6 Tips for Staying Healthy During the Holidays

Staying healthy during the craziness of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years seems pretty impossible right? I mean, there’s temptation everywhere you look and with all the family feasts, dinners with friends, office parties, cookies, pies, and cocktails it’s easy to go into the holiday season already thinking that you’re fucked. And that’s basically true, so my biggest tip is to just accept it and start over next year.

Juuuust kidding!!

But I know that the struggle to stay healthy and on track during the holidays is very real for most of us, so I want to share with you some of the tips that I’ve learned and used in my own life to get me through the season without feeling like a complete failure.

1. SET YOUR INTENTIONS

It’s easy to get caught up in all the holiday chaos between the planning, cooking, baking, shopping, traveling, and entertaining and completely forget to take a second for yourself. I know it’s the season of giving, but you can’t pour from an empty cup so put some conscious thought into how you’re going to show up for yourself during the holiday this year. What are some things that you can do for yourself to make sure that not only is your physical health in check, but also your mental health.

Statistics say that this is the time of year when people experience the MOST stress and anxiety. If family gatherings are overwhelming, dramatic, or draining for you, take time to meditate, do yoga or journal beforehand. Calm your mind from all the noise and distraction and constant go, go, go and remind yourself of the person you want to show up as this holiday season.

Do you want to be the most positive person in the room? Do you want to be satisfied with just one dessert instead of three? Do you want to make the people around you feel loved and beautiful and appreciated? Do you want to fill half your plate with veggies and protein and then enjoy a little bit of all your naughty favorites? Do you want to drink 2 glasses of water for every glass of wine? Do you want to give a genuine compliment to the one family member who really grinds your gears? Set an intention BEFORE the next dinner or party or gift exchange or whatever it may be. This way you’ll have given it some real thought and you’ll be more self-aware when you start to deviate from the plan or feel triggered by something. Be intentional and you are so much more likely to succeed.

2. START YOUR DAY AS YOU NORMALLY WOULD

I don’t know why we get the feeling this time of year that the whole universe has shifted and suddenly we don’t remember how to be responsible or motivated or hold ourselves accountable for ANYTHING - but I’m pretty sure it happens to most of us. The holiday season is like the Spring Break of adulthood - anything goes, there are no rules, and what happens at Thanksgiving stays at Thanksgiving. And that’s all fun and games until you wake up feeling bloated, foggy, lethargic and hungover. So if you’re trying to keep it together a little extra this year try to reframe your mindset about what ‘the holidays’ mean for you.

If you think about it, there’s only a few days in there that are legitimate ‘holidays’ and we’ve just kind of extended the rest of the days/weeks into this long, drawn-out adult vacation from our lives and responsibilities. So the best thing that you can do is reclaim that time in between as part of your normal life. Sure, you’ll have dinners and parties mixed in there as well, but as long as you’re in the mindset of this being part of your regularly scheduled programming you’ll be one step ahead.

What does this look like? It looks like…

• Still waking up at a normal hour - even on days off of work between Christmas and New Years, or whenever you’ve taken time off.

• Still going to the gym or working out if that’s part of your normal life, even on the morning of Thanksgiving (if possible) If you’re hosting I know there’s usually so much prepping to do so this may not be realistic, but you get the idea.

• Still drinking water/staying hydrated and not turning your liver into a wine cellar.

• Still eating fruits & vegetables and drinking your protein shakes even if you have a delicious dinner that night that you want to ‘save your calories for.’ (Do not do this, for the love of God, please.)

• Basically it means treating every day like a normal day as best you can. If you have a morning routine, or a meditation practice, or a workout schedule KEEP AT IT.

There is no pause button for caring about your life and your health, so don’t act like you can just quit on yourself for a month or two and then everything will go back to normal on January 1st. You will lose momentum and it will take you SO MUCH longer to get back on track if you let yourself completely fall off in every area of your personal wellness. Obviously this time of year is very busy and no one is perfect, so be realistic but also keep yourself accountable for showing up when you can.

3. EAT A PROTEIN & FAT RICH SNACK 1 HOUR BEFORE A HOLIDAY MEAL

This is one of my favorite tips that I learned from Dr. Mark Hyman and it’s a really effective one too. Protein and fat help cut cravings for sugar and processed carbs so having a protein and fat rich snack, like celery or apple slices with nut butter or a protein shake, an hour before a big meal will help you avoid overeating.

Around the holidays when you’re having these family get togethers and big meals it’s really common to skip lunch because the whole schedule of your day has shifted and maybe your dinner is much earlier in the day than a normal one would be so that Grandma doesn’t fall asleep before the dessert. This creates a problem because you show up to the big holiday feast at 5:00pm absolutely STARVING, just ready to devour the buffet table and stuff your face with every homemade hors d'oeuvre (yes, that’s how you spell it) casserole, and pumpkin-flavored creation you can find. Adding in this snack an hour before will help to control your appetite and curb some of those intense cravings.

4. DON’T EAT THE BREAD FIRST

Something else I learned from Dr. Hyman is that eating the same foods just in a different order can have a profound effect on your appetite, your metabolism and your weight. So if you dive into the bread basket or the cheese & crackers and other carby-goodness at the beginning of the meal you’re going to have higher insulin levels, you’ll be hungrier, and you’ll store more fat. (EEK!) Not really what we’re going for.

But, that doesn’t mean you have to eliminate those foods from your holiday dining experience because if you just save them for the end of the meal (and practice healthy portion control) your body will absorb the starches more slowly and it’ll have a completely different metabolic effect - which is pretty amazing, right?!

Another trick you can do to boost appetite-curbing effects is to drink two glasses of water with lemon right before any meal, because that alone has been proven to promote improved metabolic function and weight loss. It also helps hydrate the body and allows it to better understand the level of hunger you’re really experiencing instead of confusing it with thirst or dehydration. Often times we reach for food when really what our body needs is hydration, so this helps avoid that confusion and fill you up a little bit before you sit down to eat.

5. BE MINDFUL DURING & AFTER HOLIDAY MEALS

Have you ever been so excited to eat that when you actually sit down in front of your food you completely stop talking, thinking, drinking, and sometimes even breathing? This is what we call ‘thrashing’ in my house.

Now, thrashing down your food can be super fun and satisfying, but eating that fast is really bad for your digestion and usually leads you to overeat because you don’t give your body enough time to process the fact that you’ve just downed 3 servings of mashed potatoes in 5 minutes flat. It takes your body about 20 minutes after it has reached it’s ideal limit to realize that it’s full and start sending that signal to your brain. If you eat too fast you’ll blow past that signal by several servings and end up with that really uncomfortable ‘food baby’ feeling.

So before a big meal if you want to avoid speed eating or overeating make sure you follow the previous tips by eating a snack an hour prior to the meal and drinking some lemon water directly before the meal, but also take a second to sit down at the table and take 3 deep breaths. Think back to your intentions for the holidays and what would make you feel physically good and also happy with yourself at the end of the night. It’s not about depriving yourself, it’s just about eating mindfully and with a purpose rather than unconsciously ‘thrashing’ down everything in sight.

You can also try to sit near a friend or family member who you actually enjoy talking to and tend to have really good life chats with. This will help keep you occupied during the meal, talking in between bites, and helping you to slow down and notice when you’re starting to feel full.

Another way you can practice mindfulness around meals is consciously choosing what you’re going to do AFTER the meal. Maybe you can offer to help clean up to get you up on your feet and moving a little bit. If you have lots of younger kids in your family you could organize to play a game with them or toss a ball around outside. You could even ask a family member to go on a short walk with you after dinner to get some fresh air, move your legs, and maybe see some Christmas lights. Whatever you do, just do it with conscious intention and you’ll be on the right track.

6. BE REALISTIC & DITCH THE GUILT

At the end of the day life is meant to be lived, not to have a six pack. So be realistic with your goals during the holidays and make it more about your overall wellbeing - mind, body, and soul - than just about eating clean or sticking to a workout routine. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to be perfect or expect yourself to never eat a slice of pumpkin pie or a handful of Christmas cookies. ENJOY the holidays, enjoy the meals and the time with family and friends.

The more you restrict yourself the more you will start tallying up the ‘cheat meals’ and feeling guilty. Guilt is one of the WORST emotions for mental and physical health because it places an unnecessary stress on the body and the negative thoughts it produces will lead to more fat storage, more cravings and more cheat-eating/binge eating and send you right back around to feeling more guilt. It’s a vicious cycle so you definitely don’t want to go down that road.

Don’t expect yourself to workout every single day or avoid eating any of the bread or drinking any of the wine. Just be your own GPS. When you take a wrong turn the GPS in your car doesn’t scream at you and tell you you’re stupid and worthless, it reminds you in the nicest voice possible that now would be a good time to take the next possible U-turn. And that’s exactly what you can do for yourself too.

If one dinner or one party gets a little too crazy and you feel like you overdid it, just remind yourself that now is a good time to pull a U-ey. You’re not a lost cause because you went back for seconds 3 times at Thanksgiving. Don’t let that one indulgence justify you screwing up all the way until January first. Just gently remind yourself that you can get back on track as soon as you’d like. Set your intentions, be realistic with what you expect of yourself, and go into the holidays with the intention of having fun, being present, but also FEELING GOOD.