The holidays are here. Now is the time to get together with friends and family and celebrate. I’m sharing 8 tips to stay healthy this holiday season.There is so much to celebrate as the new year approaches and there is going to be food, drinks, and desserts at every turn. In recent months, a lot of people have begun to get back into shape and back to their usual eating routines and exercise routines. It’s very easy for the holidays to derail all of the good you have been doing, but it’s not impossible to stay focused and have will power for the next few months.
Keep Your Gym Routine
If going to the gym is the staple of your health regiment, do not stop going. As soon as someone eats that extra slice of cake or overeats at a work function, the habits snowball and before long you are giving up the fight. Don’t give up. Just because you go off of your diet doesn’t mean that it’s over, it’s just another bump in the road.
No matter what is happening to your eating habits, continuing to go to the gym keeps the calories off and the pounds down. A slip up here and there is going to happen, and that’s okay. That’s balance. Just make sure that the scales stay as even as possible and continuing to go to the gym as you always do will help.
Stick To Your Diet
Yes, you will slip up. We have already discussed that, but that doesn’t mean the diet is over. The first thing that may help is not thinking of yourself as being on a diet, but rather, instituting a lifestyle change. Diets are temporary. And when you think of something as being temporary you will go back to your old habits and you will go back to your old body.
Put it in your mind that you are going to have desserts and drinks and lots of food in the next few weeks, and that’s okay. Give yourself that permission, but when you are home or at work or having a typical night at home, stick to your new way of eating. Don’t allow one or two family dinners and moments of indulgence make you feel you can’t do it. You can. Trust.
Don’t Let Yourself Go
Keep up your healthy habits. Some healthy habits include taking your vitamins, taking medications, or taking supplements. Whatever you do to keep yourself balanced and healthy, continue to do that. For a lot of people, work gives us a certain routine where we do the same tasks at the same time everyday. During the holidays, we are off from work, so everything changes.
Just because the structure of your day has changed does not mean that what you do within that day has to stop. Some things may get pushed to the afternoon, or now you have time to do things during the day instead of at night. No matter when your tasks happen, do them all and keep yourself focused and on track.
Keep Up With Your Medications
If you are on medications to help keep cholesterol down, blood pressure even, help you breathe, or help with your digestion, keep up with them by reordering before the holidays. During this time of year, deliveries are delayed and stores are overwhelmed with shoppers. Take the time to make sure you will have what you need through the busy time.
Get to your doctor and get refills on prescriptions, reorder your inhaler, or get to the store and buy the vitamins and pills you need. This will ensure that you don’t miss a dose, go off track with your routine, and it will help you bounce back from the holidays better having not missed any part of your health routine.
Practice Portion Control
This is the biggest helper in getting through the holiday season with healthy habits. A lot of weight gain comes from lack of portion control. When you are sitting at a table with a huge feast, you want to eat everything. And you should. However, eat a bit of everything. Avoid large portions of each food that will cause you to gain weight and not feel well.
When you are sitting at the holiday table this year, put enough on your plate that you will eat, that will make you feel satisfied, and will not make you feel overly stuffed. When we eat too much we also get lethargic, and you won’t want to do anything like go to the gym, go for a run, or go to your favorite exercise class. This will put you behind in your wellness journey.
Be Selective With Dessert
Dessert is always the best part. That’s why it comes last. When there is a huge plate of assorted cookies or pastries in front of us, we want to eat them all. Cakes and pies and dessert drinks abound at holiday parties, but just because something is there doesn’t mean that you have to have it.
When it comes to the holiday dessert table, be selective with what you want to eat. Pick two or three things that you know you are absolutely going to love and have one reasonable helping of each. After that, have a coffee, have a cocktail, and relax. The sugar in desserts will make you feel tired, and you may want to disconnect from the group. Don’t overindulge and you will be able to stay alert and part of the conversation.
Watch Your Alcohol Intake
This is a big one. We tend to overindulge in booze during the holidays and that can have a huge effect on our health. Alcohol is actually a poison your body tries to get rid of when you drink it. That’s why some people can’t keep their liquor down. The liver turns the poison into something digestible, but if you are excessively drinking, the body cannot work fast enough.
Pace yourself. Too much alcohol can cause you to not feel well the next day, and you can fall behind in your life, in work, and with social engagements. Monitoring your alcohol means that you will stay well and you will feel well and you will have the energy to see everyone and continue to go to parties and festivities without feeling sick.
Don’t Spread Yourself Too Thin
You don’t have to go to every party. The best way to stay healthy and stay fit and well is to get enough sleep. Every now and again it’s okay to stay up all night and have a wild time, but other days of the week, make sure you are getting your eight hours of rest. Proper sleep allows all of your working out to take hold, your digestion to be regular, and your body the chance to recharge for the next affair.
Don’t spread yourself too thin. It’s okay to decline an invitation or reschedule for another time. When you give yourself the time you need to feel balanced with your hustle and your rest, you can be alert enough to continue to work out, sharp enough to make good dietary choices when out, and feeling well enough to indulge in a holiday drink or two without making yourself sick. Make wise choices this holiday season, and you will soon find that when the new year gets here, you will already be in a routine that everyone else is trying to start.
