As many of my patients, and honestly, many people experience, maintaining physical activity becomes especially challenging when you are sick and when life is busy. The holidays seem to amplify both. The season brings joy, family, unstructured time, and unpredictability. It also brings viruses, disrupted sleep, travel, and routines that feel suddenly impossible to hold together.
I am finding this to be true for myself right now. With four daughters, viruses are a regular feature in our household. For about two months, I had a solid routine going, working out five to six days a week, trying to build muscle, eating enough protein, and tracking my reps and sets. It was the whole structured thing, and it felt good.
Then I got sick.
Understandably, I stopped working out for a few days. That part made sense. Rest is important. What surprised me was what came next. I did not want to start again. I did not want to work out, did not want to track protein, did not want the structure of the habit in my life at all. The desire simply disappeared.
That part was distressing, especially since this is what I do for a living. But I try to practice what I preach. Instead of pulling the plug on the habit entirely, I kept it going in the smallest way possible. Barely. Critically injured. On life support.
What It Looks Like to Keep a Habit Alive
Restarting Slowly, Even When Motivation Is Gone
A few days later, I did a 20 minute Peloton ride. Nothing remarkable. Nothing intense. But it counted. A few days after that, I did one resistance exercise, my favorite, the bench press. That was it. One movement. One sign of life.
A few days later, I managed an hour ride. And this morning, I did a longer push workout. I do not think I am fully out of the woods yet, but, forgive the nerdy doctor metaphor, I think the habit can probably be moved out of the ICU.
These tiny steps are what habit recovery sometimes looks like. Not dramatic. Not inspiring. Not social media worthy. Just small choices that prevent the habit from flatlining completely.
The Holiday Challenge, When Routines Fall Apart
The holidays add another layer. There is unstructured time. Disrupted routines. Later mornings. Family activities that take priority over personal structure. I am also still wrestling with the desire to wake up slowly, cuddling with my wife, spending time with my kids, versus using the few quiet morning hours I have to meditate and work out, which are much harder to do later in the day.
There is no perfect answer here. There is only the tension between what matters deeply and what requires discipline. Holidays make this tension louder. They always have.
But what I wanted to share during this holiday week is simple. Keep the habit on life support. Even a pulse counts. You do not need full structure. You do not need full motivation. You do not need the perfect morning routine. You only need to avoid giving up completely.
The Truth About Habits, There Is No Finish Line
Every day is another chance to recover, to resuscitate, to restart, even if it is imperfect. The idea that habits live or die in one failure is simply not true. Habits are far more resilient than we assume, especially when we accept that they will fluctuate.
And not to sound cliche, but the only real failure is giving up completely. Even then, sometimes you do give up. Life happens. Illness happens. Stress happens. Interruptions happen. But even after you have given up, you remember something important. The next day, or the next week, or the next month, or even years from now, you can always start again.
This mindset is what carries people through difficult seasons. Not perfection. Not intensity. Not rigid structure. But the belief that restarting is always possible and always allowed.
This is how habits survive sickness. This is how habits survive holidays. This is how habits survive real life. Not through flawless execution, but through refusing to disconnect the cord completely.
