Good news: Your hard work hasn’t evaporated

Whenever I come back home from a holiday I tend to procrastinate about returning to my old routines. I guess I just want to hold onto that feeling of freedom and relaxation as long as possible. I’m sure I’m  not alone in this!

As you start back on your daily and weekly routines,  you might find yourself asking questions like:
How much of my hard-won gains leading up to the holidays have a lost?
Wonderful to hang out with family & friends, eating and drinking, chilling with a book, watching the tennis, but how far have I gone backwards?

The short answer? A lot less than your guilty conscience might be telling you.

I’ve done a bit of digging into the science of “detraining,” and the news is surprisingly good. While you might feel a bit sluggish during that first session back, that sensation is mostly just the ‘rust’ of inactivity. Raw strength and muscle mass are resilient, sticking around for anywhere from two to four weeks without any stimulation. Your cardio endurance (or “engine”) will likely have dipped —our blood volume drops quicker than our strength—but it bounces back remarkably fast once you start moving again.

So, if you feeling a bit flat and rusty, your body just needs to wake up. Your hard work hasn’t evaporated. In fact, that break might have been exactly what your body needed to fully recover and recharge.

So whether you’ve been at the beach, visiting family or were just taking a break from your daily self-care routine, here are four proven ‘Wake Up’ strategies that I personally use to get back on track.

1. Send Yourself an Identity Signal

In habit research, missing one day is just a blip. Missing a few in a row? That is the start of a new habit of not exercising.
Your goal right now isn’t a personal best; it’s to remind your mind who you are: “I am a Be Weller. I am a person who takes good care of my miraculous body.“

 The Fix. Simply lower the bar. Aim for a 10-minute stretch, a brisk walk rather than a stroll, perhaps just 5 squats. Moving your body re-installs that ‘athlete’ identity while being gentle enough to wake up your system without causing injury.

2. Aim for Effortless Action

The biggest barrier to returning isn’t your muscles; it is the mental weight of facing a grueling 50-minute session. The very idea creates resistance and friction. The mind starts doing what it does best—trying to negotiate: ‘Not today,’ ‘Too soon,’ ‘I’m not ready.’

 The Fix: Adopt the 5-minute rule. Commit to just 5 minutes of movement. This forces you to put on your gear and get out the door, perhaps just for a walk, or better yet, to show up at your Be Well class.

Give yourself full, guilt-free permission to stop after 5 minutes. You did what you committed to! Most likely, once you break through that initial resistance, effortless action kicks in and you’ll naturally keep going, this time for 10 minutes, and so on until it is time to stop gracefully. This soft start reinforces your self-care identity and restores its habits, while you blow off the holiday rust.

3. Hydrate to Reactivate

Coming back from holiday usually involves a mountain of laundry, organising the year and a full inbox creating decision fatigue.

 The Fix: For your first three days back, eliminate all choices. Lay your gym clothes out the night before. Pre-book your Be Well classes. Don’t decide to train; just follow the plan you set when you were thinking clearly.

4. Reconnect

Recent data on accountability shows that returning to a social environment is 3x times more effective than training alone after a break.

 The Fix: Book your first week of sessions before you even get home. Text your Be Well buddies and encourage them to join you. That shared social commitment overrides post-holiday lethargy every time. It is much harder to hit the snooze button when you know a friend is waiting!

Finally, aim for Presence, not Performance

In your first week back, your metric for success is showing up. Don’t worry about your weights, your pace or your heart rate. Re-establish the rhythm first; the results will follow.

See you all at Be Well again soon for a fabulous 2026!