Try a holiday exercise streak

Feel more festive by staying active from Thanksgiving to New Year's

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to try a holiday exercise streak. It can
be easy to feel too busy to exercise over the holidays,

(00:26):
or perhaps to feel like it is not worth the bother,
but a little physical activity can do a lot to
ease stress. Committing to exercise every day between Thanksgiving and
New Year's will help you start the new year off rite.
So I know a lot of us are staring down

(00:48):
the next six weeks or so with a little trepidation.
Work is often busy as people try to get ahead
of vacations and any end of your deadlines. If you
have kids, they no doubt have extra concerts, pageants, class parties,
and the like. You may be hosting family, or you

(01:09):
may be traveling, and then there are all those presents
to buy and wrap. If you are an adult managing
a lot of responsibilities, it can be hard to feel
merry and bright, so fitting in exercise too might not
seem like the most appealing idea, but there is pretty

(01:30):
solid evidence that even a short amount of physical activity,
like less than twenty minutes, can completely change your mood.
Life suddenly feels doable. You feel more energetic. Some people
think of exercise in the context of burning off the
extra calories from all those holiday foods, but I personally

(01:53):
find it kind of hard to care about that. Instead,
to me, exercise is about ten tapping into your superpowers
so you can do all the amazing things that you
are capable of doing. To that end, I am planning
on undertaking a holiday exercise streak. I plan to do

(02:15):
at least fifteen minutes of physical activity every day between
Thanksgiving and New Year's I invite you to join me
in this. I usually run a couple days a week,
and I work out with my trainer once and I'll
make sure to add in a brisk walk on any
other days. Think about what kind of exercise works best

(02:35):
for you, and feel free to switch it up to
be more appealing. Maybe two days a week you go
to an exercise class at your gym, one morning a
week you do a yoga video, two days you walk
with colleagues at lunch, and then two other days you
lift weights. Or maybe you've got an indoor pool where

(02:56):
you swim laps three mornings a week. The other days
you go for a brisk walk around the block with
your dog. Maybe a friend would be willing to join
you in this streak so you can hold each other
accountable and maybe work out to gather too. It might
also help to think through each week and think roughly
about when you will exercise each day. For instance, you

(03:20):
might see that Tuesday and Thursday are going to be
go go go all day long, which might motivate you
to set the alarm a little bit earlier and run
on your treadmill before the craziness begins. But maybe your
Fridays are more relaxed, so you and a friend could
meet for a walk mid afternoon. Now, for many things,

(03:41):
I do believe that often is as good as always,
and that is generally true with exercise as well. There
is no real upside to exercising seven days a week
versus six, But given that the holidays can get hectic
and we are often diverging from our use schedules, I

(04:02):
find that the idea of a streak helps with cutting
down on excuses. When you commit to doing something absolutely
every day, you stop asking should I exercise today? Instead,
the question becomes when will I exercise today? That is

(04:25):
not a question of motivation. It is just a matter
of logistics, and I believe that even during the holidays,
it is almost always possible to find fifteen minutes. If
you have to break that up into three five minute chunks,
that is fine too. Whatever you can do is great,

(04:46):
and by laying the groundwork for finding the time to
exercise and all kinds of crazy circumstances, you'll have no
problem keeping the exercise habit into the new year. You
know that even on a go go go day, you
can wake up twenty minutes early and jump on that treadmill.
You know that one of your friends has a pretty
free Friday afternoon and is generally up for meeting. You

(05:10):
will be able to continue with these discoveries well into
the new year. So consider trying an exercise streak from
Thanksgiving to New Years. The energy and mood boost just
might make the holidays feel better than ever. In the meantime,

(05:32):
this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast

(06:01):
is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.