Staying on track with exercise and healthy nutrition is always a challenge. But, it can be an even greater challenge during the holidays. We often lose track of our priorities- putting shopping, cleaning, socializing and work ahead of our health. By The New Year, we are left feeling sluggish and overfull. However, all is not written in stone!
We can make this a Holiday Season where we keep our healthy promises to ourselves and still enjoy the festivities. One sure fire way is journaling. Now, I don’t mean the deep, reflective journals some may keep to record thoughts and feelings. I mean a simple, no fuss, exercise and nutrition journal that can keep us accountable and conscious about our health. There are many ways to do this, depending on the details you want to include, and these logs can get very time consuming. Instead, I keep it real simple. I use a template for a calendar and post the calendar up over my computer where I see it every day. I use one entire column each day to record the exercise I performed, as well as foods eaten. If keeping food logs is too much stress right now, (although I highly suggest it- as food logs improve weight loss/maintenance success by 60-70%) just record exercise performed in each box rather than using the entire column. Your goal- to fill up 6 out of 7 boxes each week with some type of exercise. When you do not exercise- put a big O in the box. The visual effect of having too many O’s- or hardly any- is very motivating. You can download one of these sample log sheets from my website if you go to the Resources Section at www.personalbestpersonaltraining.com. Have a healthy, happy holiday season!