It’s time to PARTYYY!
Feb 12, 2023How to stay on track during the holidays? That is the question.
Whether it is staying on track or getting on a track, the holidays are not an excuse to not be healthy. #sorrynotsorry for leading with such a strong statement! But listen, we all make excuses (including me!) and we all need someone to call us out on them! It’s not about guilt or shame, it’s just about accountability and genuine desire to see you be well!
So many people wait until the holidays are over before they “start” or they just give up (get off the wagon) and from halloween until new years day they eat whatever they want and stop exercising. The holidays have just become one big excuse to not do the hard things.
I am going to share with you my top 6 tips for staying healthy during the holiday season.
1. Plan your indulgences.
The example of having one whole day where you eat whatever you want might be a little too much for some people, but you can take this same logic and apply it to smaller indulgences like “tonight I am going to have dessert, or a glass of wine, (insert your indulgence here)”. If you are going smaller scale also make sure you plan the frequency of these. Is it once a week or once a month or something in between? The beauty of having a plan is it makes saying NO when it is outside your planned window easier. We all know that there will be cookies, cakes, candy, egg nog etc. etc. in just about every office across America for the entire month of December at least. If you know you are planning to have your favorite indulgence, maybe it’s your mom’s fudge on Saturday, it will be easier to decline that likely dry not that great cookie your co-worker made. And you can do it with your head held high knowing you just made a great decision for your health!
I feel like I can’t leave this point without saying - having a meal plan is key!! If you haven’t already signed up for my newsletter - you can do so here. This will unlock access to my totally free meal planning and prep guide for all the tips & tricks on how to do this. The plan is so KEY to my success. I used to never know what I was going to eat and coming home and digging through the freezer, trying to defrost something and put a meal together wasn’t a winning plan. So often I would just eat a bowl of cereal or a can of soup. Making a plan for your week is the number 1 way to set yourself up for success. I promise!! You know the old saying: fail to plan, plan to fail.
2. The Eat-Before-You-Go trick.
I love this trick! It’s holiday party galore in December and sometimes into January. There may be some holiday parties where you want to plan to just enjoy whatever is at that party but there may be some where you just really want to stay on track to hit your goal or to leave room for your planned indulgence on another day that week. So before the party, eat your healthy planned meal. This way, you aren’t hungry at the party making it impossible to say no to whatever is there. If you are in a rush, a healthy fab four smoothie is a quick and easy on the go meal you can have. You can learn more about the fab four here.
3. Bring a healthy dish.
Okay this one is pretty self explanatory. If you are going to a party, bring something you can eat. And don’t bring a veggie tray that literally no one wants (I’ve been guilty of doing this!). Unless the veggie tray is like ADORABLE and themed it might be best to just not bring that. No one is going to eat it including you!! Tonight I am bringing buffalo cauliflower to a party. I don’t really even like cauliflower that much but when you roast it in the oven with some salt, pepper, garlic and then slather it in Primal Kitchen’s buffalo sauce - SO GOOD! And people will want to eat that because it is different and they will be pleasantly surprised with how tasty it is! Another idea is a Broccoli taco dish. Basically, cook up the broccoli and ground beef with your taco seasonings. Throw the beef on the cooked broccoli and add taco fixings. YUM. You can be creative here. Ilana Mühlstein is the absolute best when it comes to fun veggies most food ideas. Definitely go follow her on IG. I think both the ideas above came from her! Anyway, bringing a healthy dish ensures that you have something good to eat at the party and you get to stay on track.
4. Partake in the games.
This is a fancy way of saying - stay the heck away from the food table!!! If you did the eat before you go trick, you now need to stay far, far away from the food table. So play the games at the party or find a person hiding in the corner and go talk to them. Have something in your hands like your water bottle so you don’t feel like you need to go fidget with the food on the table. If you planned on eating at the party, take a plate and walk away! You can indulge and enjoy those cheesy delicious foods without going back for more and more and more.
5. Have a goal.
Don’t go into the holiday season without a goal. The thing is, you aren’t going to be magically motivated to stay on track if you have no goal that you are working towards. Your goal can be weight related but it doesn’t have to be. I think a lot of people default to weight being the easy go to goal because that is what society as trained us to believe is most important, and because it is easy to measure and track. My goals started out weight based and there is no shame in that! My point is that you set a goal that feels genuinely important to YOU! If you need more info on goal setting check out this post: HERE
6. Grace.
"Give yourself grace" is not a fancy saying for “make excuses.” I just want to say that right now. This doesn’t mean you walk up to the food table and say I’m giving myself grace and eating everything on this table. No, no. Grace is about when you stumble, when you slip into an old bad habit, when you allow yourself the indulgence and then you feel crappy and regretful. Grace means, stop beating yourself up. We are so dang hard on ourselves (especially us women). You are beautiful, amazing, and perfect the way you are. Even if you did something unplanned but you did your best to implement your plan, it’s okay. It’s literally not the end of the world, it’s not the end of your goal. It’s just one moment, on one day and there will be many more moments and many more days to make decisions that help you move toward your goals!
Enjoy the season! It is truly a beautiful time of year!
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