Tips to practice balance this holiday season
So often during the holidays we put off making changes in our habits until the new year. We think we can "live it up" until we set our New Year's resolutions in January, and then we can really start to make some serious changes. What if I told you it doesn't have to be that way? It doesn't have to be an extreme decision of taking one route or the other. You can find a balance of enjoying the holidays, while also prioritizing taking care of yourself. You can start making small lifestyle changes now that can help you start to build a consistent wellness routine to ring in the start of 2023.
Here are 5 tips to help you prioritize your wellness this holiday season:
1- Balance your plate and eat your veggies
It can feel like a challenge to eat healthy during the holidays, but that doesn’t mean it's not possible. You can find a balance of eating the delicious holiday foods that you love, while also making healthy choices. Finding that balance can look like eating your favorite creamy side dish, but having a little smaller portion and adding extra veggies on the side. Or switching out some of the traditional ingredients in one of your favorite recipes (i.e. making a cheese sauce with butternut squash & nutritional yeast, rather than milk and cheese). One tip I like to share with my clients is to create meals full of color and aim to have at least 2 veggies with each meal. Fueling up on extra veggies provides the body with fiber to help our GI health, antioxidants that our cells thrive on, and helps prevent a blood sugar spike.
2- Move your body daily
It can oftentimes feel like there just isn’t enough time to fit exercise in with our hectic holiday schedules. But getting daily movement doesn’t need to feel complicated or add extra stress. You don’t always have to go to the gym or take a fitness class. It can be as simple as going for a walk with a friend or family member, blasting your favorite playlist and dancing around, going through a 15 minute full-body circuit workout at home, or doing a few yoga poses while you watch your favorite show at the end of the day. Moving your body daily can help you release stress, improve your mood, and increase your energy and mental clarity.
3- Focus on hydration
It is important to make sure you are staying hydrated throughout the day. Drinking enough water helps with digestion, cellular function, and skin health to name a few. If plain water feels a little boring, you can try adding berries, cucumber, lemon, or mint to add a little flavor. A good goal for daily water intake is to drink around half of your body weight in ounces, and if you are consuming alcohol or caffeinated beverages, it is extra important to up the water intake.
4- Be mindful of dessert choices
Around this time of year sweets are just about everywhere! I encourage you to practice being mindful of the sweets you choose at social events, and experiment with creating healthier versions of some of your favorites. When making your own desserts, there are a few simple ingredient swaps you can make. Grass-fed butter is a good substitute for vegetable oil (i.e. canola oil). Honey or maple syrup instead of granulated sugar. Dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. Coconut and almond flour instead of traditional flour. Avocado can be used as a replacement for oil or eggs to try something different. I encourage you to still enjoy your favorite desserts, but balance it out by increasing your vegetable and protein intake throughout the day, and be mindful of serving sizes.
Since we are talking about ingredients, I also want to mention the importance of using avocado oil, olive oil, coconut oil, and grass-fed butter when cooking and baking, and avoiding canola oil, grapeseed oil, margarine, sunflower oil, and peanut oil which are highly inflammatory.
5- Practice gratitude and self-care
Taking a little time each day to focus on gratitude can help decrease stress, boost your mood, and help you keep a positive perspective. A lot of people tend to get extra stressed during the holidays. Between social gatherings, gift giving, and still doing everything else you regularly have going on- it can be a lot to balance! It is so important to take care of yourself and take time to recharge your battery so that you can feel better, be more productive, and be able to give to others without further draining yourself. Set aside time each day to focus on who and what you are grateful for- including sending gratitude to yourself! An idea for this is to start keeping a daily gratitude journal, and then taking a few moments to meditate after you write your gratitude list. There are also so many options available for free meditation apps to help you build a practice!
It is also important to set aside time every day for self-care. A few ideas are: read an inspirational book, journal, exercise, put on a face mask before bed, get out in nature, play an instrument, or work on an art project.