4 Tips for Holiday Wellness

• Author: Jacob Greene
• Posted: 2023-03-23

We generally turn around and focus on our wellness after New Year's as part of our annual resolutions. However, first we have to make it through the holidays. When our minds are so distracted with shopping and other holiday-related matters, we generally tend to forget about taking care of ourselves during the holiday season. This will put us even more behind the proverbial eight-ball and leave us with even more work to do come January 1. Accordingly, you need to approach the holiday season with a strategy to maintain your wellness. Here are some tips for you.

Cut Out the Last Piece of Everything

Most people will gain weight during the holiday season. It is a verifiable fact because of the amount of food that tempts you at holiday parties. Only the most disciplined among us manage to maintain our weight during the holidays. The biggest hazard that you will face is that last thing you eat at any holiday gathering. The extra piece of cake that you have simply because it is around could have 300-400 calories. That is the exact amount that you would burn in about 20 minutes of vigorous exercise. It can also be the straw that breaks the camel's back in terms of sending your weight upwards.

Nobody is telling you to not eat any dessert and lead a spartan existence during the holidays. That would be unreasonable and unfair. But cutting out the last marginal piece of food when you are borderline full will have an outsize impact when it comes to controlling your weight during the holidays.

Find Ways to Exercise

When we are running from place to place doing our shopping and going to holiday events, many things fall by the wayside. One of these things is our exercise. This is the absolute worst time to stop exercising because we are combining it with eating more than we ordinarily would have otherwise. This is a double hit that will impact your health and waistline.

Even if the are on the go, finding a way to burn an extra 50 to 100 calories here and there can make a difference in the long run. Even if you only exercise for ten to twenty minutes at a shot, the incremental effect of burning the extra calories can help your waistline. Along with cutting out the extras at a meal, this can help you keep off and burn the extra holiday calories.

Take Care of Your Mental Health

Sometimes, the holidays stop being fun and start becoming a little too stressful. Between all of the shopping and planning, what was once a labor of love is now just a plain labor. There are a couple of ways to achieve this goal. The first is to come into the holiday season with a general plan and schedule. This will enable you to know what you can expect and will give you a general outline for what to do and when. Then, you will be able to breathe a little easier with more a structure to what you are doing and you can avoid feeling overwhelmed. The second thing you can do is to make sure to take a least a half an hour each day during the holiday season for some "me" time. You should do whatever activity relaxes you or what you enjoy, but make sure to focus on yourself as much as your are focusing on others.

Address Post-New Year's Concerns in Advance

One of the major reasons why people panic and are stressed during the holiday is that they know that there are bills coming due in the New Year, both literally and figuratively. They get agitated knowing that when the high of the holiday season wears off, they will need to either make some changes or deal with things that they have been putting off for some time.

While you do not need to have a point-by-point plan of attack diagrammed ahead of time, it is helpful to have a general sense of how you are going to approach things after the holidays. Spec this out before holiday season even starts and then put everything aside so you can enjoy your holidays. Just knowing that you have parts of a plan in place is enough to relieve you of much of the posy-holiday dread. Often, it is just taking the first steps that is enough to give you enough peace of mind to move forward.