Like most people, I celebrate New Year’s Eve with my friends. I stay up late and reflect on the past 365 days. The following day, I create a list of goals I want to accomplish for the new year. Most years I stay consistent for a month or two, but other priorities like school slowly take over and I start to slack off. Halfway through the year, my New Year’s resolutions are forgotten.
In early October, I got invited last minute to take a hot yoga class with one of my friends. With playing a fall sport and the start of school, I felt too overwhelmed to have time to work out outside of practice. I felt so rejuvenated after this yoga class, that I realized I missed the feeling of accomplishment after finishing a workout. After an hour of good yoga in a 100-degree room and an eye opening conversation with my friend, I was motivated to get back into the cycle of working out. We created a schedule incorporating different exercise forms that would help us accomplish our goals.
Coincidentally, I started this routine when I started seeing TikTok videos about a “Winter Arc.” I soon fell into a rabbit hole of understanding what it was. “Forbes” defines this trend as “a commitment to refocus your daily routines and habits before the first of the year”. Taking inspiration from New Year’s Resolutions, a Winter Arc is only a three-month-long commitment. It’s easy to slack off during October, November, and December. We tend to fall back into bad or lazy habits with all the different holidays. It gets colder and the appeal of hoodies and sweats only increases. The Winter Arc aims to better yourself in whatever way you can. Other people focus on waking up early, journaling, upping the intensity and consistency of workouts, getting more sleep, and eating healthier. The unique part of this trend is that there are no rules. Unlike other trends like the 75 Hard, Winter Arc differs for each person.
For my Winter Arc, I wanted to focus on improving my mental health and getting back into the cycle of working out. Based on the foundations of consistency, my friend and I wrote up a plan on Facetime. We agreed to consistently get up early and work out in the morning before school, journal more frequently, try to go to bed earlier, drink lots of water, and eat an overall healthy and balanced diet.
The first week was fun! It was refreshing to be up early and feel awake by first period. I stuck to my workout blocks and was consistent. However, there were times when I did not want to get up—the weeks where I had upwards of five tests made it challenging to stick to my goals. Some days I simply was unable to workout because I knew the mountains of homework and studying I had were more important. Days when I was at school from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. were long and made finding time to stay on track hard. As much as I tried to romanticize the fall, it was really hard to stick to it. I ended up adjusting my schedule every few weeks to adapt to weeks when I had lots of homework and tests.
Once my fall sports season ended, it became easier. The stress of junior year is a lot, but I found that exercise was a great reliever. I was forming habits coincidentally related to my new schedule that improved my day. My Winter Arc had its ups and downs but it pushed me to do my best.
