It’s so hard to say goodbye to your favorite season, and it’s even harder not to ruin all the hard work that you put in the gym in the months prior. After months of sweating and watching what you eat, the second the temps drop below 80, you might be ready to take a long break and fall back into your pre-summer habits.
Seasons change, but that doesn’t mean that your body has to do the same. You can have your slim waist and your pumpkin spice too if you get prepared for the season and all its temptations.
With shorter and colder days approaching, there is a lot stacked up against you. For one, you can wear more forgiving clothes again so you don’t have the same incentive to keep your abs tight as you did during the summer. You also naturally crave more filling and warm foods, which typically means more calories and pounds.
But there are also good things about the new season: you’ll want to be inside more, which means the gym can be your new hangout spot and you’ll likely drink less since the sun goes down earlier and happy hours aren’t as tempting. We’re loving the new season for a chance to stay healthy and stick to our summer body goals.
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Keep reading to see how you can make the new season work for you.
A New Workout Schedule
Before you face your first plate of mac and cheese at the next company potluck, do yourself and your summer body a favor byplanning out consistent workouts for your entire week. If you know you can’t avoid eating a little bit more this season, plan 5 times a week to work out for at least 30 minutes.
Keep in mind, that it’s less important what you do at the gym and more important that you move consistently. Don’t know where to start? Here’s a model for your new weekly workout schedule:
- Sunday: Yoga
- Monday: 30 minutes walk or jog
- Tuesday: Upper body strength workout
- Wednesday: 30 minutes on stair climber (or actual stairs)
- Thursday: Lower Body Strength
- Friday: Boxing or HIIT class
Since you won’t be at the pool, use some of your new-found free time to get an extra workout or two in each week.
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Be sure to add at least 2 days of strength training to your regimen so you can burn calories even when you’re cozying up with your favorite blanket.
A New Meal Prep Routine
You can also use the shorter days to your advantage by coming home to large batches of food for your weekly meal prep. In the summer there is alwayssomething going on, but as fall settles in, you’ll likely be home more often, which means you can use some of that time for cooking.
Think of your favorite comfort foods and find healthy alternatives, like veggie or turkey chili, cauliflower mac and cheese, and other healthy spins on your favs.
To meal prep for a week, just plan out 2-3 main meals that you can eat for dinner and lunch over the week. Make one large batch of your favorite breakfast, and add fruit and nuts for your snacks if you need.
A New Sleep Schedule
It’s sad to see the sunset so early as months pass by, but this is great news for your sleep schedule. Shorter days are the perfect time to reset your clock—literally. As it gets dark, you can use this time to start preparing for bed earlier, and hopefully getting more hours of precious sleep.
Fortunately, your meals will be prepped so you should have less to do when you’re home after work and the gym. Rather than fight to stay awake, use the extra hours of moonlight to trick your body into sleeping earlier.
One piece of advice: don’t start byadding 2 hours to your sleep schedule at first. Instead, start with about 30 minutes more for a few weeks at a time, until you are able to get to sleep for 7-8 hours each night. This is the recommended time to help your body thrive during the day.
With our help, your summer body is about to get a new name.
