Fitness vs Holidays

 

 

 

 

 

Phil: Finally! The holiday season is here! A time for travel, family, rest and of course food! While the holiday season is what most of us live for; there are some downfalls to the season that we all dread. Unfortunately, this is one time of the year everyone decides to let their “New Year’s” fitness resolutions subside next to the turkey at Thanksgiving. As the holiday season approaches, do not become a victim and let what you have worked

so hard for all year long, leave your sight.

 

I couldn’t do this one on my own so I had to bring on my favorite partner in crime, Channéll Holmgren. Make sure you follow her on Twitter @ChannellNicole. She is an amazing Personal Trainer, and is working on some amazing projects that will have a deep impact on our community to provide inspiration for life to us all. Also, follow her motivational movement @InspiredPurpose. I’ll let Channéll introduce herself and we

can get right into the things we should all be aware of this holiday season and how to avoid the “holiday slump”.

 

 

Channéll: I`m Channéll, a Personal Trainer, and I currently work in a corporate gym as a Personal Trainer and Bootcamp Instructor. I am an emerging motivational speaker who takes pride in what I have been called to do. I also try to take life seriously as little as possible. I am really excited to announce the launch of my upcoming website in January in which an online speaking community will be launched to help offer development and exposure to aspiring motivational and public speakers as well as entrepreneurs. My passion is for fitness, health and inspiring the lives of others through leadership!

 

Phil, it’s a pleasure finally collaborating as we’ve been talking about for a long time! Now

we’re not talking, we’re living it! Will you also introduce yourself to my followers?

 

Phil:  Absolutely! I am Phillip; I have a strong physical fitness background from doing sports

like Track and Field, Basketball, Weight Training and Boxing. All these things have

helped me define and build my character. Currently, I am focusing on motivating others

through speech. I am helping build my fitness program at my church and working on a

business venture that will impact the lives of anyone looking to change for the person they know they

can be. To sum it up, I am Leader/Manager by trade but driven by my passion to build/develop leaders

while building influential relationships in hope of impacting someone’s life through the Christ in me.

 

The main goal is help people learn how to invest their time into fitness and not just spend it. We have also put together a few questions we would like to answer from each of our perspectives to help out all men & women alike.

 

Channéll: So Phil, I have a few questions for you from our followers. First, what do you find to be the biggest obstacle that keeps people out of the gym during the holiday season?

 

Phil: All the big “stressful” holiday planning! I think with the holiday season we get

complacent and relaxed because we tend to stress and occupy ourselves with other

things to prepare for the holiday season, which builds a great excuse that turns into us

blaming the holiday season for a setback. Ideally, we need to be flexible in our fitness at

this time and switch our workout up to fit into our holiday schedule. Instead of spending

two hours in the gym, crank out a workout in 30-45 minutes. This is good because

realistically your body hits its peak performance within this time frame and anything

after that is a drop off which means your body gets fatigued. How about you Channéll?

 

Channéll: I find EXCUSES to be the biggest obstacle. People seem to completely stop caring about

themselves and their own basic needs just to fulfill the needs of others. While being selfless is not a bad thing, it’s as if the giving season becomes giving to everyone else, and not at all to oneself. This is wrong! It is important to take care of yourself so that you can have a good quality of life to be able to give to others, without causing a huge burden to yourself. While most agree that holidays are “just another day”, few treat

them as such.

 

Okay Phil, you know that people often make any excuse possible. Usually this is year-round and for every event celebrated by food; do you believe this is a changeable mentality? If so, how could people see festivities differently in relation to their health and fitness goals?

 

 

 

Phil: Well Channéll like you mentioned, it is all an excuse. It is just what you said it is

a mentality. The key word here is mental which means you have the ability to change

it but you must have a reason why. Just because there is food in front of you does not

mean it is a must that you eat it all. Eat in moderation. Try doing different things like

drinking water in between bites and have an idea of how much you want to eat before

you even start. If you truly want to change and build a healthier happier you, your

fitness has to hold some time of priority in your life. It has to be a lifestyle which means

you may have to sacrifice to reach your goal.

 

Channéll: Phil? I have noticed my clients and people who ask for my advice about holidays usually

ask about their diet and how to counteract all the sweets they know they`ll be eating.

What advice do you have for people wondering the same thing this season?

 

Phil: There is no way to actually counteract all the sweets, once we eat it there is

nothing we can do, choose wisely. I would recommend trying to make healthier snacks.

Many things we love can be made with healthier ingredients and substitutes but still

taste great. This will help your calorie and sugar intake. If you must have some chocolate

or candy; try eating it right before you exercise. This way you can use the sugar to give

you a boost in energy and use it for fuel. At the end of the day, you still have to watch

your caloric intake; there is no substitute for the calories. Remember, the flavor doesn’t

last as long as the fat does.

 

Channéll: Again, EXCUSES are detrimental to results. My advice is simply to stop making excuses.

You may think that there is validity in abusing food for the sake of a celebration or season, but really there isn’t. This may seem harsh but the truth is that it is not just one day or celebration we are speaking of, it is many days year round! We see this especially with so many holidays from October-January.

 

While we all agree that food is social (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), it is important to recognize when this social aspect of life becomes a problem and puts your life and health in jeopardy. Partaking more frequently in abuse of food and alcohol significantly increases your risks of not achieving your goals; which leads to discouragement and a nasty, unhealthy cycle.

 

The best way to beat this is to not forget about your goals or set them aside! Keep your goals in the forefront of your mind. Keep yourself conscious of your goals will help you respond appropriately to eating excess amounts of food or skipping a day at the gym when you’re scheduled to go. Keep yourself aware and accountable; no matter the circumstances. Now, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t indulge from time to time; however indulgence and abuse are totally different. Let’s be honest, it doesn’t take most of us a holiday to want to celebrate and over-indulge!

 

 

Phil: Channéll, last but not least, I am going to get a little personal here but only to let

the follower’s know we all face some type of trial and tribulations. What are some of the

obstacles and experiences you have had with the holidays and your fitness achievement?

 

Channéll: For me, I have struggled in the past with traveling. It’s not the traveling part that gets me, it’s

the overbooking myself when I visit home for a few days. It seems impossible to see and catch up with

everyone. I’ve overcome this with purchasing a gym pass as soon as I get in to town. Another obstacle,

are grandma’s cookies! We bake every single year together. I’ve limited myself in the amount of food

that I`ll let myself eat. In this case, less is more!

 

Phil: I love it!! Thank you Channéll for co-hosting this one with me, I think we got some really

good things answered. Stayed tuned as we will be posting more information on how to

obtain your goals this holiday season and some pretty cool tips on how to get there.

Remember fitness is a lifestyle not a good behavior for just the moment. Do not become

a part of the crowd that drops fitness to eat and drink everything that touches the table.

It is easy to get complacent and also remember once you stop; it is that much harder to

hit the gym hard again.

 

 

 

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You can find the original blog post on Phil’s blog here: Fitness vs Holidays

People lover. Personal training. Striving to leave a mark on the hearts of others; turns out it leaves an irremovable one on my own.