Hey Doc, How Long Was I Out For?
Babies sure do throw a wrench into a fitness program.
After carting around our 2-month old for the month of December, indulging in countless baked goods toasting every new developmental milestone with take-out and a solid 4 hours of sleep, I found myself looking at the scale this morning with a singular thought.
“What the heck happened back there?”
In 10 years of coaching, I’ve had a front row seat to how the holidays can derail someone’s fitness routine. Never have I felt it on a personal level like this year.
I tend to struggle when I lose my fitness routine. I feel tired, irritable, and maybe even a bit sad at times. It sucks feeling like I’m not managing my own health, although pecans coated in milk chocolate sure do offer a pick me up sometimes.
So what do I do when my routine falls by the wayside? I’d like to have the answers for you but as a fellow struggling fitness enthusiast, I can only say what I’ve told others in times like these.
Get back to the basics.
Below are 3 Steps Toward Reestablishing Your Fitness Routine in 2026.
Step One: Get Clarity
For me, this can be biometrics (height, weight, body fat percentage) along with my mile time and most recent strength training numbers. I also use resting heart rate and blood pressure in the morning to determine where I’m currently at with the basics.
For others, I’ve seen people have success with how their clothes are currently fitting, what their nutrition has looked like over the last week and how many cups of water they drank yesterday. Some of these objective measurements can start the conversation about where to start when beginning anew.
For me, my numbers looked like this:
Weight: +10 lbs year over year
Body Fat Percentage: Up 1% year over year
Blood Pressure: Same as last year
Resting Heart Rate: Up 5 bpm year over year (average)
And a few strength training measures:
Pull Ups: Up 2 year over year (maximum set)
Squat: Up 20 watts year over year (KBox Measure)
Once we can look at our most recent trendlines, we can establish the areas that we are having success in and where we need adjustments.
For me, I was happy with my strength training improvements and not thrilled with my body fat percentage and resting heart rate trending in a negative direction. For me, this might indicate I could improve my cardiovascular fitness in 2026 along with improving my nutrition for body composition.
No significant changes seemed necessary to my strength training routine.
I’ll take the win there.
Step Two: Establish A Plan To Address Areas of Improvement
For me, nutrition and cardiovascular fitness seemed most important to address. I started tracking my nutrition through a meal-tracking app and signed up for the Vermont City Marathon in May (running 6 miles, not the whole thing to be clear).
After signing up, I felt motivated to start a running and biking program to begin addressing my cardiovascular fitness.
For those seeking improvement in strength training, it could be figuring out what exercises they want to improve in and building a program from there. I used squats and pull ups in this example but it could be anything dependent on your goals. For the pickleballers out there, let’s improve that amortization phase and reap the benefits in 2026!
Step Three: Seek Accountability Strategies
Shameless plug, personal trainers do really well during this step.
Accountability comes in many forms. For me, writing this article helps hold me accountable, especially after Sam reads it.
Having other people who know and understand what you’re trying to accomplish can be very motivating.
It can also create crushing stress and self-doubt, so know thyself there:)
Other forms of accountability could be setting reminders in your calendar to drink water, those annoying wearable watches reminding you to stand up once in a while or even the classic sticky note on the bathroom mirror to give you that gentle suggestion to stay true to yourself.
Step Four: Wait Did We Only Say Three Today?
At its core, these are fundamental concepts. No groundbreaking strategies to be seen here.
What can be groundbreaking is the application of these 3 steps within a health and fitness strategy.
Assess
Plan
Execute
After all this, there is one more step. Reflect! That’s for another day though..
If you are interested in a professional assessment and support with setting goals and getting into a routine with one of our coaches, reach out to our team to get started.
