How to stay in shape over the holidays

It finally feels like fall. The temperature is dropping. Cue seasonal lack of motivation and weight gain.

Staying motivated to work out and eat healthy during the holidays can certainly pose a challenge for most students. Here are ways to stay in shape during the holiday season.

1.Keep snacks on you when you’re out

A big part of “cheating” is going out to shop when you’re hungry. The holiday seasons are tough and might require a lot of extra shopping. Shopping makes everyone hungry.

Learn to pack a few sustainable snacks in your purse, in your car or wherever is most convenient for you. A couple of nourishing snacks include trail mix, nuts, salted popcorn and protein bars.

2.Keep that Nalgene with you

Don’t let your water drinking habits wash away during the holiday season. Water helps curb hunger and cravings by keeping you hydrated. Because face it, most times you’re not even hungry. You’re just thirsty. Or bored.

How much water should you drink? An easy guideline to remember is eight by eight, recommended by mayoclinic.org. That’s about two liters. Math sucks so what I like to do is take my Nalgene which maxes at 1000 ml and refill it one or two times a day. That’s about 1500 to 2000 milliliters (1.5 or 2 liters).

3. Plan when you’re going to indulge

The gag is, Thanksgiving calories honestly don’t count. It’s the only day of the year dedicated to straight up FEASTING. So while it’s okay to indulge during Thanksgiving and other holidays, eating like that every single day leading up to the holidays (along with the after parties and leftovers) can put a dent in your fitness goals.

4. Learn some indoor workouts

Let’s face it—sometimes it’s just gonna be TOO COLD. You already know how wonky Georgia weather may be. But newsflash, you don’t have to go to the gym every day to stay in shape. Learn a few at-home workouts.

There are so many channels out there geared towards inspiring people to work out at home: Fitness Blender (all around workouts), Joanna Soh (pilates dense), Kierra Lashae (twerk workouts) and so many others are channels you can work out to in the comfort of your air conditioning.

The trick to at-home workouts is finding the right one at your desired difficulty. Just because it’s at-home doesn’t mean you shouldn’t expect to sweat. You should find content that still pushes you and keeps your heart rate up.

5. Swallow the frog

This might sound like a nasty way to get warts, but this basically means to do the most lucrative task first to get it out of the way. And in this instance, we’re talking about the gym. If you have trouble staying motivated to workout in the colder days, you really need to ‘swallow the frog.’

Nobody is telling you to wake up at the crack of dawn to get a workout in. Get your workout gear together the night before. Set an alarm for 8 a.m. or 9 a.m., and make sure to schedule enough time to sleep. Once you wake up, you’re going to feel groggy. You’re going to want to crawl back in bed and workout in the evening. But don’t!  

You never know what the day might throw at you. You might have to do last minute shopping for a surprise holiday party. You’re rushing from store to store, and there’s only one checkout line open. Next thing you know, your entire day is gone and you didn’t work out.

If only you had worked out early in the morning.

I get it. It’s holiday time and the only thing you want to do is catch up with family, inhale grandma’s macaroni and cheese and sleep in. But by following these tips, you’ll be able to do all that done and still have your health in good hands.