Take advantage of every opportunity  

You can do your bit in several ways, walk as much as you can, taking stairs instead of escalators or lifts will do a lot good in your intention of losing the calories. Offer help in household works that include (but not limited to) cleaning, shoveling snow (if you’ve had a white Christmas!), or raking leaves. Since gyms will be closed too, and not everyone has equipment at home, you can pick up some heavy water bottles, or soup cans, cartons, etc. because something is better than nothing.

Involve your family & friends

Simply being more active by participating in more physical activities will be a fantastic turn up for you and your family to burn those extra calories that were invited through tasty food. Involving friends and family in such leisure activities will be the icing on the cake because you will get spare time to spend with loved ones and creating memories.

Working out at home

While everyone is busy shopping, decorating or cooking for the big celebration, you can sneak out for a 10-15 minute workout at home, with your favourite music. When it comes to home workouts, you are not limited to any equipment or machines; instead, you have tons of ways to perform home workouts, for example, yoga, cardiovascular exercises, or body-weight or gymnastic style workouts. This is not about forcing yourself to do something you don’t like, because there might be some activity that you can discover during the festive season, and might as well like it.

Reset your habits to stay fit

Take a moment to reset your habits because taking up some new ones will always be beneficial. Resetting your sleep schedule can leave you with more energy, helps in less weight gain and less fluid retention. You can also take advantage of instilling a new way of working out at home, for example taking up online fitness classes, or meditating, or maybe a walk more often. Limit yourself on too much alcohol consumption and high-on-sugar foods. Remember, there is always time and opportunity to workout; all you need to do is to squeeze it in your holiday schedule.

Choose your festive foods carefully

It’s Christmas season, we cannot forgo all the fantastic treats and extras, but we can indeed limit the damage these foods might do to our bodies. Choosing the festive foods wisely might help us to enjoy the season, while not being overly worried about losing our fitness. For example, you can select healthy nibbles like roasted chestnuts, pretzels, dried fruits, or unsalted nuts instead of crisps and chocolates or anything with artificial sweeteners. Even though the celebrations involve many visits to friends and family and many rounds of tasty foods being served, we don’t have to eat it all.

Let’s not make any excuses this holiday season. Devote 10-30 minutes a day to come out of your festive comfort zone to squeeze in a workout and get your heart rates elevated to help beat the shopping stress. Here is a 12-day fitness challenge for you to keep your fitness on track. Complete the workout below and share your progress with us in comments.

We wish you a Merry Fitmas and Happy Holidays!