you just blow them all off or whatever. Whereas setting a more realistic like, Oh, I’m gonna get to in this week and then actually holding yourself to the two because you know, it’s doable, you know, it’s reachable. That I just think is a great way to finish out this last month of the year truly. So if you want to check us out there like it’s a two week free trial is over healthy Catholic moms.com under work with me to chasing greatness group, lots of other things included in that group too. But that’s the main new piece to it for December’s those new workouts. Now, I’m gonna hit you with the five tips for fitting in exercise during the busy holiday season. Okay, ready.

Number one is to pair cardio with a task. So I’m sure you have a huge to do list, and probably will just continue to have one throughout December as it gets closer with wrapping and Christmas cards and cookies and gingerbread houses. So if you’re gonna get in any kind of cardio, like walking is what I really see here. Try to pair with something you already have on your to do list like, I like to walk on my treadmill slowly and catch up on emails. Just do this on my laptop and kind of prop it up and walk really slowly. But I’m walking and maybe I get in two miles while I did emails versus not walking at all. Or if you need to call somebody back or check in on a friend or a conversation you know, it’s gonna be a little lengthier. Take that on a walk outside or on a treadmill or on a you know, sitting on a bike, things like that, like make your time double and just get that exercise in that way.

Tip number two is to squeeze in strength training on breaks. So looking at this not as a lot of times we get in our heads about the workout and I get it if you are using my you know workout videos, you feel like you have to press play, and then do it the whole way through or not get off or whatever. But maybe if you’re using the PDF, you can finagle this little more in the PDF has pictures so it’s easier to just know what you’re doing without watching the video. Like this happens so much in my real life not just in the holiday season. But definitely in the holiday season. Where I meant to get it in earlier something happened, whatever. And now I need to still work out that day but I need to do a bunch of other stuff. So this is where like I’ll hang my TRX up in the kitchen. And I will just do like 10 bicep curls and go coat chicken fingers to put them in the oven. Then I go do 10 More bicep curls and I pop them in the oven. Then I do 10 bicep curls. Then I do the dishes like keeping it all around where you’re doing things If you need to wrap gifts, like make it a little circuit, you we can amp up so much how much time working out takes work really doesn’t. So say you’re going to take one of my circuits from December and you just look at the PDF is going to take you like maybe two minutes to get through one round of it. So do your two minutes, wrap five gifts, do your next two minutes, wrap five gifts, do your last two minutes, wrap five gifts in, you’re actually done and it took you like six working minutes plus a little warm up and cool down to maybe say 10 minutes. But you didn’t you know, you cut out a lot of time by just getting right to it, you didn’t have to just kind of quote unquote waste that rest time like in a circuit, we’re resting one to three minutes at the end of the set. But you like made that active. So you could do this with anything I do this honestly with like cookies and things a lot where if cookies are in the oven. I’m like doing stuff in the kitchen, I brew my kettlebell and like a band in the kitchen. And I’ll just do right there. Do some dishes, do another couple rounds, because you need to rest anyway. So you’re just making your rest time productive. This kid honestly that that tip I think is probably gonna be the lifesaver if you apply that. Rather than skip your workout. If you can learn how to it’s feels weird I get I get that if you’ve never done this, but it will become habit it will become second nature to have a while we can actually just use my breaks to do other stuff. I’m still getting things done. I’m just working out in between kind of thing.

Alright, number three, this will surprise no one have you been here a while, but truly, so much more even for the holidays is to do it early. Okay, stuff comes up later on. People want to do a little white elephant party people want to have a tree decorating thing people want to meet and go ice skating like stuff pops up like crazy, just a normal life, but like 10x during the holiday season. So nobody’s hitting you up at 5am asking if you want to go ice get it usually. So get it done early. So you do not have to worry about it or like you remember that gift you have to go by the errand you have to run. Sometimes again, we just psych ourselves out with our to do list where we think workouts going to take so much longer. So then we just cut that out when maybe we could have gotten it in later. But it just seemed too daunting. So just to in early, okay, for other people can interrupt you. Last two tips.

Number four is to buddy up or make it a family affair. Now I think the tricky part about this is scheduling. Because if you’re trying to buddy up, that might be an issue in this holiday season, like everyone’s schedule is being crazy. But maybe this is also something that helps keep you sane, and gives you you know, an outlet to see a friend to meet for class to meet for a walk, to plan to do a workout together even over to zoom like hey, you want to meet at 5am Tomorrow, like I don’t think I’m gonna wake up. Do you want to wake up to so like, we have accountability, we’ll just FaceTime each other and do our workout together or, like just put on FaceTime and do your own separate workouts, but you’re doing it like, be the person that reaches out and asks because the other person you probably think it’s weird to ask. And they’re like, cool, they just thought it was weird to ask you. And then or make it a family affair meaning like a lot of times around the holidays, you’re off your schedule, and maybe your kids are normally in school or you’re working and now everybody’s home. And that becomes a whole obstacle to fitting in working out. So can you bring everybody in on it? Can you guys do some kind of family circuit where somebody’s doing squats, somebody’s doing push ups, you know, like, just do it all together. We’ve done that many times around the holidays, on my husband’s home too. And we’re kind of like, oh, shoot, do we want you know, we didn’t get up early because it’s the day after a holiday or something like that. But we’re just like, let’s just bring the kids in the basement and like just make it a fun thing. And we’re also getting stuff in or one of us will do something more fun with the kids like duo like active Simon says like Simon says run and play Simon says do five jumping jacks while the other person’s doing their set. And then we kind of trade off and on. So there’s definitely work around, don’t think like, oh my gosh, my family’s home or I’m staying with family and like what am I going to do? There’s things that you can do, I did not put anything on here. But if you’re staying with family, but that’s kind of a if you even just have a bedroom away from family, like if you’re not sleeping in the living room on an air mattress, that’s the time it’s like toughest because you really have nowhere to do this. But if there’s like an available bedroom where you’re close enough where it’s your parents and you feel comfortable or whatever that you know, you can sneak away anyways but if I have at least just my own like bedroom, I just plan to get up 1520 minutes earlier, I bring like some bands and I workout in there and not you know, religiously every single day, but enough that I feel good and I’m mobile, you know.

Alright, last tip I’m gonna send you on your way back into the holiday. Hopefully not frenzy Holiday World. Their last tip is to help you get your workout in you need to streamline it So what I mean by this is to definitely have a plan going into it. And to make it easy on yourself to do this is a good tip just anytime, not just holiday season, but especially during the holiday season because again, time is so precious. So to think, oh shoot, I have to work out, but I have to drive to the gym, I’m going to have to shower, I’m going to have to like all these obstacles in the way, you’re going to find a reason not to do it. If it’s just like, oh, I need to work out, lay out my clothes the night before, I’m going to wake up, I already know I’m doing that 120 minute video. So I’m gonna throw these clothes on and press play,
you’re way more likely to do it. Because you’ve removed the obstacles in the way you have streamlined it. You took out any kind of decisions who decision fatigue is not an issue. And you’ve set yourself up for success. So whatever that looks like, me have a plan, make it really simple. And make it like almost foolproof. Like that you would really have to work to not get it done. Okay. And you’ll be great. It’ll be great. All right. I hope that was helpful and that you can take and apply some of these tips. I also hope that you have a great rest of your week. And I will be back with you on Friday, as always Tuesdays and Fridays for the next episode. I hope that you come and try us out if you’re not already in the chasing greatness group. And I think that’s it for me. That’s that’s all I got for you. All right. I hope you have a great rest of your day. I’ll talk to you next time.

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