December can be a tough month.
As well as being a busy period at work there's the approach of a hectic holiday season and the inevitable juggling of extra social engagements and family commitments.
However, it’s important to resist the temptation to park all your current positive healthy habits with the intention of picking everything up again in January.
Although the new year will likely be quieter than December, it’s unlikely that you’ll suddenly find yourself with loads of extra time, energy and motivation on your hands.
Instead, focus on the all the positive steps you can take during December to preserve your health and energy, and consider this an investment in making January easier when it rolls around.
Here’s how to stay proactive and positive
Maintaining some level of exercise / activity can be an important trigger to holding a variety of other positive behaviours in place.
Often if exercise slips out of the weekly schedule people then drop their guard around what they eat and they also sleep less well which leads to lower energy levels and a general loss of motivation around prioritising your health and wellness.
On the other hand, holding onto an exercise routine of some description usually makes a huge amount of difference to how people feel physically and mentally.
We suggest that, given that the number one excuse for not getting active is time, for this busy period you should focus your efforts on short injections of activity across each week.
This will keep you in shape physically while also giving you an outlet for any seasonal stresses that might be creeping in as you approach year end.
These activity top ups could be as simple as a five minute walk.
If you have a little more time, but maybe not enough to get to the gym or complete your usual sports or fitness commitments, having a selection of quick workouts you can get stuck into anywhere can be a life saver.
We’ve put together 16 mini workouts to help you with this.
Each is around 30 minutes but they are all also broken down into 3 or 4 sections, all of which can be used as a stand alone mini workout if you're really pushed for time.
So that’s enough workout ideas to mix and match to keep you on track for the whole of 2024, not just for the next month or so.
You’ll find the workouts here:
And if you need some additional top tips on keeping your healthy habits in place for the rest of the year and getting set up for January, look no further than these two articles:
Good luck!