Five Hints For A Healthy Happy Holiday Season

Welcome to the holiday season – a time for shopping, the consumption of food and drink, and spending time with family and friends. You might be celebrating Kwanzaa or Christmas or Hanukah. Regardless of the religious or non-religious nature of the holiday season, this time of year almost always involves a desire to partake in good times with family and friends. It is a time for joy in the world – and hopefully plenty of it.

But it is also a season that can get people feeling stressed, exhausted mentally and physically, and perhaps even gaining a few pounds. With that in mind, I have compiled five simple hints to help you have a healthy and happy holiday season.

1. Keep everything in moderation. This is the season to over-eat and over-drink and over-just-about-everything. With that in mind, one of the first things to remember during the holiday season is moderation. Temper the enthusiasm to over-do it. Do you really need that third plate of turkey and all the fixins’? Be proactive. Balance is key, even during the holidays.

2. Remember that alcohol has calories. Closely related to number one. While people are most often concerned with the amount of food they are eating and the calories they are consuming, they tend to forget about the alcoholic beverages they are drinking. Alcohol does have calories – and lots of them. Make sure that while you are keeping everything in moderation, the same applies to the alcohol you consume. It should go without saying that drinking and driving – during ANY season – is simply a no-no.

3. Stay active. During the holiday season, keep moving! It could be as simple as getting out for a walk after meals. This can be a great time to re-connect with friends and family. If you have a normal exercise routine, don’t worry about decreasing the frequency of your workouts. Keep them high quality, and you will survive the holiday season nicely and your fitness level won’t skip a beat. With that said, now is not the time to try and commit to something new, especially with the time stressors that the holiday season presents.

4. Don’t over-commit. Time is always of the essence, and the holiday season is no different. Managing your time during this season can be a challenge. It can be far too easy to over-schedule yourself with parties and get-togethers and then feel overly stressed trying to do all of it. Opt to commit to good quality time with family and friends instead of over-extending and exhausting yourself in the process.

5. Put guilt off to the side. The holidays can be a time of great guilt. Much like number four, the process of trying to balance your time and efforts can create a situation in which you feel guilty not doing this or that. Though we like to think otherwise, there is always an inherent stress level involved with this time of year. Do what you can, when you can. Speak from the heart about your time constraints, and perhaps even plan time together after the big holiday season crunch when you can truly enjoy the presence of friends.

Perhaps I should add a sixth hint: Keep It Simple. If we all decided to keep the holiday season simple … then we would all be able to share the greatest gift of the holidays: the presence of joy in our world, and our capacity to share that with the people we love.

Photo credits: yoimchristian