Cookies, Champagne, And Candy Canes, Oh My!

“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food, and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand, and for a talk beside the fire; it is the time for home.”

-Edith Sitwell

This month is a month of celebrations. From holiday parties, to Christmas morning, I say, enjoy yourself! Eat those cinnamon rolls with the kiddos, cozy up by the fire and read a book, give your mind and body the space to rejuvenate.

Bye Bye Guilt: 
Take time this month to just be and to rest. To be with family and friends. To rest from a busy and hopefully amazing year. Yes, it’s also a hectic month where you may be running around like crazy and not doing much rest too. Either way though, say bye bye to any guilt this month and give yourself grace for what you NEED and WANT. If you need to say no to a holiday party, do it. If you want to have that cookie at your work party then go ahead. And then try not to let guilt ruin those moments for you.  

That being said though, you also don’t want to destroy months of hard work by over-indulging. Or setting yourself up for a real painful January with really bad habits adopted during this month. So if you indulge, indulge and let go of the guilt. But if you also want to keep some self-control then read on for some helpful tips to navigate this holiday season. 

Working Out in 15 Minutes:
If you have a workout routine and you know it may get disrupted this month from either crammed schedules, holiday travel, or something else then keep in mind you can still get a good workout in with only 15 minutes. Walk into the living room, spend five minutes warming up and ten minutes doing a good workout. It’s better than nothing! Here’s one of my favorite quick and easy workouts to do: 50-40-30-20-10 of Air Squats, Push-ups, & Sit-ups. Have fun. 🙂 

Some other tips to keep in mind as well: 

• Plan Your Workouts NOW:
  • If you’ll be limited on time, then have in your phone 5-10 workouts you can do in 15 minutes or less. So when you find that small window you aren’t wasting it figuring out what workout you’ll do. 
  • Want some more of my favorite travel workouts? Click HERE. 
• Research Gyms:
  • If you’re travelling, figure out what gyms are open, what the class times are, how you signup as a drop-in, etc.
• Get Creative:
  • Throw in some dumbbells if you are traveling by car. 
  • Throw in some exercise bands or TRX bands if flying. 
  • Find what you can with where you are. This heavy rock worked great for a workout on the beach in Maui. 
  • Parks are full of features you can use. Benches for box step ups, monkey bars for pullups, grass to do sprints, etc. 
• Feeling Unmotivated?:
  • Tell yourself you’re going to just start warming up and see what happens.
    • I LOVE working out. I know how good it is for me and I live and breath it, but honestly, it’s sooooo easy to get out of the routine and to get lazy. It shocks me how fast I feel unmotivated when I am on a vacation but I know if I just start warming up, just start moving, I’ll get into the mindset. And even if I don’t, I have NEVER regretted a workout. I have always finished saying I’m glad I did it, even if I didn’t feel like doing it.
  • Rally the troops to join you. There’s nothing like getting pumped up for a workout when you get the whole family involved. 

Lastly, remember, 15 Minutes for yourself is not being selfish. The people you are around may enjoy you more when you’ve let off a little steam. So don’t feel bad to say to them every morning you need 15 minutes (or hopefully more).  🙂 

Sugar Cookies, Champagne, and Candy Canes, Oh My:
Yummy!! That’s what my mind thinks of when I think of the holidays. From the candy of Halloween to the delicious Thanksgiving meal to all the holiday parties, there are tasty drinks and food around every corner. I tend to indulge a little too much and fall pretty far off track with my nutrition. And that’s okay. But I try to keep these ideas in mind to not completely fall a part:

• Party When It’s Time to Party:
  • When you’re at home, eat like normal. Have your normal lunch, dinners, no desserts, etc. But when you’re at the parties, enjoy the parties and have some drinks and treats. 
• Avoid Over-Indulging:
  • If you run the risk of following the “party when it’s time to party” idea I mention above because you over-indulge too much and regret it, then try this trick. Days before the party, when you are thinking about how you don’t want to over-indulge, tell yourself what you are okay with consuming that night. Then every day leading up to the party repeat that OUTLOUD to yourself. As you drive to the party, repeat it again.  
• It’s Not Worth the Calories:
  • My mom cracks me up and there are times I hear her say, “I don’t want that treat as it’s not worth the calories”. I love this idea because I’m bad about falling prey to the over-indulging mindset.  I will eat a ridiculous amount of sugar and sweets if I allow myself to have them, yet so many times I eat something and think, “oh this isn’t even that good”, yet I still eat it because I am in this mindset of, well I’m not eating my normal healthy stuff so I should eat it. This holiday season I’m trying to be like my mom and stop and think, “is this even good, is it worth it?” If not, just throw it away. 
• Save Money & Eat Healthy:
  • Recently we got through security at Newark airport and thought we had plenty of time to go get a nice yummy breakfast as a family. Well, $90 later, we had our tummies halfway filled but our taste buds were not pleased. The food sucked, it cost a lot, AND it took way longer than planned and stressed us out with scrambling to get to our gate. We missed the opportunity to “get our wiggles out” before our flight. I was annoyed and said not again. So when we went to Hawaii months later we did the following:
    • We packed breakfast burritos the night before and ate them on the plane.
    • We packed lots of snacks to avoid paying ridiculous amounts of money for airport snacks.
    • When we got to Hawaii we went straight to Costco (5 minutes from the airport) and bought food to last us the entire trip.
      • For us, food is not a big part of our trip so we’re okay making home cooked dinners and packing lunches every day. For others I understand how good food is what makes your trip memorable and that’s okay too! 

Fail to Plan, Then Plan to Fail:
Some of you may not want to think about the upcoming new year and your goals you may have. You may want to live fully in the holiday moment and that is great! But you can’t just wish yourself to a healthier life in 2024, so if you plan to make some new habits next year just keep this in mind this month: 

• January 1^st Comes in HOT:
  • We are all holiday mode and then BOOM new year’s resolutions start today! But here’s the thing, sometimes that’s not the best idea. I LOVE the idea of clean numbers. I’m going to do a YEAR of x. I’m going to do 30 days of y. So I get the idea of starting on the 1^st of the year. But don’t start on that day if you truly can’t commit. If you know you’ll be out celebrating the New Year and eating healthy when you’re hungover is not going to happen, then it’s okay to start January 2^nd. It’s better to do that then to throw in the towel on day one. 

As I’ve said before, it’s okay to indulge and have fun. I’m not trying to convince you to not indulge and I want to encourage you to not feel guilty if you do. I just like to share some tips and tricks I’ve learned and try to *sometimes* follow during the holiday season. I say “sometimes” because honestly, some years I say “screw it” and just not stress or worry about it. I will eat what I want, when I want, and it’s just fine. I figure out how to get back on track in the New Year. So if this year is your year to do that, then cheers! 😊