5 Really Good Reasons to Prioritize Exercise Between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day

Ah, the spectacular time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day: It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s six weeks that fly by so fast your head spins. It feels like weeks are shrunk into minutes. It feels like you’re being pulled in different directions every time you breathe. There are celebration plans with in-laws, parents, step-parents, step-grandparents, the pets, the office.

Between work, school, shopping, parties and engagements, family time, personal care appointments to make you look like you haven’t kept your hair in a bun for 18 months (are you getting stressed out yet?), it’s really easy to let the personal wellness and fitness fall by the wayside. It is simple to think, “Yeah, I’ll pick this back up in January.”*

Well. I’m a trainer. And my job is to tell you that you SHOULDN’T let the fitness drop off and I’m an expert, so there.

I hope you know I’m kidding. However… you really SHOULDN’T let your personal wellness and fitness drop off in the six weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s just because It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

I even have five talking points to help convince you.

Exercise is a form of stress relief. We know this, especially after a workout. “Oh, wow, I feel so much better now!” Is what I often hear. It can sometimes *feel* stressful to try to get the exercise in but remember: It’s more beneficial to just move than to not move. Even if it’s a 5-minute dance party, a 15-minute Peloton ride, doing pushups every time someone on Succession backstabs a family member.

Exercise boosts your immune system. There was so much expletive-filled chatter among fitness professionals when gyms were shut down in 2020-2021 because we KNOW exercise can help make our immune systems more robust. How much exercise helps depends on the length of the workout and the intensity but, as I said above, it’s not going to help if it’s not done at all. If you want to know more, click here. 

Exercise is a way to get yourself some You Time. You’re busy taking care of things having to do with ALL the other people: Kids. Partner. Boss. Family. It’s easy to lose track of YOU during this time. If you’re able to, carve out whatever time you can to feed your body with movement. Not able to actually be alone? That’s OK. Even if you have a dance party with your kids, or attend a large group class, or work out with your partner: You’re still doing YOUR body a wonderful service and that can totally be YOU time!

Exercise boosts your energy**. When we’re tired, the last thing we want to do is move around and exert energy. But just like the smell of lavender calms our nerves, and Ted Lasso gives us hope in humanity, and eating lots of fiber keeps you regular, and I will say, “Strong glutes, long life!” at least once a day, exercise in the right dose boosts your energy! So get that class in, lift those weights, skip around your house, do two squats for every time Keith Morrison uses alliteration in Dateline, and tell me you’re not a little bit more bushy-tailed.

Exercise can help give you a sense of routine. Can I tell you how often I hear new clients saying they’re CRAVING for a regular routine in their lives? I haven’t done the actual math but it’s got to be over 75% of new potential clients. Our lives got turned upside down more than a few times in the last two years and a lot of us are grasping for something steady and constant. Making a point of working out x number of times per week, or to work out at y time of the day, or to see Your Favorite Trainer on Earth z times per month: That’s routine. That’s steady. That’s consistency and that can help you anchor yourself while everything else flies around your head.

*All of this being said: We’re all doing the best we can right now. If you made it this far into the post, and if you’re still feeling like you’ll be lucky to get 30 minutes of exercise in between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, guess what. That’s OK, too.
**In the right dosage. Remember: The harder you exercise, the harder you need to recover. If you’re running on empty, your exercise might need to be breathing on your back.