What Season Are You In?

Each changing season has its own unique weather patterns, daylight hours, and ecological changes. This is why changing seasons influence our bodies and lifestyle throughout the course of a year by having an impact on metabolism and nutrition, sleep, exercise patterns, social engagement, mood and work-life balance. 

If you look at this in a sporting context, seasons would look like this: 

Athletes will do the most volume of work in their Pre-season. This could generally range from four to twelve weeks depending on the sport.

In-season the volume of work dramatically reduces because of the intensity of their matches. They need to peak during in-season. 

When their matches are finished they rest in their Off-season.

When we look at our own lives and how our year would generally play out, we can see there are periods of time that are more intense than others.

Below are just general examples of how we can plan out our seasons. Your seasons may look very different to another person's seasons for various reasons. 

Pre-Season:

These are the months where things are more 'normal'. You are home for some weeks/months in succession and your healthy habits are reinstalled. This is the time of year you start exercising, sleeping and cooking more consistently. Your Pre-Season could be the months of September through to the end of October, and again January through to March.

In-Season:

This is the time of year that is the most demanding and intense for you. Emotionally it is very demanding. It is the time of year that feels most chaotic to you. This could be your family 'holiday' 😄. These months could be November and December as the Christmas stress comes on. 

Off-Season:

These are typically the months when we are in holiday mode. This could be the Christmas holidays for you. It could also be in the Summer months or during kids' mid-terms and you might be holidaying at home or abroad. So your off-season could be mid-December through to mid-January, and again June through to September.

Marathon runners will understand this. They will have different seasons depending on when and where they are going to compete in a marathon. 

I see the most frustration and anguish in people who are trying to lose weight and get into a exercise routine but at the same time their life is chaotic. They are being pushed to the very limit in every area of their life. These peaks of stress, activity or career are usually related to a specific time of the year. 

To these people I try to explain – try to align your current goals with the season you are in and try to plan ahead the season that is coming next.

So if you were to look at the time period between right now and the end of 2025, what does your calendar look like? what season are you in right now? or are your seasons changing right now?

Regardless of what season you are in it is important to try and establish some non-negotiable's that work for your lifestyle during your pre, in and off seasons to support damage limitation:

Examples of Non-Negotiable's: 

—       I will drink 2 litres of water per day 

—       I will walk 5k steps per day

—       I will lift weights once per week 

Holding on to these is important to maintain our connection with our health and fitness and general well-being no matter what season you are in.