1. The art of a “staycation”
I heard the words “Oh yeah, we met him at the hot tub the other night” come out of my mouth one night at zumba while I was being introduced to someone. It was then that I realized this winter vacation had truly become a vacation– despite the frigid new york temperature, lack of palm tree, and sleeping in my childhood bedroom.
Together with my friends, I took advantage of the amenities at my gym during the break. Swimming in the beautiful pool, relaxing in the Hot Tub, sweating in the sauna, and dancing to Latin music might be the best memories of my life. Because of this, I felt like I was on a staycation. It didn’t matter that I was stuck in Westchester instead of frying in the sun at Club Med Cancun. I had found that same state of relaxation mixed with activity at my gym.
2. Just Freaken Do It
During the school year it is easy to come up with excuses for why I can’t go food shopping– too tired, I’m holding too many books, its raining, blah blah blah. The same goes for returning phone calls, unpacking, etc.
This break I adopted the philosophy to just freaking do it. If i thought about a task and had time to accomplish it, I had to do it.
Despite how sweaty and tired I was post working out, if I needed to go to the mall, I went to the mall on the way home. If i thought about an email i needed to reply to, instead of marking it as unread I had to reply right then and there.
I hope to keep this going during the school year and put an end to avoiding food shopping and doing laundry
3. have an overall goal for break, and accomplish it
It is really easy to get in the habit of doing nothing over winter break. Just switch on the furnace (you can set automatic delivery with tank monitoring to keep check of the fuel and save yourself that extra effort!) and enjoy the warm indoors with the world freezing outside.
Sometimes that is LOVELY, I’ve definitely spent my previous winter breaks home from college staying up until the sunrise in a friend’s basement and then sleeping until 4 pm. There is nothing wrong with this, but that is not the kind of break I wanted to have.
Sometimes that is LOVELY, I’ve definitely spent my previous winter breaks home from college staying up until the sunrise in a friend’s basement and then sleeping until 4 pm. There is nothing wrong with this, but that is not the kind of break I wanted to have.
I decided to join a gym in Westchester one, because I DO enjoy working out and two, because it would give me purpose. I made it my goal to go to the gym basically every day unless I was out of town (AMERICAN IDIOT UTICA!) or fully booked all day. I even kept this vow while I was in the city and utilized both gym memberships a decent amount this break.
I never have this kind of free time during the school year to take every kind of gym class, and go to the gym consistently, so I am glad that I made working out my absolute priority this break.
4. Make the transition to school easier
I have avoided at all costs reverting to my natural nocturnal state– staying up all night and sleeping all day, by forcing myself to go to early morning gym classes, and making plans earlier in the day than I normally would have. A year ago I never ever ever would have imagined waking up at 7:30AM to attend aqua zumba ON THE WEEKEND, but because I kept to this go to bed early, wake up early schedule, going back to my early morning schedule at college will be easy peasy.
5. make it the break you want it to be
so I arguably did nothing this break except hang out at club fit, go to the diner, and other local restaurants, but that is exactly what I wanted this break to be.
I also did a few other things like
–road trip with my boyfriend to Utica to witness the first ever performance of American Idiot on Tour (and introduce my boyfriend to my true love– Idiot).
–I made HUGE strides in my newest trapeze trick– the layout, which is SO CLOSE to being catchable
— try out pound at crunch!
— saw Lin Manuel Miranda’s newest creation “the alexander hamilton mix tapes”
— learned how to solve a rubiks cube (SERIOUSLY!)
— finally made a work resume (hire me!)
— started planning out things for fall 2012- researching options and applying to programs
Winter break easily could have become a waste of time and a month of being a slug, but by being productive and having simple goals and aspirations for things to accomplish this break, it turned out to be an awesome, fitness filled month.
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