Let’s Create Healthy Holiday Habits!
It’s December 1st, and Thanksgiving is over, but the biggest holidays of the year are heading quickly into sight! On average, many American adults gain anywhere from 5 to 20 pounds in the weeks between Halloween and New Years. Although this crazy year of 2020 has changed the way we generally celebrate this season, food, sedentary behavior, extended darkness, and cold weather tend to affect our health goals just as much as parties and social events. My goal, as a health coach, is to make people aware of the habits and hidden traps that can lead people into the land of temptation and help them create tactics and plans to avoid those added pounds!
Most of us are following guidelines that currently have us avoiding parties and social events that present us with the large amounts of food and alcohol that often create the biggest challenges to our December goals of healthy living. But, as stated above, other factors play into us losing site of our healthy plan during this busy, and usually stressful, time of year. Cold weather and long dark nights may keeps us indoors, therefore cutting down on our time spent getting exercise outdoors, and keep us from getting the fresh air and sunshine that keeps our bodies happy and healthy. Daily walks are cancelled due to inclement weather, and most outdoor physical activities like gardening, tennis, and running are impossible in most areas. It’s important to take some time to evaluate how you used the outdoors in your exercise plan, and come up with a replacement that can be easily done indoors. Yoga, treadmills, dancing, and streamed workouts are a fantastic way to bring your movement into warmer settings. It is important to continue to get some fresh air each day, and a bit of sunshine to boost our vitamin D and prevent depression and seasonal affective disorder. Seasonal affective disorder, or “winter blues”, leads to symptoms of depression in healthy people due to a reduction of daily sunlight. Symptoms include depression, lack of energy, loss of interest in things that bring us joy, issues with concentration, and sleep disorders. Spending a small amount of time each day in the sunshine can alleviate these issues, even if you spend it sitting inside a window basked in sunshine.
Holiday parties and dinners, even done with COVID restrictions in mind, often include decadent foods, adult beverages, and lots of treats we wouldn’t otherwise have in our health plans. The important thing to remember is to ENJOY without OVER-INDULGING! It’s absolutely fine to enjoy a few “only baked once a year” cookies, just remember-it’s about TASTING them and ENJOYING them! It’s not about eating the entire plate of them!! Enjoy your favorite foods and treats in small amounts, and move on to the main focus of the holidays-making family and friend memories, enjoying those around us, and appreciating the time we have together.
Most families have what I call a “food pusher”. It could be your mom, your aunt, or a friend that simply gets her holiday joy from watching people eat all of her treats. You know who these people are, and you need to have a plan to deal with them in advance-they generally do NOT take “no” for an answer. There’s lot’s of ways to say no politely, after trying a small sample, of course, but these people usually don’t settle for a simple “No thank you!” Have a plan of action going into this situation, and be strong about it. Some people think they have to announce their health goals, diet plans…But that often leads to too much attention and discomfort from the food pusher. Always remember, “NO.” Is a complete sentence, and that food pusher will likely move on to a new hungry victim quickly!
I’ve put together a pretty little resource for surviving the holidays, and it’s free to you HERE. There’s tips for self care, healthy holiday travel, getting exercise during busy holiday weeks, optional food choices for meals, and a few tracker templates to print out to help get you organized and motivated. I hope you will grab yourself a copy, and make your holiday season a little healthier and happier.
Happy holidays!!