You have worked hard all year toward your health and fitness goals. Do you want to risk losing those gains now? You don’t have to! You can keep your gains and maybe even continue to improve when all about you are partying-hardy! The following steps will help you keep and even improve on all you have achieved this year.

Step 1: Plan. If you have read my FitBits in the past, you have read my quotes on planning, including: “Proper Planning Prevents Pitifully Poor Performance!” So, your first step is naturally: PLAN. Plan your workouts and make adjustments for your holiday planning. Plan your food and drink consumption. Plan your rest periods, sleep periods, and waking schedule.

During the Winter months, the nights are longer, and days are shorter, and you instinctively begin to make adjustments in your activity and sleep patterns. You can fight this urge with proper planning. Likewise, it is colder outside in the Winter and if you normally do outside activities as part of your fitness program, you may begin to curtail some or all of your normal activities. PLAN to avoid that from happening. Plan to wake up and go to sleep at the same time and plan your workouts accordingly. Write your plan in detail and follow the plan as if it comes directly from the “Burning Bush!”

Step 2: Think about working out first thing in the morning. Not only are your cortisol levels naturally highest in the early morning, energizing you to wake up and get physical, but studies have shown people are more likely to work out with more consistency when they work out first thing in the morning.

Step 3: Think about adjusting your workouts for comfort. If you like running outside but hate running in cold, wet, icy conditions, think about moving your workouts indoors. Several premier gyms have excellent indoor running tracks, and if all else fails, there is always the treadmill. For the Walkers out there, that no longer want to brave the cold, consider walking at your local mall. Note: If you are traveling for the holidays, many gyms offer weekly passes for a small fee. If you are a gym owner, this is something you can consider as well, to target all the avid gym goers that are away from home.

Step 4: Set Priorities. After all the time, effort, and energy you have put into getting yourself in shape, it would be a shame to lose it over the Winter Holidays. If you make your fitness program a priority, you can not only keep those gains but improve upon them. This is one more reason to get it done first thing in the morning. Get it done before holiday shopping, parties, and other preparations distract you from your health and fitness program!

Step 5: Get a solid Workout Partner. One (or more) workout partners can help keep you accountable and on track! While we can often find ways to excuse ourselves from a workout (or 2 or 3 or more), we are far, FAR, less likely to skip a workout when we have partners that are expecting us to join them.

Step 6: Be Flexible. “Life is what happens when you are making other plans!” When something urgent pops up, adjust your exercise program to incorporate “Mini-Exercise-Sessions” when your planned, Full-workouts just won’t work. You can get a lot of benefits from one set of As-Many-As-You-Can Push-Ups, Pull-Ups, Crunches, etc… And break your full workout into smaller parts throughout the day. Remember, “one is infinitely better than zero,” as my friend Gary Jones, inventor of Hammer Strength and Co-Inventor of Nautilus, likes to say. And you don’t have to be a mathematician to know he is right.

Step 7: Adjust for travel plans. If you go to your local gym for strength training and your holiday plans include travel, you can adjust to body weight/calisthenic-type exercises. For example, free Squats (or one-legged-Squats if you are strong enough), Push-Ups (and their many variations), Crunches (and their many variations), The Superman exercise (Recommend left arm with right leg, and right arm with left leg to keep the stress on the back manageable), etc.

Step 8: Adjust for “Wind Chill”. Many meteorologists are predicting below-normal temperatures this coming Winter, so you need to be well aware of the damage low temperatures combined with humidity and wind speed can do to your skin. For example, at 15 degrees Fahrenheit, with winds slightly over 15 mph, gives you a wind chill below ZERO! Once the Wind Chill drops below -18 degrees Fahrenheit, your skin can freeze in less than 30 minutes! Monitor Wind Chill and be well aware of the signs, conditions, and treatment for Frost Bite!

Step 9: Adjust your Warmup. You may need additional time to Warm Up properly if you are colder than normal when you begin a workout. Your normal Warmup which may be 5-10 minutes, may take 10-20 minutes depending on how cold and stiff you are before beginning the workout.

Step 10: Activity Breaks. Most of us are used to dedicating 1 or 2 hours to the gym for our Workouts, but you may be able to get much of the same benefits by doing several, shorter Activity Breaks throughout the day. This can include Activities of Daily Living, such as housework (done with intensity), 10 minutes running up and down the stairs, and even a set or two of calisthenics. Brief high-intensity workouts have been shown to be highly effective at improving cardiovascular fitness.

I remember one of my coaches saying, “miss a day of practice, no one notices. Miss two days of practice, you notice. Miss three days of practice, the CROWD notices!” As athletes, all my teammates knew this to be true. As IFPA Certified Personal Trainers and Fitness Professionals, you know that taking one or two weeks off can negate months of metabolic and body composition improvements.

Unfortunately, all of us humans have a talent for putting on fat and losing muscle. That talent helped us survive Winter before farming was invented. Unfortunately, today, one or two weeks off can lead to a 1% or more gain in your clients’ weight and all of it… body fat. This has a very detrimental effect on your client’s health. You will need to have a serious discussion with your clients to save them from the consequences of decreased exercise and too much holiday cheer and foods!

During this Holiday of Peace and Joy, all of us here at the IFPA want to wish you peace and joy, and a very Merry Christmas.

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