How to Stay Healthy Yet Happy During the Holidays – Easy Tips and Tricks
Overindulging and the holidays seem to go hand in hand. However, here’s a guide on how to have your cake and eat it too! These are tips to stay healthy yet happy during the holidays. Tis the season for celebration and wellness.
With some simple yet effective tips and tricks, you’re going to be able to enjoy all the goodies that come with festive dinners and celebrations while maintaining your health!
How to Stay Healthy Yet Happy During the Holidays
Let’s jump right into it, here is how to stay healthy yet happy during the holidays. Use these tips and habits during your celebrations to maintain wellness while indulging in holiday treats.
1. Portion Control
One habit that we all tend to have is to serve huge portion sizes. And it makes sense sometimes. You serve a lot on your plate and simply leave what you don’t want on your plate or take it as leftovers. However, when you’re face to face with decadent and delicious food and desserts, it can be hard to leave something on your plate and not simply overindulge. Start with a small portion and check in with your fullness levels before going in for seconds!
2. Sneak in Time for Soft Movement
Working out during the holidays can seem intimidating. There’s no need for an hour-long gym session or intense activity. Even light workouts like slow evening walks or morning yoga can be very beneficial in maintaining health during this holiday season.
3. Feel Your Fullness
When we’re looking at something delicious and tempting, we tend to eat as much as we can and ignore our stomach fullness. One simple way to stay healthy yet happy during the holidays is to eat slowly and feel your fullness levels with every bite.
4. Hydrate Properly
Some research has shown that we can easily confuse thirst and hunger. If you feel peckish and want to snack on a holiday treat, try to drink a bit of water first. You may notice that you no longer crave eating. However, if after drinking a small cup of water, and waiting 15 minutes you still want to eat something, by all means, do so! The holidays are for enjoying delicious snacks!
5. Try Out HIIT Workouts
If you have no time to work out, one great way to resolve this is trying out a hiit workout or high-intensity interval training. These workouts tend to be quick, anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes. They are intense moments of movement followed by moments of rest. This can look like 45 seconds of jumping jacks and 15 seconds of resting. Hiit workouts tend to increase our resting metabolic rate for a couple of hours after their conclusion, meaning you’re burning calories without even trying after you exercise.
6. Don’t Restrict
Restricting is so common when people try to eat healthy but it’s actually detrimental. When we restrict ourselves, we tend to think about and crave that food. At the next opportunity we get to eat that food, this is when we tend to binge and overeat it. By not restricting, you are giving yourself permission to enjoy foods without panicking about the next time you’re going to be able to eat them. Without this panic of not knowing when you are going to get to enjoy your favorite treat, you can enjoy it in moderation more often.
7. Fill Up on Health First
Here is one of the most simple ways to stay healthy yet happy during the holiday season. All you have to do is fill up a bit on healthy foods first. That way, when you get to your holiday favorites, you’re less likely to overeat. This can mean eating a small side salad or a serving of vegetables before digging into a decadent dessert.
8. Prioritize
Another way to be healthy while you’re enjoying festive meals is to prioritize. Maybe you love apple pie and only kind of like fudge brownies. Prioritize and focus on eating your apple pie and maybe skip the brownies that you only sort of like. That way, you’re not trying to taste some of everything just for the sake of tasting it. This helps you focus on what you actually want and like instead of eating things you don’t even enjoy.
9. Be Mindful During Meals
I’m a pro at just shoveling food in my mouth. I’ll put something on the TV, watch the show, and eat. Lately, mindful meals have been my focus. This is a great tip during the holiday season, as mindful eating can help you enjoy the festive food fully and completely. Next time you’re eating something you love, focus on the taste, smell, appearance, crunch, and texture. You’ll find that you spend more time eating and enjoying and less time thinking about what your next snack looks like.
10. Give Yourself Grace
At the end of the day, it’s the holidays! It’s a Time known for a bit of overindulging, decadent food, and time with friends and family. Give yourself the space you need to enjoy and eat your seasonal treats. Try to use these tips to stay on track, but don’t beat yourself up if you overeat one day. Even if you overeat, it doesn’t mean you failed, nor does it mean you have to continue a cycle of binging the next day. Give yourself some leeway, and aim to get back on track to staying healthy during the holidays!!
The Takeaway
It’s not impossible, with these tips you can stay healthy yet happy during the holidays. All you need to do is make time to move, eat more mindfully, and listen to your body. Control your portions, check in with yourself to see if you’re full, and stay hydrated. Finally and most importantly, give yourself permission to enjoy these decadent, delicious festive meals and desserts!
Remember that health comes from within. Eat nutritious food, exercise when you can, and take care of your mental health. Daily habits become the building blocks for emotional, mental, and physical health. Take care of your gut health too! Learn everything you need to know about gut microbiota today for free here.
