8 Weight Loss Tips During Christmas

When we are trying to be healthy over the Christmas celebrations it can be really difficult. I mean it is a perfect storm to derail healthy habits.

Tons of get-togethers, all with food. Candy and desserts can feel like they surround you.

Kids are home from school.

Your schedule and routine is out the window.

Stress about getting gifts.

Spending time with difficult family members.

In a lot of places the weather is colder, so you just want to stay inside, under a blanket.

Holidays can be difficult if you are grieving a lost loved one.

Your emotional, mental and physical health are really taking a hit, but in order to be healthy and achieve lasting weight loss we need to learn how to navigate this season. Studies show that the weight gained over the holiday stays around and slowly accumulates year after year. For example if you gained 2 pounds over the holiday your new set weight the following year will be two pounds more ben with that New Years Diet.

I put together some tips to help you to be healthy and how to learn how to be healthy in other stressful situations.

1. Work on your emotional health. Emotional health can really take a hit over the holidays. The goals is to get to a place where you can identify your emotions and process them. Processing your emotions with God is huge. You can take time to process them in prayer or journal them. Be sure to take the extra time to listen to God and hear what HE has to say about your situation. A Word from God can really change your whole perspective and help you to process emotions at a different level.

2. Take time to decompress. Take deep breathes. Pray. Give yourself space to process and time to think. This is always important, but during Christmas time seems to disappear even faster. Being aware and conscious of this being important can help you as you look at your day and schedule and see where this can be included.

3. Adjust your workout. A lot of my clients have done better when they make an adjustment to  their workout plan. Look at what you have going on and make changes. This is great to do ahead of time this way your are still doing your plan. Even if it is altered, you still have the momentum and you are still making healthy choices. 

4. Reflect on the reason for the season. Reconnect with God. take time to read the Bible and pray. No matter what is going on spending time with God should be key. If you are login through an especially tough time have people praying for you. We all go through seasons, but reach out you do not even need to be specific. Ask your church or small group for prayers. We are a community called to support each other.

5. Try to leave some time to destress. It helps you to be more efficient and destress. When we are stressed we do not digest food as well leading to some digestive discomfort. Another big issue when we are stress is our hormones are not able to control our hunger and signal to us when to stop eating. We want to stay in balances and live out the abundant life came down for, which does not involve high levels of stress going unchecked.

6. Try to get sleep. Sleeping is always tough, but the added stress of getting gifts wrapping and attending events and some less than ideal diet choices can make your sleep take a hit. Even if you do not have enough time to get the recommended amount of sleep try to make your sleep higher quality. You could try to make your environment darker where you are sleeping and try to put away electronic devices away 1 hour before you sleep. If you want more tips on high quality sleep head here.

7. Come up with a routine for this season. It is just temporary, but have some kind of system and plan to your day. This can help you to focus on the tsk at hand get that done because you have a plan to do everything on your list.  Make it reasonable for what is going on. Do not plan it down to the minute, especially if you have kids running around you. Leave it in blocks maybe around meals or other anchors in your day and group what you need to get done around them. Be sure to include the tasks you need to get done so you can focus each time block knowing that those tasks will get done later.

8. Drink water. Stay hydrate before, during and after parties in particular. It can help you to eat less, and feel soo much better if you eat some extra food. If you are like me feeling better makes it easier to make healthy choices the next day too. Having extra water at parties can help you to still enjoy yourself while still feeling good the next day. Enjoying parties without the guilt and bloat? Sounds good to me.

I hope you are able to take a couple of these pointers and apply it to your Christmas this year.

Staying healthy over the holidays can still be enjoyable. It may take some extra planning, but it is worth it because your health and your body is worth it.

<3 Jessica