Chinese New Year – is upon us in less than a month’s time. For many Chinese Singaporeans, this means plenty of eating and feasting whilst spending time with relatives and friends. At the same time, exercise will almost certainly take a backseat, amidst all of the merry-making.

Too much celebrating and not enough running during Chinese New Year?
Photo: majamaki.com

But here are some tips on how you can maintain your running schedule through the Chinese New Year season and at the same time, minimise weight gain from the sinful festive eating as a result, through regular exercising.

1. Schedule your runs

If you put your runs into your weekly schedule and set the dates and times for these in stone, you are less likely to forego your runs. Think of fitting in runs the same way as you would attempt to squeeze other appointments into your weekly schedule, such as how you would make time to catch-up with friends or watch a movie. By prioritising your runs like this, you will probably end up going on them.

2. Adjust your routine

If you are usually an evening runner, but you are finding that you need to spend more time after work to shop for last minute stuff, such as buying Chinese New Year goodies and new clothes or catching  up on your spring cleaning, then maybe you could change your schedule over the next few weeks and do your runs in the morning instead.

3. Be more flexible

At the same time, flexibility will definitely help over the festive Chinese New Year season. For example, if you usually run for one hour at the park, which is a 10 minute drive away from your place, you do not have to stick to this park if you are lacking time.

Perhaps you could consider running for half an hour around your neighbourhood to save time. It could be a less productive run, as you may for example, end up stopping for more traffic lights than usual, but you are still going on a run and that is better than nothing.

4. Do not beat yourself up if you miss out on one session

But that said, if you do happen to miss out on a run, you need not beat yourself up about it. At the same time, do not treat a missed run as an excuse to stop exercising completely over the festive period. Instead, try and get your exercise and running regime back on track as soon as possible – rather than simply dwelling on something that you cannot change anymore.

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