Holidays are a special time of the year. You get the opportunity to gather with several family members which you don’t get to see on the regular, and you also get to savor many, many delicious meals (and drinks) that may come your way. From turkey to cookies, some of these treats are hard to steer clear of. The matter is: should you? Here we are going to equip you with some tools you can apply so that you can healthily survive the holidays.
Make Amends with the Holiday Season
Even though this may seem like a new-age, bland, Pop psychology-ish notion, for some of us, the holiday season may not quite be a source for entertainment and happiness, possibly leading to many different coping mechanisms that could be unhealthy. For instance, binge drinking or eating.
As hard as it can be, do your best to think about holidays with the right state of mind, and staying healthy throughout it will be so much easier on so many different levels.
Now let’s move on to some more tangible steps we can take as well.
Try to Find Ways to Reduce Stress
Holidays can be a notorious source of stress, which calls for actions to mitigate those feelings. Finding sane ways to deal with stressors will make things so much easier for you to cope with overall symptoms as well. Plus, you will feel a higher sense of self-accomplishment if you can naturally get rid of stress! Some of these include the following:
- Meditation
- Breathing exercises
- Physical exercise
- Manual labor
- Engage in a hobby of your interest (reading, watching films, listening to music, etc.)
- Prepare healthy meals
- Indulge in self-care routines
- Do selfless things for others
- Get good sleep!
As you can see, the options are endless. All it takes is a creative mind, and the willpower to overcome the unfavorable sensations.
Consume What You Want in Moderation
As you may already know, the secret to overcoming holiday temptation in a healthy fashion is not to refrain from what you want to eat, but to consume it in moderation! Do you want to get Eggnog? Do it! Just don’t overdo it. Do you want to eat gingerbread cookies? Go ahead! Just, don’t get too many of those.
If you have the feeling that you may not thrive in your enterprise, make your biggest effort in eliminating the temptations. If you are unable to decide what is going to be consumed during the holidays, have an honest one-on-one with the party guests and let them know how you feel about the situation. Chances are they are going to go out of their way to help.
If eliminating them is not an option, maybe you should attempt to make substitutions for those things that you know are troublesome for you. Some examples are reducing the amount of salt consumed, or replacing butter with olive oil.
You Can Do It!
We know that you can make it. In case you doubt yourself, you can always get adequate counseling. Visit VIP Fitness if you need to get a personal trainer and health coach in California.