It's never a surprise when the wonderful holiday season is upon us. Evident through the beautiful lights and decorations (oh, and those large nut cracker men, too) adorning the houses of our neighborhoods. Evident on store shelves since October. It is also evident at our studio where class participation is down. People are cancelling their individual training workouts or putting their entire exercise schedule on hold until after the New Year. In addition, the yoga class I attend (usually packed wall-to-wall) had only five participants. As any fitness professional will tell you, this is our slow time.

People are BUSY!! - Christmas card sending, shopping, partying, traveling, cooking, baking, cleaning, decorating, etc. (have I really missed anything?) I applaud the people who continue to exercise knowing it is a great way to relieve stress, manage their weight and keep themselves merry as they conquer these holiday tasks.

Of course, while we work out, we are talking about whether the tree (real or fake) is up yet and how much shopping we have done and still have left to do. Yesterday, participants in a group training session were sharing recipes (peppermint bark brownies anyone?) while doing jumping jacks. I have also had recent conversations with clients about Swedish wine concoctions and chocolate martinis.

Now is the time to eat and drink those special treats that only come around once (or twice) a year. Be merry, but also be motivated to keep moving. With that, I would like to share one of my favorite exercise plan/ motivational techniques. It comes from David Lewis, who regularly attends Sculpting, Boot Camp Circuit, Cardio Kick Boxing and Pilates Fusion classes at So.Be.Fit. He has become noticeably leaner and stronger over the past year.

"In my plan I allow four missed exercise days every month. A day does not count unless it is at least an hour and a half. I keep a large calendar at work where everyone can see it and mark off exercise days in bright yellow. The plan gives you motivation on days where you come back from exercise class and may be tired but still do another 45 minutes to count as a day. Missed days are valuable so you plan your month to use them wisely. The combination of the public calendar and the limited number of missed days gives great motivation. Otherwise it is too easy to call it a day after only 45 min of exercise or to get busy at end of month and miss a lot of days."

I love this plan because anyone can cater it to fit with their schedule and fitness level. Decide on a realistic goal for you and stick with it. This may require you to block out time for exercise on your daily calendar, but look at this as your daily gift to you. The results will be worth it!

Keep exercising now and throughout the New Year. When it's time, let's all get out our 2012 Calendars and a big yellow marker and get moving. . . .HAPPY NEW YEAR!