Autumn can be a wonderful time to get out and experience the nightlife of England’s beautiful cities. Cooling temperatures and early sunsets bring a refreshing dynamic to popular cities like London, Liverpool, and Canary Wharf - all cities known for embracing the Fall season.
For many of us though, cooler temperatures and November rain can make cozying up with a book and blanket sound far more appealing.
No surprise there – crisp evening temperatures and the setting sun do little to persuade us to leave the warmth of our homes for a trip to the gym. However, personal trainers are stressing the importance of continuing to get enough exercise this Fall despite having fewer hours of daylight to work with. Without enough exercise, our stamina levels and physical fitness can both deteriorate, leaving us feeling sluggish, tired, and unfocused.
Fortunately, we tapped into the expertise of London’s personal trainers for the best life hacks for staying fit and nocturnally active during the Fall season.
Stay Active During the Evenings
Sound overly simplistic? We thought so too, but we discovered that it’s a powerful “mind hack” that can work wonders once we understand it.
Stop for a moment to consider that, on average, people have a solid 4 hours to invest in themselves every night. The problem is that we waste those hours doing…absolutely nothing. Making matters worse, those are usually the hours when we tend to overeat because we’re unengaged and uninspired. In other words, unplanned evenings can lead to boredom, and boredom leads to overeating.
The truth is that our after-work hours are golden opportunities! All we need to do is change our mindset.
We can use these free hours to pursue things that we’re passionate about and build the kind of life that genuinely excites us, including pursuing our health and wellness goals. Keep your evenings active with fitness goals to keep your body moving or pursue wellness goals that will make you feel better about yourself.
It’s not just how we spend our days that shapes our future; our evenings are equally as important!
Use this time to fuel the development of your personal brand by focusing on activities you’re passionate about, keeping your body moving and your mind engaged!
Watch What You Eat Just Before Bedtime
Let’s get more practical for a moment and tell me if this sounds familiar.
It’s an hour before bedtime, and you’re snuggled on your couch, firing up the Roku, and then you’re hit with it - that menacing and insatiable craving for something sweet, salty, or some combination thereof. Less than 30 minutes later, you’ve already whacked a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, a Diet Coke, and you’re on the hunt for more…
By the time you go to bed, you’re riddled with guilt and vowing to exercise ever-so-vigorously the next day to make up for your dietary decisions. The next day arrives, and you repeat the same behavior.
But dieticians and personal trainers say that it’s not the timing of your meals that’s tripping you up in your efforts to keep the extra weight off; it’s the total amount of calories that we’re consuming, and the cumulative effect of late-night snacking is something that can’t be ignored.
To lose weight, we need to burn more calories than our bodies take in…that’s the science.
And these late-night snacks are often sky-high in calories. If you’re already eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner, then these late-night snacks can add huge numbers to your caloric intake making weight loss a heck of a lot harder.
Here’s what you can do…
One strategy to limit our susceptibility to late-night snacking is to eat something small and healthy about an hour after dinner - hungry or not. For real. This step will reduce late-night cravings and suppress those pesky hunger pangs that cause us to overeat.
Or, if you can’t stand to watch your favorite episodes without some kind of snack, then focus on sensible options like air-popped popcorn or protein-rich snacks like peanuts or sunflower seeds – the latter of which are very high in protein. One of the 3 major macronutrients, protein can serve as an appetite suppressant, and it can play a role in helping you sleep.
One other curious, albeit effective, strategy that a Canary Wharf personal trainer shared with us is to declare the kitchen “off limits” within an hour or two of going to bed. Sounds odd but try it. You may be surprised by how well this strategy can help you reduce your daily caloric intake.
Exercise While Watching Television
This is another nighttime weight loss strategy that’s catching on.
Finding enough time to squeeze in a workout is difficult enough, so don’t make it harder by neglecting the time you have during the evenings. And with the dusky hue of sundown arriving sooner every passing day, we get that there will be nights that we’d rather just skip the gym.
You won’t be alone. So, we chatted with a London personal trainer who shared some great strategies for helping clients fit their exercise routines into their nighttime activities, despite choosing to spend the night at home.
Have you ever considered putting a bike or a treadmill in front of your TV?
No? We get it. We’re not suggesting you drop a clunky piece of equipment into your living room, but what about those other rooms with a TV, like the rec. room or home office? Passively exercising while doing something you enjoy, like watching your favorite television episodes, can have a huge positive impact on your physical fitness.
And there’s also the commercial breaks. Common television shows contain anywhere from 10 to 12 minutes of ad time during each television hour. So, if you want to make a night of watching TV and exercising during commercial breaks, that equates to over 45 minutes of exercise.
If you have a pair of weights, you can implement them during commercials. Or go on the internet and look up “bodyweight exercises.”
During the first commercial break, you can do any number of lunge variations to tighten and tone your thighs, glutes, and calves. During the next set of commercial breaks, do a set of 3 planks for 30 to 45 seconds to tone your upper body and core. The possibilities are endless if you just take advantage of the nighttime hours that are available to you.
Conclusion
While the information above can help us make better use of the evening hours to lose weight, personal trainers encourage us to make fitness and mental wellness an all-day affair. These evening life hacks can complement a healthy lifestyle, but your fitness success will always be largely dependent on living a healthy lifestyle 24 hours a day.