Half-Term Havoc!
- graceplantbased
- Feb 21, 2022
- 4 min read
Stay on top of your nutrition and fitness this half term.
Its that time again- the half-term holidays! This half-term has definitely been a long one, and if you're anything like me, you'll be welcoming the slower pace, lazy mornings and the chance to have more quality time with your little people.
Which is all great. It's a blessing.
But the irony is, the 'extra' time often means you actually have less spare time. Trips to the gym or a run round the beach between the school runs and work can easily get way laid, especially if you're a single parent. Childcare might be difficult- if you've not been able to take time off, you're probably already calling in favours with family and friends to keep you covered whilst you're at work. If you're on holiday, mid-week meals out and long journeys might upset your usual routine- and let's face it, little people love a late night, so those couple of hours on an evening that you usually have can disappear as quickly as you can watch Encanto for the umpteenth time.
So how can we manage this without un-doing our efforts? The secret is in consistency. Which seems like a big ask when the very nature of school holidays is a change in routine and a bit of spontaneity for good measure.
Consistency is more important than perfection.
In a perfect world, nothing would change, we'd all hit our macros everyday and get our 30 minutes of moderate level exercise in 5 times a week without any dramas or interruptions. But life isn't perfect. What matters most is that we keep moving forward- making progress, how ever small that progress is. Little wins lead to big wins. Nobody has ever lost 5kg without loosing a lb first! No-one has run a marathon without running that 1st mile first. And nobody has overhauled an unbalanced lifestyle without making some small changes to start with.
Here are 5 things you can stay consistent with this half term.
Keep drinking water. The average person needs around 2 litres of water a day. Water is so important for our health. If you manage nothing else- drink a glass of water before you eat. People often conflate thirst with hunger- by drinking before you eat, you'll help reduce your chances of dehydration, and are less likely to eat over eat.
SLEEP. Its really easy to stay up late, especially if your little people have had a movie night and you've still things to do. Ask yourself this question: can it really not wait until tomorrow? Staying up late might seem like a good idea at the time, but by staying up late, we create what's known as a sleep deficit, meaning we need more sleep to catch up on the sleep we missed. Being tired never did anyone any favours, especially given the unwritten rule that children will absolutely wake up 30 minutes earlier than on a school day.
Move More at Home. If getting to the gym or out for a run is out of the question, you'll need to get inventive at home. Aside from the usual bike rides or walks, stick on some music and have a dance off. Walk to the corner shop for teabags. Stick on Cosmic Yoga on You Tube and join in with your kids. If you really need to do some form of workout, I recommend squats, planks, crunches and push-ups. You can make these harder by holding a tin of beans or a bottle of water in each hand. Do 3 sets of 8-12 reps with a minute break in-between. Try and hold your plank for 30s (engage that core!), rest for 15-30 seconds and then repeat up to 10 times.
Eat Plants. If you're away on holiday, you might want to relax and eat differently to your normal routine. That's ok. To make sure you're getting your 5 a day, have some kind of side salad with your meals. My go to is always spinach, cucumber, tomatoes and pepper. If that sounds a bit boring, commit to eating 2 fruits or vegetables at each meal- its an easy goal to hit without much effort if you're particularly busy.
Embrace the chaos. Just role with it. Its one week. Little people don't stay little very long. If you generally have a balanced lifestyle, one week with a bit of imperfection isn't going to ruin everything. You can even use it as a learning curve- pay attention to how you feeling after eating certain foods, or how you feel if you've not managed your usual workouts. When we pay attention to how our lifestyle makes us feel, and compare what makes us feel great to what makes us feel 'bleurgh', it can help increase our levels of intrinsic motivation- we recognise that some activities don't make us feel good, or that we've developed a not-so-great habit related to a negative emotion. In turn, becoming aware of this increases our desire to engage in the behaviours that do leave us feeling great.
So there it is- my thoughts on the havoc that can be half-term, and a few of my tips for managing our lifestyle around it. Let me know in the comments if you have any other ideas!
On one last note- be kind to yourself. Failure is not the same as making a mistake or a not-so-great choice because at that particular moment in time, it was the best option. Sometimes, doing our best is all we have.
And that's 100% ok!
Struggling to find that balance in your life? Want to make changes but don't really know where to start?
I'm running a free 5 day challenge based upon my philosophy, Eat Plants, Move More. This challenge will reveal to you some of my sustainable methods (both nutrition and fitness related) that you can start to use straight away to bring balance back into your life.
For more information, and to sign up, click the button below.
Have a great half term!
Comments