Healthy Holidays!

Ahhh, the Christmas season is now solidly upon us.  Full of excitement, joy, anticipation … and reasons to throw your health goals out the window.  Who has the time to exercise when there are presents to buy and wrap and travel to plan?  Why bother eating healthy at all when you know you are going to “blow it” at your family’s traditional fudge-making day?  

The actual stats about holiday weight gain, gets a little complicated.  A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that Americans on average gain a little less than a pound over the holiday season.  That’s within most people’s typical weight fluctuations and is hard to measure.  And although it doesn’t seem like much, numerous studies that have shown that most of us don’t lose that weight in the following few months.  Keep adding that pound each year … it adds up!

My encouragement to clients this time of year, like any other time of year honestly, is that perfection isn’t the goal.  There are always going to be things here and there that aren’t normal for your life.  I don’t eat the same way on vacation that I do at home.  But because I am home much more than I am on vacation (unfortunately!), it is my normal habits and routines that really make the difference in the long run.  

So there is no need to throw your health goals out the window.  You are establishing new thought patterns.  Those new thought patterns can include weighing the pros and cons of some of those favorite holiday treats.  Is there a particular treat that you love to make?  Make it!  Enjoy some of it.  Give it to friends.  You probably don’t want to eat so much that you regret it, though.  And do continue your new health habits most of the time.  Will that choice set you back a little bit?  Maybe. But you thought it though, decided it was worth it, and it didn’t derail you. 

Just think of how good it will feel come January when you can look back and say truthfully, “Given the circumstances, I’m pretty proud of the decisions that I made.”  

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