San Jose Personal Trainer Tips: Keep Your Fitness Goals Alive Through the Holidays

The holidays are supposed to celebrate joyfulness, abundance and gratitude, right?

But our San Jose personal fitness trainers know sometimes they feel like they’re just a big series of obstacles to maintaining your healthy habits.

There’s so much do to… so many places to go… so much food everywhere!

But don’t worry. With these 10 tips from our San Jose personal fitness trainers to stay on track over the next few months, you can enjoy the holidays confident that you won’t have any regrets in January!

1. Make plans in your calendar and stick to them. This includes your workouts, but also parties, travel dates, and special events. When you look at the coming months all at once, you can decide in advance how to negotiate individual challenges or disruptions.

2. Mix it up. You can shorten some workouts if you need to. Look for opportunities to move more throughout the day. And take advantage of seasonal opportunities, like ice skating or staging a family dance-off to holiday music. The key is to keep moving!

3. Plan family activities. Does your family always seem to gravitate from the dinner table to the couch? Well, get them excited for a little activity before the meal, like a snowball fight or walk through the neighborhood. Sell it as fun, not as “exercise.”

4. Pack food when traveling. Whether you’re driving or flying, you don’t want to get hunger pangs when fast food and junk are your only options.

5. Plan food swaps at meals. It’s fun and easier than you might think to make healthy substitutions in recipes and dishes.

6. Stay hydrated. Even if it’s cold outside, even if you’re busy… don’t forget to keep drinking water. Keep a bottle handy to sip throughout the day. Water’s good for you, of course, and it makes you less inclined to snack mindlessly.

7. Watch your portions. Look, you don’t have to skip your favorite holiday foods! Just try smaller portions, savor each bite, and resist the need to go back for seconds. Here’s a tip: Load your plate with raw vegetables and eat them before diving into the heavier stuff.

8. Maintain routines. The holidays can really throw you off track. But stick as much to your normal schedule as possible, including meals and workouts. A holiday meal doesn’t mean overeating for four days in a row!

9. Prioritize sleep. Sleep is crucial to your body but also to your mood, which already might be under attack by holiday stressors. When you’re being pulled this way and that, remember that self-care is a gift that keeps on giving.

10. Enlist a buddy. Share your healthy habits with a friend or family member. Ask them to help keep you motivated and be a touchstone. It can make all the difference, and you might be helping someone else, too.

Our San Jose personal fitness trainers want you to remember, staying fit during the holidays doesn’t have to be stressful.

It’s all about finding a balance and enjoying the season while keeping your health in mind. 

You've got this!

Committed to your success,

The Method3 Fitness Team