The Fitness Industry & The Holidays
Why they’re the perfect storm
and what you can do now to take shelter!
From Thanksgiving through the end of the year, many of us have a busier social calendar.
This may result in a change from the structured workout routine that you work hard to keep. This change may also be accompanied by an increase in events, from holiday parties to intimate gatherings, that revolve around eating and drinking.
If I see one more superficial article on a fitness blog teaching us "tricks" to restrict our eating at parties ("bonus: you'll stay looking skinny in that dress all night!") or to increase calorie burn to make up for replacing your normal weekend spin class with a holiday brunch ("park further from the mall and walk carrying all your gifts!"), I'm going to scream. It’s one thing to encourage mindfulness, it’s another to guilt-trip someone trying to enjoy the holiday season.
Then we've got New Years - basically the worst version of the Sunday Scaries of the entire year.
From trying to have the perfect start to next year, to ruminating - I mean, "reflecting" - on the past year, we tend to focus on regrets and goals we didn't achieve, instead of reliving our personal highlight reel.
The fitness industry capitalizes on this, shoving our weight loss goals in our faces, and promising that a new gym membership, piece of equipment, or "accountability coach" (= buy a training package too!) will solve the "willpower" and "commitment" issues we supposedly have.
Nothing like a little blame and shame to coerce you into making fitness-related New Years Resolutions that just so happen to result in the purchase of an expensive membership or piece of cardio equipment!
This holiday season, I want to share the mantra I use year-round so my clients DON'T get caught up in this cycle. It’s all about learning to both hustle and flow.
When my clients get worried about missing workouts because of holiday plans with family & friends, I remind them that their consistent hustle in the gym during the months where they can make it work is going to see them through the times they want to go with the flow - that doesn't make them any less committed, and it won't make them any less successful at reaching their goals.
And I remind them that no one can or should hustle 24/7 long-term - and that goes for life outside the gym too!
Could I make more money as a coach if I encouraged people to book extra workouts, knowing that they're partying more? Absolutely. Should I push fitness-based New Years Resolutions to get people to commit to training packages? Maybe.
But it goes against everything I believe in.
My mission is to teach my clients to trust their bodies - to feel good and to feel safe in their own bodies, to reconnect with their internal, intuitive intelligence, and let that be their guide. And when it comes to letting true nature be our guide, we start to realize that everything - even fitness - is cyclical.
Just the way training for a sport is seasonal, your fitness routine should be also.
And for most of us, the holiday season is like part of the off-season. Not the part where you work super hard to build strength, but the part right after your post-season ends, where you take a few weeks to recover. Workouts are for your enjoyment, and you do them when you want to. You take time to rest and rejuvenate after the stress of the season - for athletes, this is the time they get to spend with friends and family, away from their team. If pro athletes take that time, I think you can too.
Does that mean I don't respect fitness goals & timelines?
Of course not. It just means that I know:
that true health and fitness is a marathon, not a sprint
that 10 years from now my clients won't remember how many sessions they had with me this December, but they'll remember the dinner they had with college friends on the night we missed their usual workout
that our work together isn't just to create the body they want, it's to create the life that they want
...and that real balance doesn't just refer to standing on a BOSU with your eyes closed.
My wish for you this holiday season is that something in this post resonated enough to be your umbrella during the storm - so that you can enjoy the gatherings, the food and the drinks, so that you can be okay with scaling back your workouts to make time for those you love the most, and that in the coming year, your internal, intuitive intuition guides you through your seasons of hustle & flow.
Sending You Much Light & Love,
Erica
