Michele Russ shares her tips for celebrating a healthy holiday season

It starts with Halloween and ends with New Year’s Day. So here we are in the middle of the most wonderful time of the year for holiday fun, but also for weight gain, stress, lack of sleep and indulgences of all kinds. The holidays are a virtual minefield of unhealthy choices for the average person. We are bombarded by sweets and snacks. Everywhere you look, another dietary pitfall is ready to derail your good intentions. But this year, you can arm yourself with good advice and good habits. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing my best ideas for enjoying the holidays without sabotaging your health, so we can all enjoy Happy and Healthy Holidays.

The most common excuse I hear for not eating healthy or exercising at any time of  year is, “I don’t have time”. I understand. We’re busy—and piling on the extra chores, errands and social obligations the holidays bring makes taking care of ourselves even more challenging. So, how do we stick with our healthy eating and fitness plans when we’re so overwhelmed?

Be prepared.

When we’re crazy-busy, the best way to guarantee adherence to our healthy diet and fitness plan is preparation. A few extra minutes planning out your grocery shopping list to include healthy meals and snacks is time well spent. It takes the same amount of time to peel a banana and a hard-boiled egg as it does to unwrap a sugar-laden muffin from the coffee shop. Your job is to make sure that things like the banana and hardboiled egg are always on hand and ready to go. Apples, oranges and a handful of nuts are equally easy to grab to help you skip the drive thru later. Pick up a rotisserie chicken or two to make dinnertime easier. Serve the chicken with roasted veggies and sweet potatoes (all on one baking sheet) for one meal and use what’s left to add to salads. Streamline where you can and keep it simple. 

Keep moving.

I can’t overstate this one. It’s important to exercise regularly for mental and physical health. Don’t let the “all or nothing” attitude become an obstacle. If we can’t fit a full hour in, we aim for 30 minutes. If 30 minutes isn’t happening, 15-minutes will do. Taking a short, brisk walk after dinner will help you to de-stress and aid digestion. Embrace the “all or something” mindset. Do what you can do. Remember, it’s about consistency more than perfection. 

Think outside the box.

Many (most??) of our traditional holiday celebrations revolve around food and adult beverages. Over-indulgence seems par for the course. (I’ll tackle coping skills for these situations in a future post!) This year, our holidays are already certain to be quite different than the past, so why not think creatively on how to celebrate? Think of your favorite non-food holiday traditions and focus on those. Instead of driving around town enjoying holiday light displays from your car, take a long stroll through your neighborhood (or a nearby neighborhood) to get an even better view while moving your body. Making a day out of chopping down your Christmas tree with your family always makes for great memories, and you’ll get some extra steps in as well. Holiday dinners gathered around your dining room table can be replaced by gathering around the fire pit. You could even cook some healthy chicken and veggie kabobs over the fire while you’re at it. For more excitement, create an outdoor holiday scavenger hunt. Make a list of photo-ops to find throughout your neighborhood, break up into teams, and meet back after an hour or so of running around. Sounds like fun to me!

Eating well and staying healthy while making the most of this special time of year can be challenging, but let’s do our best to maintain our physical and mental health through it all. Be prepared, keep moving, be creative, and most importantly, enjoy yourself! 

MICHELE IS AVAILABLE FOR PRIVATE AND SEMI PRIVATE (2-4 PEOPLE) WELLNESS COACHING AND CONSULTATION