Getting over those post-holiday blues!

September is here and for most of us that means back to the usual 9 to 5. Summer is well and truly over and if we are honest with ourselves we have probably overindulged. The question now is how do we kick the post-holiday blues and get back on track with reaching our goals?

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you why your standards might have slipped over the summer months. Maybe you fancied that extra cocktail by the pool or maybe the all-inclusive menu at your hotel was just too hard to resist. Whatever the reason, you are not alone. Plenty of people spend their lives making sure they are in peak physical condition but when it comes to the summer months, the standards just seem to slip.

So what can we do? Well the simple answer is to work hard. Get your nutrition back on point and get back in the gym as soon as possible. If it was working for you before the summer, my guess is that it is going to work for you after. I have said a million times that there is no magic formula. But the other side of that coin is that no one day, or week, of poor choices will ruin your life in the long-run.

Let’s make this clear, I’m not saying that abandoning everything that is working for you is a good idea. If you can maintain the sensible lifestyle choices that you have made over summer and Christmas then that is ultimately going to be the best for you. But in the real world that isn’t always the case. We go to a family wedding, we go on holiday and we over indulge.

After a period of indulgence there are certain things we can do though. Surround yourself with other people who have the same drive and motivation as yourself. The point at which you start is almost irrelevant if you are all as driven as each other. It might take you longer to get there but working with others who see that same end point is always going to help.

When it comes to what you eat the answer is a little bit easier. Because you aren’t away on holiday the chance that you are going to be going out and eating extravagantly is far less. Falling back into your regime should be relatively easy. However, if what you find is that you can’t even nearly enjoy what you are eating at home then you should think about making a change. Eating healthily isn’t about eating things that you don’t enjoy. There are plenty of recipes and foods out there for meals that will satisfy your taste buds.

Almost everyone in the gym will be able to sympathise with the post-holiday blues. So just remember you aren’t alone. If you have lost your way a bit then just accept that happens and try to focus on getting back to where you were. The worst thing you can do is think that because you have fallen back a little, that that is the end.