Your Holiday Fitness Survival Guide

by Shin Ohtake on Tuesday, December 02, 2008 • 6 Comments

The holiday season has officially arrived and you know what that means…Office parties and countless gatherings with family and friends.  It’s a fun but hectic time for most of us and it’s also the time when we start to let things slide.

More nights out with friends, less sleep, more food, more booze and…less time to workout.  Consciously or not, somehow your mind goes into auto-pilot and decides to let everything slide until the end of the holiday season. Which, as you know, is why January is the unofficial get-back-into-shape month for just about everyone.

Now, if you’re super dedicated and are able to get back on the fitness wagon and stay on the bumpy road to gettin’ back into your pre-holiday-pants fitness plan, that’s awesome!  But if you’re like me, I’m all about making things easier for myself. Don’t get me wrong - it doesn’t mean that I don’t like to workout during the holidays. I just don’t like to let myself go so much so that it takes me months to get back into shape again.

I don’t know about you but the older I get, the longer it seems for my body to respond, so I just decided a couple years ago to just to avoid the headache all together. I’ve always had the philosophy and mindset of “work hard, play hard” - and it still applies - but I’ve just toned it down a bit.

I still eat pretty much what I want during the holidays, but just not as much. And I apply that simple but effective moderation approach to pretty much everything during the holiday season. I still go out to dinner and drinks with my friends (although I don’t drink anymore… just a personal choice) but i just don’t stay out as late. And I limit the number of “obligatory parties” I attend.  But most importantly, I always squeeze a workout in.

No matter how time crunched I get, I’ll make time to get a workout session in—even if it’s only 10 minutes.  And that’s no exaggeration!  Whatever time I have I’ll plan a workout around it. This is the simplest way that I’ve found to stop me from slipping down the slippery slope of the holiday season. For some odd reason I always picture a big slope made out of candy canes straight from The World of Willie Wonka… and you know what happens when you go down the slope of candy cane heaven!  Too much of a good thing is never good…

Walking on a slippery slope can be tricky, but as long as you to take one step at a time and make sure you have good footing before you make the next step, you’ll get across just fine. So during this holiday season, keep that in mind and just take it one day at a time.  Moderation may be just what you need to keep you from having to climb back up the Mt. Everest of fitness. Make sure you keep working out no matter how short the workouts may be.  Remember, quality over quantity.  That’s what I love about high intensity workouts - short on time and BIG on results.

About The Author

Shin Ohtake is a widely recognized strength coach and fitness & fat-loss expert. His unconventional, no-nonsense approach to getting fit has made him the go-to source for fitness enthusiasts and trainers alike. Shin is also the author of the world famous, MAX Workouts book, which has transformed and reshaped the bodies of thousands of people across the globe - without requiring hours in the gym. To learn more about how MAX Workouts can help you achieve your fitness goals, visit maxworkouts.com.

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