At this time of the year, you need to work extra hard to burn off those extra calories added on by eating sweets and savories. Managing rising stress levels is another concern. However, lack of time and the difficulty in juggling between managing celebrations and work and home makes following an exercise regime almost impossible.

Instead of skipping your workouts altogether, try and modify your fitness routine by cutting down on the frequency and duration of your workouts. If you are used to working out for an hour thrice a week, workout for half an hour but six times a week. The point is to continue exercising, even if in small installments, rather then omitting it completely. And of course, follow the usual ‘exercise away from the gym’ regime that includes climbing stairs instead of taking a lift, doing as much house work yourself as possible, walking to shop for vegetables instead of driving down and so on. Sounds miniscule, but these small measures can go a long way in keeping you healthy and in shape. Also, if you are active enough, binging on savories during the upcoming Christmas and the New Year festivities will not make you as guilty.

Sounds far fetched but this is true. Scientific research has proven the benefits of a hearty laugh on not just the soul and the heart but also on the body. Of course it hails in emotional healing but it also aids in accelerating bodily healing.

Laughter increases stamina. When we laugh, the action increases the supply of oxygen and blood to various parts of the body, enhancing stamina and providing a massage to the digestive tract. Various other organs such as the liver, pancreas, kidneys and adrenal glands also get exercised by the act of laughing. Not just that, laughing out loud exercises the diaphragm, contracts the abs and even works out the shoulders, leaving muscles and in turn the whole body feeling more relaxed. Laughing 100 times during the span of the day is believed to be equivalent to 15 minutes of cardio exercise. Imagine! Then I would wonder why we do not make laughing an essential part of our daily activities. Try it for a few days to feel the difference!

If you are hooked to a pre-workout supplement either mentally or even physically but can’t really see much of a difference in your workout capacity and output, you could choose to drop them. Instead, opt for a natural supplement or an energizer- banana.

Eat a banana say 5-10 minutes before the workout and then hit those machines or follow whatever your workout routine may be. Bananas contain the powerful nutirents potassium and calcium that increase muscle contraction and give you the energy to work harder and for longer. It also gives you the stamina to lift more and relieves cramps, helping you to be less sore post your workout schedule. Try it for a week, and accordingly you could decide to stop taking supplements and instead opt for something absolutely natural.

However, avoid taking banana on a regular basis if you are prone to cough or suffer from active or dormant asthma or other any such breathing problems.

Alaways stuck in office with just enough time to eat, sleep and bathe. If that’s your story then obviously exercising does not figure anywhere in your list of priorities full of promotions, money and climbing the corporate ladder. While this is a choice you have made, you need to ensure that your body is up to handling the success that soon will be pouring in or is already flooding your life. Here is a simple work place exercises you can do right there at on your seat, at your workstation.

Stand up next to your workstation which should be as high as your waist. Stand 1 and half feet away from this table. Put both your hands on the table and open your legs to the breadth of your shoulder. Now slowly straighten your body and legs. Slowly bend without folding your hands or legs by moving your hip backwards and bringing down your head. You might have to hold your grip properly on the table and rest on your heals. While doing this take deep breaths. Now after bending, put one of your legs a step forward and stretch further. Do the same for the other leg also. Dot his three times everyday for a alert, active, without aches and pains body.

To stay motivated about exercising, it is important that your motivation points are right. If you want to get into a black dress for the New Year bash and don’t want your stomach to bulge out of it, you will end up working out only till the New Year bash is over. Post that, your motivation levels to exercise will surely collapse.

Hence, it’s best not to have such feeble, momentary motivation points. Think correctly about exercising and staying fit to be able to workout positively. The idea behind workout should be to stay fit and improve over all health and well being and not just lose weight. For that, it’s also essential that you measure Fitness appropriately. Weight isn’t always the best number to track. Increase in muscle can offset decreases in fat so the scale doesn’t change even if your body is constantly changing and improving.

Fitness improvements themselves are a great way to stay motivated. So, focus on them. Recording simple numbers such as the number of push-ups, sit-ups or speed you can run at can help you see that the exercise is making you stronger and faster. Also, retention of strength and stamina throughout the day, better than what you could earlier, should be a great reason for you to stay motivated.