Eat Like A Pig During The Holidays?

Our Fall healthy living competition is timed so that it is completed right before the beginning of the holiday season. So yes, it is possible to finish up your attempt (be it a big or small) to get healthier this fall and then let it all fall by the wayside by allowing yourself to go absolutely nutso-crazy during the holidays. It is so easy to let busyness, stress, Grandma’s favorite holiday treat, parties, luncheons and special occasions sabotage all the progress you’ve made up to this point.

So if your plan is to “just wing it,” through the holidays you may be risking a slip back into those bad habits that have plagued you in the past. And Christmas could find you looking worst and feeling worst than you do at this minute.

I’d like us to each make an effort to keep the momentum of healthy choices going through the New Year. And there are a few things that can help:

1. Take a minute to really ponder--does this really matter to you? Do you want to make healthy decisions during the holidays? Or do you want to take a break and let it all slide? One of my favorite quotes is “May your decision this minute be guided by what your future self would wish you had done” Take a few minutes and decide how healthy you want to be by January 1, 2014. Do you care?

2. Keep it positive. Positive quotes about healthy choices as well as positive personal mantras can give strength to the goals we want to accomplish. Choose at least one that you think will help you to focus on your goals.

3. Make a clear plan about the holiday habits you want to choose. While you may want to scale back your healthy living habits during the holidays this should be part of a deliberate thoughtful plan. Here are our healthy habits. Consider each one and decide if you want to continue to fulfill it fully or perhaps scale your efforts back until January. Remember of course less healthy efforts = less healthy progress:

How many fruits and vegetables do you want to eat daily?

Do you want to exercise daily?

Does recording your daily food intake help you to keep control of your eating? Do you want to keep it up?

How many days a week do you want to partake of sweets?

Do you still want to fit in a good volume of water drinking in your busy days?

Do you want to set up your own special challenges or parameters as part of your plan for celebrating the holidays?

To earn the bonus points for our last weekly challenge you need to:

Prepare a card to be posted in a prominent place. On this card include:

1. A positive mantra or quote

2. Your specific goals for healthy habits during the holidays

3. Read the quote or mantra and look at your plan every day until January 1