How to Stay on Track Through the Holidays
It’s the most wonderful time of the year!! I love everything about the holidays, but this time of year can be one of the most challenging seasons to stay on track and reach your health and fitness goals. But believe it or not, it IS possible! You don’t have to miss out on all of the festive parties and fun this holiday season to stay in shape. You can still stay on track and live your life at the same time. Here are five tips on how you can get fit and still enjoy the holiday season!
Plan ahead. This is an insanely busy time of year for most people. Take a look at your calendar for the week ahead, and map out your meals. I highly recommend meal prepping on Sunday’s. It is the only way I stay on track (throughout the entire year) because then my meals are already planned for me. I’m less tempted to grab the donuts someone brought to work because I’m stocked up on healthy snacks and have filling, nutritious meals at-the-ready. In the same vein, it really helps to schedule your workouts. I actually put it on my calendar. It makes it more real, and when something else comes up, I look at my calendar and see that it’s the only time I have to work out that day. It makes me more protective of that time. Which is a nice segue to my next point.
Prioritize your time. Let’s be real. The reason it’s so hard to stay on track over the holidays is because there are so many social events throughout the season. Don’t feel like you have to say yes to everything. When you say yes to every single festive party, you wind up feeling resentful around the events that you don’t really want to attend (and it shows!). You feel stretched thin because you’ve had no time to do the things that you enjoy. You probably wind up eating bad food that you wouldn’t have had otherwise, and it puts you in a frustrated mindset. Y’all, it is OKAY to say no to things. I am not saying that you can’t go to any parties this holiday season, I’m just saying to prioritize your time. Say yes to the events that matter and create opportunities for you to spend quality time and create memories with your close friends and families. Be fully present while you’re there and enjoy your time. But there are probably a few things you could knock off the calendar to stay sane, stay on track and feel rested so that you can fully enjoy the events you do want to attend.
Don’t show up hungry to parties. Have a healthy, high-protein snack before you head to your next get together. You’ll feel less tempted to eat your weight in cheese if you don’t show up hangry. In an ideal world, you would eat a full, satisfying healthy meal ahead of time. But if you know that you’re going to want to snack regardless, then a healthy and filling snack ahead of time will help you to avoid making a meal out that cheeseboard. If you do some snacking while you’re there, try to search out sources of protein and limit the more indulgent treats. But it’s okay to have one or two! :)
Work up a sweat. This might not sound like groundbreaking advice. Working out is key to this equation year round, but especially during times where you’re likely indulging a little more than usual. Prioritize your workouts. Put them on your calendar. Make them a date with yourself that you do not skip. Plus, working out and eating healthy are sort of a dynamic duo. When we’re working out, we tend to be more motivated to stay on track with our nutrition. You do not have to carve out a ton of time to get in a good workout! Try a quick, 15-20 minute HIIT session on days where you don’t have time for more. There have been days where I’ve only had 10 minutes to workout. I could have easily used that as an excuse to skip. But that 10 minute workout made me even more motivated to carve out more time the following day for a full workout. This is about forming good, life-long healthy habits. So making your daily sweat session a priority!
Stop Chasing Perfection. The odds of you eating completely clean and always hitting your workouts between now and January 1 are slim. Show yourself some grace, and be reminded that perfection doesn’t exist on this side of heaven. The memories you’re creating are far more important than anything else you’re working toward. We are trying to form healthy habits and make this a lifestyle. And a part of being healthy is having a healthy self-image of who you are. You are already beautiful. You are already loved by Christ. Not a different version of you. Just you. Enjoying a few treats here and there is not going to change that, and it’s not going to ruin all of your progress. Focus on living by the 80/20 rule this holiday season- eat healthy 80% of the time, and let yourself live a little in the other 20%. And if there’s a time where those percentages shift a little, that’s okay!! Perfection does not exist, and you are okay!
I don’t want you to give up on yourself just because you have a lot going on. Don’t wait for January 1 to start working toward your goals. Would you tell your boss that you can’t come to work for the next five weeks because you don’t have the perfect circumstances to go to work? Man, that would be pretty sweet if you could (haha!), but the answer is no, you wouldn’t. So don’t make the same excuse when it comes to taking care of yourself. Get your workouts in. Control the variables of your life that you can control. And have some vino and indulge a little! You deserve it, babe! You can live your life and take care of yourself at the same time. You don’t have to choose. Happy holidays!!
Xoxo,
Heidi