Holiday Season Health & Wellness Survival Guide
The holiday season is upon us. It’s the best of times, it can be the worst of times.
Depending on who you are, along with all the joy and festivities, the holiday season can bring fatigue, stress, depression or anxiety, reflux and downright disorder. Holidays bring with them a lot of ‘extras,’ both in our schedules and in our bellies. Whether you love the holidays or get through them, a lot of us show up to January feeling out of sorts and ready to reboot.
Following a few simple health & wellness self-care habits can allow us to maximize our enjoyment of this special time of year while also mitigating the worst of the the indigestion, fatigue and stress. This will make it all the more possible to get our New Year’s resolutions and health & wellness goals on track on January 1!
The first self-care rule is, don’t worry too much about it. Most people of average to good health can handle a couple months of dysregulation. Just support yourself with the following “health & wellness backbone” we’ll go through below make a plan for rebalancing after it’s over. Then let yourself enjoy the holidays!
Follow these simple 5 habits below and you’ll be able to recalibrate in the midst of the holiday season.
Selective will power.
Stop. Drop. And meditate.
Move like your (great) grandparents!
Changing your behavior: small changes add up. Make a plan.
Take action!
Step 1: Selective will power: be a good parent to yourself.
Laissez les bons temps rouler! Some people like to set certain health boundaries around holiday celebrations, such as how many second (or third) servings or glasses of wine they have. But if that either doesn’t appeal, or flat out doesn’t work for you, don’t sweat it!
Remember to treat yourself like your one precious child (or loved one, or whomever you adore). It can be easier to identify the decision that is in your own best interest if we think about what we would chose for this other loved person.
Also, remind your inner child that not every day for the next two months is a holiday. Celebrate, then go back to a basic healthy habits (see below) in your daily routines. Being a ‘good parent’ to yourself and taking care of your basic physical and mental well-being will help you regulate through any highs and lows of the holiday season.
Tip: Strategically utilize will-power to babysit your inner child from making everyday a holiday. And then enjoy your decadence too and don’t beat yourself up about it!
For example:
Forgo the holiday treats everyone brings to the office on Monday, Tuesday andThursday, but do have some treats on Wednesdays and Fridays. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.
Have a glass of wine (or four) at Thanksgiving dinner, but skip the alcohol the rest of the week. Set some reasonable days on and off and stick to them. Also, consider experimenting by doing celebrations and time with others without ‘alcohol goggles.’
So many leftovers have you eating like the holidays every day? Stock up on ziplock bags, tinfoil and tupperware. Give it away or freeze it. You can even check with your local charitable organizations about how to give your leftovers to those in need.
Bonus idea: Wrap up a (fresh) holiday meal plate and give it to those panhandling at stoplights or deliver a holiday meal to a family who are in need.
Feeling out of control with your life, food or alcohol? Phone a friend if you have someone you can trust to give it to you straight and help you be accountable. There are local AA (alcoholics anonymous) and OA (overeaters anonymous) groups in just about every city and many towns in the country). SAMHSA is available for support as well as non-religious based 12 step programs.
Better yet, enlist a professional. Here are some local therapist groups. Set up your appointments now, it may take awhile to get into and find a therapist you really want to work with.
Step 2: Stop. Drop. And meditate
For 5 minutes.
Daily.
And then incorporate mindfulness in your daily activities.
The key to surviving the holidays (or any) stressful times is self-awareness.
It’s true, sometimes we do just need boundaries and willpower. But as we grow in our ability to pay attention to our thoughts and feelings, to what drives us, delights us, scares us… we don’t need as many rules and boundaries and can trust our intuition to make healthy decisions in the moment.
When we are less driven by our reactivity, we can be more in touch with what we really need or want in the moment and actually serve that. We are less likely to need to ‘medicate’ our feelings and stress with external things, whether that is food, alcohol, videos, shopping, etc etc. We are also less likely to react in short-sighted ways that may not serve us.
How do you start to gain self-awareness? Take your daily “meditation pill.”
Why a meditation ‘pill?’ Because while we may understand that it is necessary to take medications or supplements daily for them to continue to help us, we often don’t seem to realize we need to do activities daily fo them to be able to transform us. Practiced regularly, you’ll develop the neurologic machinery to maintain your center in difficult moments or situations.
Also, when you’ve developed your meditation skills, you can take your meditation “pill” in the moment when things are extra spicy. Do the holidays have you feeling stressed? Overworked? Tired? Out of control? Try a 5 minute meditation break. Especially if practiced regularly, it can help as well if not better than any pill, drink or snack to help you navigate difficult life situations.
Never meditated? Here’s some tips:
You can use a meditation app or simply the timer on your phone.
Start small. 3-5 minutes. People are more likely to be successful if they make small, doable changes. Once it is a habit, you can increase the time bit by bit.
Dr. Seuss it. You can meditate on a train, on a plane. At the park, in the dark. While it is helpful to have a special place to meditate, there is no wrong time or place.
Just do it. When and where should you meditate? Whenever you will do it. Put it on your schedule and use some of that will power to just do it.
Take it off the ‘mat.’ After you meditate, try to practice that same presence of mind in some of your daily activities. Folding laundry. Driving to work. In a meeting. Practice keeping your mind here and now. Overtime, this will both ease anxiety and create self-awareness.
Step 3: Move like your (great) grandparents.
It’s helpful to realize that humans are programmed to move.
Until recent human history, we all moved a lot more. We walked to get to the outhouse, get fresh water, gather food for the meal, wash the clothes, hunt and get to the neighboring town. A lot of the physical and mental health issues we are experiencing today are at least in part connected to our mismatched sedentary lifestyle to our true nature. We need movement to feel well.
Don’t even think about it as exercise. While exercise is certainly a healthy habit, our ancestors rarely “exercised,” they just moved. Just think of your great (or great-great) grandfather or mother. How much walking, hauling, standing, hiking did they do on a regular basis?
Move like your (great) grandparents:
Start where you are, make small changes that will stick, rather than big ones that might not.
In modern terms, this may look like utilizing a step counting device to start tracking and working up to the 10,000 steps/day.
Feeling out of sorts? Anxious? Tired? Depressed? Try a 20 minute walk.
Don’t exercise to lose weight. Don’t exercise to burn off the last meal or make a deficit for the next one. Move because it’s what your machinery was meant to do
Movement and exercise is a research-based treatment for depression, anxiety and stress. It helps regulate appetite and increases feelings of empowerment and self-worth. It improves hormones, inflammation and is the best anti-aging medicine out there.
Not sure where to start? FDA regulations dictate humans need 150 minutes of exercise/week. That’s only 20 minutes of something that gets your heartrate up each day. Get the kids. Get the dog. Go to the YMCA. Do some yardwork. Or simply crank the music and dance in your living room!
Step 4 : Prepare to “come back to wholeness” in the New Year
As much as you can, Laissez les bons temps rouler this holiday season, then plan a day to start coming back to wholeness. Of course there is the January 2nd New Year’s rush. But remember, big, sudden changes rarely stick.
Rather than expecting to do a full 180 over the course of a few days in January maintain these small habits year round will enable you to evolve into deeper, health supporting lifestyle behaviors, which what really works.
Behavior changes work best when they are
Small and incremental. Better to make changes that you’ll actually stick to, even if they are small and have change take awhile rather than big changes that are much less likely to stick. Even if that change takes a year, or three. You’ll have it for the rest of your life. Stick to it and be patient with ourself.
Externalized. Tell someone! Write it down and put it somewhere you can see it. Sign up for something that you can’t get out of when you aren’t feeling it in the moment. Changes happen when they aren’t just something spoken inside our head.
Step 5: Take action
Schedule in your calendar:
Your daily 5 minute meditation.
Your almost daily 20 minute movement practice.
Research what external appointments you want to commit to in the New Year and make the calls/emails to schedule them.
At InHealthRVA we meet you and support you where you need it, work with you one step at a time and peel back the underlying causes of health issues while supporting as best as possible your immediate well-being. Looking for a partner to help you make 2023 a healthful one?
Schedule a Discovery call, we’re here when you need us.