Were your holidays fab?
The delicious food, the wine, the late nights and the dreamy lie-ins? The all-inclusive buffets, the lying by the poolside and the relaxed afternoons scrolling or with a new book?
Regardless of how you spent these last few exceedingly hot weeks/months, it’s pretty likely they didn’t include much of your regular exercise programme.  Now you’re home, back at work and feeling ‘bleugh,’ unmotivated, unhappy and consumed with guilt and remorse…

Well, I’m here to tell you its really not as bad as you think. If you’ve been following a regular and progressive training plan, for a reasonable amount of time prior to your holidays, its only going to take a week or two to get back on track and start feeling really good again!

But you do need to start, and often times this is the real hurdle when you’re feeling demotivated, so here’s few ideas to give you that final push:

Mindset Matters

Your lifetime fitness journey is a long and winding path taking in life’s events and milestones, it’s ups and down and its family births, deaths and marriages.  And when you think about it like this, of course it’s never going to be a flawlessly linier upward trajectory of fitness perfection.

Lifetime consistency means, never letting exercise and fitness reduce or stop for too long. Always remembering through tough times that- a little is better than nothing.  That no matter what’s happened, you need to get back at it- and you know after only a few sessions you WILL feel better!

If you’ve had some time off, don’t beat yourself up- be kind, let it go and get started!

Set a Goal

There’s nothing like setting some solid goals to drive your fitness journey. Spend an afternoon online and you’ll see the UAE has more sporting and fitness games, races and challenges than most countries could ever dream of hosting. From Hyrox to mountain biking, globally recognised marathons and open water swims, to running races of all lengths through zoos, malls and wadis. In short, there’s something for everyone, so find something that inspires, make a plan to get there and start working towards it!

Habit Stack Your Way to Success

I hate to break it to you, but ‘exercise’ alone isn’t the whole picture, you also need great quality sleep, a solid stress release strategy, and supportive nutrition, but try and implement everything at once and you’re destined for failure. Success happens when you take one thing at a time in ‘bite-sized’ steps.

For example, poor sleep? Start making your sleep time half an hour earlier each week. One you’ve got this sorted, you can begin habit stacking your bedtime routine. Try stopping screen use 30 mins before bed for a week, then the next-make it one hour, or start moving your last meal a little earlier each week. Aim for small weekly wins and build on the growing success of each step!

Join a Sporty Community

Fitness communities here in the UAE have exploded over the past few years, and you can find a specific sport for pretty much any demographic you can imagine. Ladies only rucking? Singles looking for love while jogging? Seniors taking on the trails? Midlife guys cycling club? There’s honestly something for everyone. Check Instagram and online community pages for what you want and enjoy!!

Take Advantage of Some Great Summer Offers

With so many gyms and clubs offering free introductory sessions at this time of year, why not take advantage of the free trials. Worst case scenario? It’s not for you- but who cares? You never have to see those people again… And the best? You find ‘your people’. It’s all completely free and you’ll never know until you try!

If you’d like to explore some of Sharjah’s best fitness clubs visit: here

Get a Great Sharjah Personal Trainer

There’s nothing like sitting down with a fitness and health professional who asks all the right questions and really ‘gets’ you- your hang-up, your goals and your motivators.

After a great consultation, they’ll craft a programme based around your personal objectives and goals. And it’s not just fitness, in addition to motivating you to move and inspiring you to hit those goals, a great trainer will also focus on all aspects of your health by identifying and improving your nutrition, sleep and stress levels.

If you would like to know more about my home PT training visit: here

To asses if a Sharjah personal trainer is right for you visit: here

Suck it Up!!

Whether you choose a club or a gym, a personal trainer or your own stoic willpower, you will STILL need to make the first move. You’ll still need to get into your workout wear (and it might not feel exactly like it used to), you’ll still need to make the time, book the slot and show up.

I’m not going to lie, it doesn’t always feel so great the first time back at it, or even the second, but if you can suck it up and get to the end of the week, you will have won… won the battle to find your consistency again, your motivation and your discipline- and we all know just how great this feels!

Want to know why you should be exercising as you age? Read: here