The Road to Christmas

Christmas is a long festival and an excuse for lots of fun. I think differently, and what I have found is that with a little experimentation, you can have an amazing, indulgent Christmas and discover new ways to invest in yourself at the same time.

This approach is easy because it is fun. It is not magic, even though it can feel like magic. It is simply taking time to learn how to support yourself properly during a time when it is acceptable to indulge yourself. Kick back and do what you want, for the sake of it.

So why not take advantage of the opportunity to really explore what the season has to offer when all this amazing food and fun is around? Learn what you really like and how you like it. No guilt, no worries if you get it wrong. You don’t have work tomorrow, and there is plenty more food if you end up hungry.

With the Fit2Thrive approach, what you learn during Christmas will benefit you for the rest of the year and beyond, so why are you waiting? Start now and reap the benefits for the rest of the year.

If you answer yes to most or all of these questions, then you will benefit from the #roadtochristmas series

  • You feel like a change
  • You love Christmas
  • Holidays drain you
  • You love good food
  • You love preparing for a party
  • You have no time
  • Your health and fitness routine bores you

Try the road to Christmas and get healthier while having the best Christmas ever.

Table of contents

Wouldn’t it be nice if Christmas felt like an opportunity to be healthier while enjoying yourself and not a constant battle?

Christmas is the longest feast of the Christian year. How do you navigate a feast well? Learn how to make the best of the christmas season and learn better feasting habits at the same time. Creating a win-win situation for Christmas!!!

Christmas is a special time of year, but it doesn’t always feel like it because we can get so caught up in life that we forget to enjoy the journey. Christmas is a giant feast that we should be able to enjoy without guilt, but many of us spend most of the time trying to stay healthy and avoid the problems we associate with the excesses of the Christmas holiday.

At Fit2Thrive, I like to enjoy Christmas to the fullest and experience all the fun of the feast. I have spent years proving that I can enjoy the Christmas feast and end it happier AND healthier. Now, I get to show you how I do it so you can join in the fun.

If you think about it you will realise that you will be YOU for the rest of your life. BUT how well do you really know yourself.

  • You are made of trillions of cells. Do you know how cells work?
  • You have a mind, body and spirit, do you know how they work together?
  • You have senses and feel things all the time. Do you know how to interpret these feelings?

The current health and wellness model focuses on consuming ideas and following trends. 

Instead of consuming health trends and buying results I believe in investing in yourself through knowledge and experience. Invest in books, learn new skills and understand how you really work. 

The investment made today gives a return every year from now on. 

I have been investing for so long that I get dividends from my investments every day and I want you to get the same benefit

What options are available

Society tells us that the only way to get fit is by doing one of two things, commonly known as: going to the gym and running. Lots of people enjoy both, but let me explain why I think there is a better way to get healthy, particularly as a parent, by explaining what these activities actually mean.

  1. Going to the gym actually means,
    1. going to a big building where you have to pay a lot of money to enter,
    2. and then do things that make you sweat
    3. while being surrounded by people who look like they are in pain,
  2. Going for a run actually means,
    1. taking time away from your already limited free time or sleep,
    2. getting dressed, leaving the house, and pretending you are being chased or have somewhere to be.
    3. Halfway through, you may realize that you are not actually being chased, and you will need to quickly get back home.
    4. When you do arrive home, you will be so sweaty and smelly that you will need to take a shower and change clothes.

Let your life make you strong

Do either of those activities sound like fun to you? They don’t to me either, and I didn’t do a degree in physical education to end up with only these options. True, there are many other forms of workout you can put up there, but I am very much of the opinion that working out is more effective and useful if done as part of your day using the challenges you face.

As a parent, I find this even more true because taking care of little ones is not just what humans are designed for; it can be the best work of your life if you put your mind to it.

Athletic movements

The simple act of getting a child onto your shoulders and back down is an athletic movement. The heavier the child is and the bigger they are, the more athletic the movement becomes. The same applies to walking around with a child on your shoulders, it makes normal movement a lot harder than usual.

The problem is that an activity as natural as carrying your child on your shoulders is not something you train for at the gym. Gym instructors or personal trainers are not trained how to do this activity safely. As a society, we don’t generally think about these everyday movements as something we train for in the gym. Therefore, we are not properly prepared for daily activities in the way that we used to be.

You need good coordination and strength to channel the forces properly through your body, particularly your spine, back and hips. Any good physical trainer or physiotherapist can advise on good movement techniques and relevant training, but when I worked in gyms, no one thought to mention this type of activity as something to train for. It is this lack of joined-up thinking in connecting our health training and how it supports our everyday lives that causes many of the problems we suffer from.

Your day IS your workout

We assume that somehow the training we do in the gym will translate into benefits outside it, and the truth is that the benefit you gain from training depends directly on how relevant and specific that training is to the activity. So much of what we do in the gym helps with some parts of our lives and our activities but not the whole. Far from it. There fore there a lot of improvement that we can make.

I’m going to list some of the things my wife and I do as parents that are part of our daily diet of exercise. Rather than bore you with the science I will just point out that much of it you would actually do if you were training for a sport. The difference would simply be that you would do the same movements but with specific tools like weights and pulleys. This might surprise you but it is the truth.

So here is the list:

Lifts

Challenging your body with weight. Getting your whole body to coordinate lifting a weight.

  • On to a changing table
  • Into the car seat
  • Buggy into the car
  • Carrying them up the stairs
  • Piggyback squats: Mini dude loves piggybacks, and it is quite a workout getting up from the ground and then walking around with him.
  • bicep curls, part of lifting from the front, like picking them up for a cuddle
  • into the chair for a meal
  • For a cuddle

Runs

Challenging your body with speed. Getting your blood flowing fast, challenging your energy systems

  • Tag, yep I am known for playing tag when I drop little one off at nursery
  • Round the play area, garden
  • To get somewhere faster 🙂

General movement

Teaching your body to move in different ways and asking it to strengthen in ways that will support more fun.

  • Dancing with kids you don’t have to be any good at it. You just join in
  • Sports: Football, Tennis, Catch,
  • Jumping
  • Chores: Tidying up. Shopping, DIY, Cooking, Cleaning: You don’t just movement but you stretch and improve your balance aswell.
  • swimming
  • Days out, zoos, theme parks (These easily get you over 10k steps for the day but think of all the extra weight you have carried)

Study the course

Learn how to enjoy the Christmas Feast. If you found this article helpful, then you need to check out the course it comes from. It’s full of tips and advice that you can use right now.

Get started

If you have only a little time and energy and want to learn these are the key areas to focus on if you want to get the best out of the #roadToChristmas

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The journey

Take a look at some of the adventures big and small that we took on the road to christmas.

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