I’ve just emerged from a couple of solid days in the kitchen (a treat for me, since I love to cook and don’t usually have time to make it a priority).
Sam posted the other day about pacing yourself after the holidays. But since by my count we still have a week of revelry to go, I thought it might not be too late to post about pacing yourself during the holidays.
I’m not talking about food, though of course there is that. No shortage of magazine articles telling us how to deal with holiday parties and cookie exchanges and a time of year when it seems we’re surrounded by delicious food almost every where we go. My advice on that isn’t all that helpful: eat it.
I’m more interested in pacing ourselves activity-wise. For some of us, when the routine gets thrown sideways, even by good things, it’s easy to let workouts fall by the wayside. Sam also talked about holiday activity earlier this week.
I may not do what I normally do–my Tuesday morning Iyengar yoga class and my Friday morning swim training don’t meet over the holidays. But I make a commitment to do something every day. It helps me stay energetic in the face of the season.
Before our houseguests (my parents and my step-daughter) arrived the other day, my partner (Renald) and I did a tough circuit of bodyweight exercises and weight training. I snuck in a hot yoga class on Christmas Eve morning, went for a run on Christmas morning, and now (Boxing Day–what we Canadians call the day after Christmas), I’m about to duck out for another hot yoga class.
I get these things in early because no one is really going to miss me too much when they’re all getting showered and ready for the day. And to my good fortune, my guests are self-sufficient enough to be able to get their own tea and toast, cereals and muffins, fruit and whatever, without needing me to get it for them.
Also, I don’t know about you, but these days my body pretty much wakes up wanting to do something active to get going in the morning. So any little thing I can do feels good. My routine may be in a state of upheaval, but that doesn’t have to throw me off completely.
What do you do to pace yourself activity-wise during the holidays?
[photo credit: Ashley Joy]
Yeah, I think we measure holidays differently. This one ends for me when Jeff and Susan return to work tomorrow. It’s always felt more like a weekend than a week. I’ll get back to my routine tomorrow too. But during the holidays, I run and/or walk with dogs. They need the extra activity with new people in the house and often I need to escape too. They’re my excuse!
Reblogged this on FIT IS A FEMINIST ISSUE and commented:
We aren’t quite there yet and I’m not having any guests this year, but this post about pacing ourselves during the holidays seems like a timely #tbt nonetheless. Enjoy!