Tips on staying active when life gets busy

Between work commitments, last-minute Christmas shopping, hectic social calendars, travel and more I am sure we can all agree that December is a particularly busy month.  While it’s certainly exciting, it can also be quite overwhelming to lose sight of routine and normalcy.  Exercise tends to be one of the first things we compromise on, but I find that setting aside time for regular movement actually helps me maintain my sanity and minimise stress levels.  

Although we tend to put physical health and mental health on separate pedestals, they need to co-exist to create optimal wellness.   In fact even during my time at Le Cordon Bleu, there were often times when I felt like I didn’t have enough time in the day.  However I still made it a point to stay active regularly…even if it meant waking up a bit earlier.  In case you find yourself struggling to exercise this season, here are a few tips that help me:

• Re-define ‘exercise’: Let go of the notion that it needs to occur in a formal setting to count.  Instead become efficient with your exercise by incorporating it into your lifestyle.  Rather than take the bus or drive, leave home a bit earlier and walk the commute (or at least part of it).  Given school was a 35-minute walk from home, foregoing public transport instantly meant that I was getting in at least 70 minutes of movement a day.  If you’re at a party, get on that dance floor.  You’d be amazed at how many steps you can clock in from just dancing…I know I was!

• Aim for quality over quantity: As easy as it is to think ‘I only have 20 minutes spare so what’s the point’, reorganise your thoughts i.e. ‘Time is money so let’s make every minute of this workout count’.  On such days, I tend to opt for short, high-intensity interval training (like this or this) which helps elevate my heart rate fairly quickly.  Lord knows burpees and I had a thing going on at one stage.

• Schedule in your workouts: The same way you would set aside time in your busy schedule for appointments, do the same with your workouts at the start of the week.  That’ll help you plan your day accordingly and also increase the likelihood of you sticking to it.

• Change your reason behind exercising: Like most people, my main reason for working out once centered around burning calories to help manage my weight.  I noticed that once I started to appreciate exercise more for the mental benefits and the effect endorphins had on my mood & wellbeing, I actually looked forward to my workouts.  I let go of the ‘shoulds’ and did exercise that I truly wanted to do.  The calorie burn is now just a bonus rather than a necessity.

• Realize that life has ebbs & flows and similarly so will your exercise routine.  If fitting in exercise seems to only add more stress to your life, allow yourself to put it on the backburner.   Give yourself grace and remind yourself that you will get back on track when life slows down.  

Happy December guys! I’m hoping to check in at least once more before 2018 creeps in! 

How do you stay consistent with your workouts during busy periods?