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The “winter blues” is something all of us are susceptible to, thanks to holiday stresses and weather challenges. The good news is Axiom classes and workouts can play a big role in not just toning your bod, but warming your mood, too. Here’s how:

Wake up, Sleepy!

Less sunlight during winter triggers more melatonin production in your body, which causes your body to want more sleep. Craving sleep during your waking hours can be a struggle. Axiom gyms are indoor facilities, so we can’t give you access to more sunshine. However, regular exercise is a proven factor for improving circadian rhythms (your “body clock”) so you can get quality sleep at night and feel refreshed during the day.

Say ‘Ohm’ to Stress

Numerous peer-reviewed studies over the last several decades all come to the same conclusion: practicing yoga makes you happier. It’s also a great workout with a low impact on your body. That’s why Axiom offers five varieties of yoga classes as well as tai chi. For some folks, regular yoga has been a life-changer. For others, it’s a nice break between intense cardio workouts. Take a class and see what it does for you.

Trick Your Body

If the reason for any sadness in the season is physical, get your body feeling like its summer not winter. Spend more time at an Axiom pool. Swimming laps and treading water are low-impact ways to get in some excellent cardio work. After that, take in some down time with the temperature turned up. Axiom hot tubs, saunas, and steam rooms are great ways to feel the warmth your winter body craves.

At Axiom, we see a lot of new faces early in the New Year thanks to the resolutions many of us make. Our personal trainers and staff want to see smiles on those faces at this time next year. So, we’ve put together some tips to help you find success and reach your goals in 2017, especially the ones involving health and fitness.

Be Realistic

If you spent much of 2016 working out regularly, eating right, and running several miles a week, then completing a marathon in 2017 is a realistic goal. If you’re recovering from an injury, need to drop 50 pounds, or haven’t run in years, it may be a health risk.

Nonetheless, you should set goals—realistic ones like completing a 10k or a half marathon, for instance. Or something less daunting, like going to spin class twice a week for the next year. Evaluate where you are now, so you can realize a new you in the future.

Divide And Conquer

Loosely stated resolutions like, “I want to look great at the beach” are hard to make a reality, because they can seem overwhelming or distant. Breaking up those big goals into smaller ones helps us manage and visualize them.

Imagine you want to lose 20 pounds by summer. If you set out to lose 4 pounds per month for 5 months, develop a game plan with an Axiom personal trainer to take in and to burn a specific amount of calories over a manageable course of time—an amount that would put you on pace to lose, say, 1 pound per week.

Buddy Up

Your odds of reaching your goals spike whenever you are accountable to another party. Getting a personal trainer or having a workout buddy are ideal ways to make oneself accountable. But don’t stop there, consider these accountability buddies:

• Group classes —Sign up for a class where you can be accountable to teachers and other students, especially if you let them know your goals.
• Social media friends —Announce your goal on Facebook and post selfies or updates on your progress. Watch the support roll in!
• Participation in the Axiom Success Challenge —There’s a nominal fee, but you get a free heart rate monitor, access to professional training advice, and the chance to win cash and other prizes.

Celebrate Steps

Remember those baby steps? Don’t forget to celebrate the small steps after you’ve taken them. The “party” doesn’t have to be anything crazy. It can be a trip to the movies, letting yourself sleep in an extra hour on the weekend, or going on a mini shopping spree with your Axiom Perx Advantage membership. Discount massage anyone?

Change How You Think, Not Just How You Act

Resolutions are typically focused on what you are going to do or what action you plan to take. That’s all good, but it’s not the whole picture. Cognitive Behavioral Psychology theorizes that our thoughts determine our feelings and behavior. In other words, we can’t change what we do if we don’t change how we think.

So, if your goal is to work out more, you need to think differently about your time at the gym. One idea is to call your workout time your “me time.” Even if you don’t at first believe it, the more you say it out loud and talk to people about it as your special time to focus on yourself, the more your body will believe it. And when you see your body comfortably fit into a swimsuit in June, everyone else will believe you, too.