The Daily Tiffin: Workout who? What?

By now you must be in full holiday mode, shopping, baking, visiting with family and friends. You might be busy with church events, packing, wrapping and ….eating! Every day you must be wondering how to come up with a 25th hour, let alone finding the time to fit in a workout. Yet, you long for the days when just 20 minutes of exercise was giving you the energy of a super hero. Well, might just have the tricks you need to cure the Holiday Workout Blues.

1/ The Kitchen Workout:
- If you are baking a lot these weeks chances are that you lean over every time you open the oven to get that pan of cookies out. To give your back a break and work your quads, squat down instead when you open the oven door. Make sure to have feet about hip width apart and body weigh evenly distributed over both heels. Add a set of 20 pulses while in squat position to get a full set. Before you know it, your 4 batches of cookies will have helped you achieved 80 squats!
If your oven is separate from your stove and on a higher level, keep the same concept in mind but do calf raises instead. Stand with feet shoulder width apart and stand on your tippie toes. Do 4 sets of 20.
- While standing in front of the stove or countertop stirring and prepping, take this opportunity to do some leg extensions. Stand with both feet together, flex right foot and extend your right leg up to knee level. Repeat until you reach 20 repetitions. Switch legs.
- For your upper body, take a step back from the counter and place both hands wider than shoulder width apart on the countertop. Do two sets of push ups (20 reps) to work your chest. - To work your triceps, place your hands on the counter one next to the other and press down and up until you reach 20. Repeat both exercises.

2/ The Home Workout:
- Chances are you will be seated at your desk or kitchen table writing cards and thank you notes this holiday season. Why not do the same thing while seated on an exercise ball?! You will engage your core and keeps your abs engaged and contracted while working on your balance.
If you find yourself lying on the floor playing with babies or pets, why not do a few sets of crunches? Place the baby or pet on your stomach, bend your knees, feet flat on the floor, hold them while you keep your chin away from your chest and crunch up.
- Try to engage the children around you into a mini workout sessions with you, we all can use a little fitness during this time and they might need to work off their sugar rush. Work in pair, seated on the floor facing each other with both sets of feet touching. Take an object in your hands, you both lie down and crunch up towards each other, exchange the object and repeat 20 more times. You can work your obliques the same way by having two people back to back passing an object back and forth starting going towards the right.
Have them do buttlifts and leg extensions with you on the floor.

3/ The Outdoor workout:
The weather might be nippy or downright freezing but spending even a little as 20minutes outside can make anybody feel energized.
Play snow angels, have a snowball fight. Do a few sprints form one house to the end of the street. Organize mini games for the kids and go play with them. Even 10 minutes. Do that several times during the day and you can get a pretty good cardio boost.
Instead of walking the dog at your normal pace, bring a little skip to your step, within a minute you will increase your heart rate and start burning calories. Your dog may not be a runner and you may not be either but do mini jog segments for about a minute. He may think of it as a game and you’re getting some benefits out of it too!

During the “normal” times of the year, getting to the gym is like being on auto-drive, it is second nature, another thing on the “to do” list. During the holidays, excuses are plenty to put exercise on the back burner,and that is why you have to make a conscious effort everyday to remain active. It’s not easy, it takes strong will and this is the last thing we want to think about. Maybe it’s time to take a break or slow down and just to find a few minutes each day. It will not give you an athlete’s body but it will put your mind at ease and that is definitely a plus right now. Take this opportunity to reassess your goals and needs and make a list for the new year.

Have a Merry Christmas and drink plenty of water!!

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This Post was written by Helen from Tartelette