On today’s episode, I’m sharing a Simple Healthy Holiday Approach that can empower healthy, mindful decisions this holiday season.
We’re back with our 132nd episode of the Fed+Fit Podcast! Remember to check back every Monday for a new episode and be sure to subscribe on iTunes!
Find us HERE on iTunes and be sure to “subscribe.”
Episode 132 Sponsors
Episode 132 Transcription
Today’s show is brought to you by Pride of Bristol Bay, where you can get truly sustainable, high quality, nutritious Alaskan sockeye salmon delivered right to your door. Pride of Bristol Bay’s wild salmon is sustainably harvested in the pristine waters of Bristol Bay, Alaska. Their focused team of fisherman are committed to the highest quality in handling standards at the point of harvest, creating the unsurpassed quality and flavor you’ll find in every one of their wild sockeye filets and portions.
Each case of their wild salmon is labeled with the name of the Bristol Bay fishing district in which the salmon was harvested. It’s the ultimate in traceability. Boxes of supremely fresh frozen filets and portions of the highest quality salmon are delivered to your door, skin on, and already deboned. It is hands down the best salmon I’ve ever enjoyed.
You can learn more about Pride of Bristol Bay and support their important work by ordering your first box of frozen salmon by visiting their website over at www.PrideOfBristolBay.com.
Cassy Joy: Welcome back to another episode of the Fed and Fit podcast. My name is Cassy Joy Garcia. I am your host for the show; for today’s show and all the shows here {laughs}. Fed and Fit podcast is a weekly, 30-minute, mindset, food, fitness, nutrition, all those good things. All those good topics kind of show. And today we are zeroing in on really, overall mindset. But we’re going to touch on food. We’re going to touch on nutrition. We’re going to touch on fitness. And then circle back around to mindset.
So what we’re going to talk about today specifically is all about having a healthy mindset for the holidays. This can be a really tricky time period. We roll into the holidays thinking; well, it goes both ways. Maybe three ways. {laughs} Some people approach the holidays, and they think; “ok. Let’s go ahead and take that healthy hat off that I’ve strapped on all year long. We’re going to sit back. We’re going to enjoy the holidays. It will be what it will be. And then come January, we’ll do damage control.” That’s one approach, and I’m not going to say that I haven’t been in that driver’s seat before.
Another approach is, we go into the holidays and we think, “Oh, I’ve got my healthy hat strapped on real tight. And I’m just going to keep trucking through. We’re going to have ourselves a healthy, healthy, healthy holiday. And nothing’s going to get in my way.” And then your grandmother makes a piece of pumpkin pie, puts it in front of you, and says, “But I made this for you. It’s your favorite.” And then you eat it, and you feel like your whole plan went out the window. You feel like somebody ripped that healthy hat off your head and threw it away. Now you don’t quite know what to do with yourself. You don’t know; either guilt is introduced. All kinds of ugly, yucky feelings. So that’s one way.
And then I would say a third way is; “Well, I never wore a healthy hat so why start now?” {laughs}. You know. It’s the folks who, maybe they haven’t ever really tried to be super conscious about having a healthy holiday and the year prior wasn’t necessarily one where they were focused on a healthy mindset, or nutrition, or fitness, or anything like that. So they look at the holidays, and they think; “why start now? I’ll start that in January when pumpkin pie season is over.”
So those are some of the common ways that we walk into the holidays. And this week in particular, if you’re listening to this episode the day it comes out, this week us in the US are celebrating Thanksgiving. And it is typically a day where we feast very similarly to those who celebrate Christmas have a feast on Christmas. So it’s a really big food centric day. There’s usually lots of turkey. There’s lots of pie and desserts.
It’s one of those where we kind of; I don’t know. If your family is like mine, the Thanksgiving holiday is usually marked by about a 3 p.m. dinner, which sounds funny calling it dinner. You wake up, you kind of have a leisurely breakfast. And then you have a late lunch, which turns into an hour, two-hour long affair, that ends with essentially a really early dinner and then folks just lounge around and eat pie the rest of the day. And that’s about it.
I know everybody has their own specific holiday traditions, but that’s kind of what we do. But it’s definitely a holiday that revolves around food and revolves around; I don’t want to… I’m going to use this next word, and I don’t mean to vilify it, it’s just the word that comes to mind. It’s a holiday that revolves around kind of just being lazy; a little bit. Kicking your feet up in the recliner, have that extra piece of pie, and maybe I’m going to sit here and doze off and take a nap and then I’ll wake up and have another turkey; I’ll throw some turkey in some bread and I’ll have a turkey sandwich for a late dinner kind of deal.
So that’s kind of how our holidays have evolved, and I know some might resonate with that and others maybe have a much more formal affair. But for the most part, it’s definitely a day outside of my normal routine of trying to stay health and mindful of supporting a healthy lifestyle that makes me feel great, right? And that’s another thing. The holidays; I tend to always feel. Not always, because I’ve approached the holidays different these past couple of years. But they have a tendency to make me feel really not myself. I don’t feel very well because I’ve made food decisions I don’t normally make. Maybe I did not make them from an empowered standpoint, so I also have a little guilt sprinkled in there. I feel very disempowered. I kind of feel yucky and gross. I’m tired. I’m not on my normal routine. I haven’t been working out. So I just kind of feel a little blah, in general.
So, if you’ve ever been in those shoes, hopefully today’s show is going to help give you some quick tips to work around that. I’m not saying you have to do all these things in order to feel great, but maybe one or two resonate with you. And at the end of the day, that’s great. That’s what matters.
So, let’s jump into it. A simple approach to a healthy holiday. And like I said, we’re going to chat a little bit about; not only just community. How to approach community during this time period. Whether it’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, all of the other holidays, wonderful things that we celebrate this time of year. How to work with our community, but also how to nurture our own healthy mindset. How to really nurture our bodies in terms of nutrition. How to nurture in terms of hydration, and rest.
And then we’re also going to talk a little bit at the end about stress levels. What can we do to really help mitigate stress levels. Because even before we go into the holidays; I don’t know about you, but I’m always excited. I think; “Oh, this is going to be such a lovely, wonderful, relaxed time of year.” And then there’s always something that sneaks up on me. And then it turns into a flurried, stressy mess. Either I’m wrapping presents in the 11th hour. I had forgotten about the gifts I was going to give my colleagues and I’m putting those together at the last minute. There’s something that takes me out of the moment that adds an extra layer of stress that becomes something that my body has to handle in addition to all of the other things I’m going through.
So my approach to having a healthy holiday is not necessarily; I’m not saying we need to have steamed carrots and steamed broccoli next to our Thanksgiving turkey. {laughs} That’s not going to be my recommendation. I’m going to give you some tips on how to eat the pie, right? If you’re going to eat the pie, how to do that in a way that makes you feel really great and empowered. But we’re also going to talk about things that we can do to set the context. Set the stage for us feeling great. During this very special time of year. And that’s important; you are worth it.
Ok, so my number one tip. And you’ve probably heard this uttered here on the show before. You’ve heard it uttered elsewhere, but it’s worth repeating, because I think it’s a game changer. If you are going to somebody else’s house for the holiday. Maybe you’re not hosting. If you are hosting, clearly you have a lot more control over the kinds of foods that wind up on your table.
And if you are hosting, let me just briefly touch on that. It is ok. I want to just tell you. Set the record straight. It is ok to switch up a couple of the recipes so that the food on the table is better for you. That’s ok, right? If you’re somebody who tries to avoid wheat gluten, for example, like I do. It is ok to make a Thanksgiving stuffing, or a stuffing, or; what do they call it, a dressing. Around Christmas time or whenever it is. It’s ok to make a stuffing or a dressing with gluten free bread. That’s ok. Just because tradition usually dictates that we go and we get those boxes of croutons that we have to rehydrate does not mean; just because tradition has said we’ve always done that, does not mean that we can’t make a really delicious different kind of stuffing or dressing that nourishes our body a little bit better and maybe helps reduce some of that load we’re asking our bodies to carry this time of year.
So if you’re hosting, I just want to empower you so that you know it is ok to make a couple of swaps. Right? A gluten free stuffing is a really great way to go. I’ve got a great recipe on my website right now. I didn’t put it in the post, but my favorite I’ve been asked a couple times; my favorite bread is by Canyon gluten free. I really like their 7-grain loaf. It has a nice texture. I chop that up, even when it’s frozen still out of the freezer. Toss it on a sheet pan.
The recipe calls for making croutons really quickly. You just toss them in some butter or olive oil, whatever works best for you and some garlic and some salt. Roast those up just for a little bit until they’re a little bit crispy that way it kind of helps you avoid the set it out over night so it becomes stale stage, if any of you are listening and kind of have that more old-fashioned method in your back pocket. And then you toss it with traditional ingredients. It tastes; honestly, I think it tastes better. It really does.
So know that you can do options like that. There are; for gravy. There’s another way where wheat shows up, because we use wheat to thicken gravy. You can easily use arrowroot is my preferred method. Just a little bit of it. You could make a slurry with a little water, just like you would cornstarch before you pour it in. So you could make a little slurry, pour that in until you get the desired thickness and consistency that you want. So that’s another one to go for.
And yeah, so anyway. There’s always alternatives out there. Get to Googling. There’s a bunch on my website. If you have a copy of my Holiday Feast eBook; we sent it out as a freebie to all the newsletter subscribers, then you have two gravies at your fingertips there. A very traditional sausage gravy, and a giblets gravy. Or giblets; I never know how to say that one!
Ok, so anyway. If you’re hosting, I just want to remind you and empower you that it’s ok to make a couple of swaps. At the end of the day, your family and your table members are just going to be grateful that you put forth so much time and effort and energy into creating a wonderful meal. They’re there for the season, they’re not there for the specific brand that maybe our parents or our grandparents always grew up buying as that store-bought stuffing recipe.
Ok, so now that that one’s out of the way. If you are not hosting and you’re going somewhere for the holidays, I highly recommend you volunteer to bring a dish. Bringing a dish ensures that you will have one thing there that you know you can eat and eat plenty of. What if you show up at your holiday gathering and everything is dusted with panko? You know, those bread crumbs. It’s on the green bean casserole, it was sprinkled on the mashed potatoes. It’s on just about anything you could imagine. Maybe the cranberry sauce was saved.
But you look at those things; or at least I would, and I would think; “Well, I guess those are out.” Because that’s a not worth it food for me, wheat. It’s not that I’m trying to be dogmatic about it. It’s a, I know how severely crummy that would make me feel. And it’s just not worth it. Panko crumbs are not worth the gluten exposure, as far as I’m concerned. You may have a different judgement call, and we’re going to talk about that in a second. But make that decision powerfully.
But if you brought a dish; maybe you brought a sweet potato stuffing recipe. I’ve got one of those on my website, as well, that has fresh cranberries in it. It’s so delicious. But you’ve got that in your back pocket. Go ahead and put a spoonful of that on your plate next to the turkey, and enjoy yourself. Right? And then you have something healthy to share with other people. If they love it, share the recipe with them. Tell them where they can find it. And then you never know what kind of heads it will turn, and for what reasons in the future. So offer to bring a dish.
Ok, moving on. My next tip is; oh. If you are a member of the Fed and Fit Project online, you hear me say this a lot. But gosh darn it, there’s a lot of power that can be held with a cup of water. Not just a cup, but a general mindset of staying more hydrated in general. So hydration is such a great way to prepare our bodies for this extra load of stress due to family, or community, however you want to look at it. For the extra load of stress. For the probably food exceptions to our normal routine of how we normally eat. Water can help us really combat and mitigate some of those symptoms.
So it can also help mitigate a little less sleep. So make sure you’re staying hydrated. I know that can be difficult when you’re not at home and you don’t have your normal routine. Or you’re not at the office, and you don’t look up at the clock and think; oh, now is the time I go refill my water bottle. When you’re outside of your routine, it’s more difficult to stay on top of your hydration game.
And your hydration game, if you’re new here, I talk about it in my Fed and Fit printed book, which you can find on Amazon. It might make a great holiday gift; I’m just saying! But in there I’ve got a rough starting calculation for how much water is a good idea to drink in a day. And the way to calculate that is you take your weight in pounds divide by two, and then that would be the number of ounces of water. So if you weight 160 pounds, that would be roughly 80 ounces of water a day. That is much different than the 8 glasses of water a day approach, right? So it’s much more scalable to your actual body.
And of course if you’re working out, you have a larger muscle mass. If you’re pregnant. If you are working in the sun or you’re on your feet all day, that amount will fluctuate. But that’s a really good starting point. So do your best to stay on top of your hydration game. This is really low-hanging fruit. This hydration point does not necessitate that you go and whip up your own Thanksgiving gluten free dressing. Right? It’s an easy one. Just drink more water.
Bring a water bottle with you and commit yourself, if you have to drink 80 ounces of water a day. You don’t have to. I’m not telling you you have to. But if that is your goal; say, ok. I’m going to drink three or four of these water bottles a day, and call it good. Right? So set a goal.
Ok, the next tip has to do with fitness. Now, as wonderful as it would be, if you’re staying home, do your best to go to your workouts. If you have a place that you go and you workout at or you have a routine, do your best to stick to those routines. But if you’re traveling, there’s a couple of things you can do. And it depends on your goals. You know you best, right? And you know what will make you feel great.
There have been sometimes when I’ve traveled for the holidays, for example my husband is from San Angelo, Texas. It’s in West Texas, it’s about a 3-hour drive from San Antonio, where we live now. And there have been several times where I’ve really been in a great CrossFit mode. I go to my CrossFit classes and my yoga classes and I walk and I know that I cannot go to San Angelo for a whole week and not move something heavy. Right? It just makes me feel so great. I love it. It puts my mind in a really great place.
So what I do when I travel for the holidays is I will look up some gyms. Now I have a favorite because I’ve been there. But I’ll look up some local gyms, and I will reach out to them. See if I can drop into a class. I’ll look at their schedule. And then I go and I drop in. And I’ll do that in the morning, right? I’ll do that when I can easily slip away from family, go work out for an hour, and come back. And be gone no more than an hour and a half to two hours. And it really helps set a different tone for the overall visit.
So that’s something you can do, drop into a CrossFit gym. If it’s not CrossFit, maybe it’s Pilates. Maybe it’s barre. Maybe you’re a runner and you just want to get out there and go pound some pavement. That’s a great thing you can do, too. Just go look up a running route and see if there’s something that works for your schedule. So that’s one thing you can do.
Another thing you can do if you really know thyself, again, and you say, nope. Even if I schedule a gym drop in, I’m just probably not going to do it. Something you can do to just stay generally active, and I recommend this for everybody. This is what I’m going to be doing this holiday season. Is going for walks. I go for usually one to two walks a day with our Great Pyrenees, Gus, and my husband. Our walks are between a mile and a mile and a half depending on which route we take. Times two.
And walking has been really great. It’s a really great way to get out, smell the fresh air, have some good conversation. Get in a little exercise. A little movement. And again, not only are we helping our body just kind of stay within a routine, we’re also helping nurture our mind, knowing that we’re taking care of ourselves in that regard. So in the morning let’s say, of a holiday, and in the evening, get a group together to go for a walk. Or go by yourself. Go pop in your headphones, listen to a podcast or your favorite audiobook or whatever it is, and just go enjoy some fresh air.
Ok. Back to food. Let’s talk about food for just a little bit. Those were kind of my low-hanging fruit pieces, right? Offer to bring a dish, stay hydrated, and set up a plan to stay moving. Right? Those are all really great, easy things we can do. Next, when it comes to building your plate for the holidays. What the heck goes on this plate that we can feel good about? What’s an approach. Let’s say if you’re sitting here staring down the barrel of a giant buffet with all of your family member’s favorite dishes. It was a big potluck, and gosh there are so many options, where do we start?
So I recommend starting first with filling your plate with greens. As many greens as you can. Starting there. So walk down the line, grab all the greens. If there’s a good green bean casserole that’s calling your name. Grab a scoop of that first. So start with all the vegetables first. And then add on the clean protein. So it will probably be turkey, or maybe you do roast beef. Whatever it is during the holidays, add that on the plate. Then go back and add the starches.
And I’m not trying to say that your plate needs to be low carb. If you’re not new here, you know that I’m not a low-carber. But I do think that it’s really easy to overfill our plate with a spoonful of stuffing, and a spoonful of mashed, sweet potatoes, and a spoonful of mashed, white potatoes. Right? And then a little of this really cool hominy dish on the side. That’s a lot of starch that’s going to be really, really heavy. So I would add that in later. Add that in as more of a garnish. I guarantee, if you approach it that way, you’re probably going to have plenty on your plate. But that’s one way to go. So fill your plate with greens first.
And then next, I say. Ok, so let’s talk about indulgences around the holidays. I am of the mindset. I’m an eat the cake kind of girl. Just eat the cake. {laughs} And let me clarify what I mean by that. In the Fed and Fit Project, we talk about this a lot. But within the Fed and Fit Project online, we do our twice monthly live coaching calls. And it never fails that there’s always this thread of questions around the holidays, and then around wedding season, of folks saying, “Well, I’m in the Project and I’m doing these things and I’m trying to make these great decisions. These healthy decisions for my body. But next weekend is my daughter’s wedding. What do I do about the cake? The cake is not part of this plan. It’s not a part of the foods I normally eat.”
My response is always an encouragement for you to choose powerfully. Right? You can choose not to eat the cake. But it’s also ok if you eat the cake. It’s ok. It’s ok if you choose to eat your grandma’s pie, right? If it’s a family recipe made with love and intention, and it’s got heritage and history, and all kinds of wonderful tradition wrapped up in that little bite of pecan or apple or pumpkin pie, enjoy it. That’s a wonderful thing to do. Do not stress about whether you should or should not be diving into that piece of pie or whatever it is.
And if you’re listening and you’re thinking, “But I’m not a sweets person! I don’t really care about sweets. But I really care about my mom’s stuffing recipe.” The same applies there. Right? If you live and dream about that stuffing recipe all day long, or all year long, and she makes it with this very special sourdough bread, and there’s a lot of thought and a lot of love that goes into it, and it’s made with real ingredients. Just maybe not all of them agree with your body. Even if it is wheat; you know you best. Choose powerfully. Know when it’s ok to eat the pie. But choose that ahead of time. That’s my only disclaimer here.
Choosing to jump in and eat the pie, and the cookies, and the other what would be considered out of scope for the foods that make you feel great. If it’s an out of scope food, then I would choose that ahead of time. Ok, so when you’re going to the holiday party. When you’re on your way to your in-laws for whatever celebrations you’ve got coming up. Choose ahead of time. Think; yep. I’m going to feel fine. I can get away with one to two pieces of pie, and that’s going to be great for me. I’m going to enjoy it to it’s fullest extent and I’m not going to make that decision out of guilt or because a family member pushed me towards it. I’m going to choose powerfully for myself.
Or, I’m going to choose powerfully for myself to not do that. And the dish that I’m bringing is a gluten free pie. That’s actually what I usually do. I like to bring a gluten free dessert so that I can have something dessert wise. Because I’m more of a dessert girl. So choose ahead of time. Know that it’s ok if you’re going to eat the pie. It’s absolutely ok. Choose in advance. You can make that empowered decision. And then that way if things start to feel; if you’re body doesn’t feel great at the end of it, it doesn’t feel great, but at least you don’t have that extra layer of guilt sprinkled on top of it. You made that decisions powerfully.
Ok. Speaking of mindset around the plate. This is an important one. We’ve talked about this before on the show. I think it was; it’s an old episode but it’s one of my favorites. It’s called how to paleo with grace. And the concept is how do we, when we’re approach our own healthy lifestyle for ourselves, it can be really easy to become overzealous and want to share it enthusiastically with everybody we know. Right? And then it’s really difficult for that to not fall on deaf or defensive ears.
So when it comes to the holidays, I’m a nutritionist. I’m a certified nutritionist. I have a book out. And this is what I do! I’m so passionate about the power of healing foods. But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to encourage people during the holidays. They fill their plate up, staring down that same barrel of the potluck with me, and they fill their plate up and they make the joke. “Oh, Cassy, don’t look at my plate.”
I’m sure many of you listening have been there before. Your friends and your family say; “Uh-oh, Morgan don’t look at my plate because it’s not good.” Or, “Uh-oh, Ashley, don’t look at what I’m eating because it’s not what you would be eating. I’m going to be really unhealthy because it’s Thanksgiving.” Maybe even friends and family get defensive without you ever saying anything. So if you’re looking for a response to that; if you’ve ever been in that situation before. What I always say is, “Oh my goodness! What are you talking about? The things you’ve got on your plate look delicious. If I could eat that, I totally would.” And isn’t that the truth? {laughs}
If I could eat all those foods, and still feel great. My body would feel great, and it would support a healthy mindset, and it would support me feeling like me and doing all the things I want to do; you bet your bippy I would eat those things. So it’s an honest answer, but it usually helps to relieve some stress from friends and family members. So if you’re looking for a way to approach that with your community, that’s one way to do it. Just say; gosh, that looks great.
Or you could always say; you know what, I mind my own plate. And that’s really the concept here. Keep your eyes on your own plate. The holidays are not a time to point out where our friends and family members are choosing the wrong foods. Let them be them. You set an example. Keep your eyes down on the foods that you choose. And if people ask you why you choose certain things, that’s a totally different ballgame. That opens up a conversation to talk about certain foods and lifestyle choices. Otherwise, I recommend enjoying the holidays and waiting until they ask you. Ok. That can take some patience, though. Listen to that episode if you’d like a little bit more support there.
Next we’re going to talk briefly about napping. Because I think this is something that comes up and it’s worth discussing. So why is it during the holidays when we’ve had that big plate of hodge-podgey food, and we’ve had a piece of pie, all of a sudden we’re so tired. And we feel like we need a nap. And if you’re like me, I usually don’t allow myself naps. I usually power through, because I think nope! I’ve already eaten the pies and all the things. The last thing I’m going to do is then just totally jump into this holiday tradition of convention and fall asleep in a recliner with some football on in the background. For whatever reason, there’s some resistance to it.
Well, let me just tell you really quickly why the body is so tired. It’s tired because now it’s having to work through these extra stressors we’ve put onto it. Not only different kinds of foods that we’ve now eaten, but also the stress of community. This new community that we’re around during the holidays. Whether it’s your family or your friends or just hosting in general. All of the different things. The travel. Maybe we’re a little dehydrated, right? Maybe we’re a little sleep deprived. All of those things can add up and make us tired.
So my suggestion here is to rest. It’s ok to take a nap. It’s ok to indulge in that. Allow your body some rest. What it does when it rests is it tries to repair and it tries to work through some of those stressors. So give it that time.
Ok. Two more things, then I’m going to let you go. I want to say really quickly that going into the holidays and indulging. Let’s say you have decided; yep. I’m going to eat not just one piece of pie, I’m going to eat all the pieces of pie. I’m going to take my healthy holiday hat off. I’m unstrapping it, I’m whipping it around my head, and I’m throwing it out the window on the way to this family gathering. {laughs} Let’s say you decide to go that route. More power to you if you’ve made that decision from an empowered standpoint. That’s fine.
What I want to you, is whether you’re on that end of the spectrum or you’re on maybe more where I’m going to be at, a little bit more somewhere in between. I’m going to have a few bites here and there. I’m probably going to be a little dehydrated despite my best efforts. I’m not going to be working out as much as I normally do. It’s all going to be ok. I’m just going to feel like I’m running at 80%. Ok, whatever it is.
I just want you to go into this knowing that it can take our bodies; I think the mystery of not feeling well is a part of what makes the holidays so difficult. When we, let’s say Thanksgiving in particular. The beginning of December, then, is followed by just kind of feeling a little crummy. Thanksgiving weekend; that shopping weekend. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, we just feel a little tired and a little crummy. Same goes for after some of the December holidays. A little tired and a little crummy.
And because we don’t feel well, it’s easy to let our minds slip and think; I did this to myself. I brought this on myself. This is my doing. We kind of get into that reward/punishment frame of mind. Where we think; you know what? Come January I’m really going to buckle down. And I’m really going to have to make up for all of this stuff. Or I’m just going to be nibbling on lettuce until I start to feel like myself again.
I want to tell you that it can actually take the body as few as, if you have a really healthy gut and you’ve been working at this for a long time, it can take the body as few as maybe 5 days to feel like you’re back on track. Go in to these indulgences with knowing those informed, empowered decisions that we talked about. But go in knowing it’s going to take 5 days of recovery before you feel like yourself. And I think that sort of demystifying that whole process makes it a little bit easier to endure, when you know what to expect.
So if you’re going to indulge; cookies, whatever it is you choose to indulge in. Know it could take about 5 days to feel like yourself again. And that’s 5 days of being on top of your hydration habits, on top of your sleep schedule, on top of the foods, eating the foods that make you feel great, and on top of staying active. Moving your body. Ok? So spend 5 days focusing on those things, and you’ll start to feel like yourself again. The veil will lift. And it’s not anything; try to avoid that reward/punishment mindset. Just give yourself some time.
Ok. Last one. So the last time I want to talk about today is just about stress levels in general. This is not one that I’ve talked about before on the show, but I think it’s worth mentioning. The holidays can tend to be a really stressful time, like I said before, because of travel, because of hosting, because of family dynamics, because of friend dynamics, because of different foods we’re not used to eating. Because we’re thrown off of our schedule. We’re not staying as hydrated or as active as we want. And all of those things; even though it’s such a joyous, beautiful time of the year. Right? Even though there’s so much excitement and wonder that goes into this season, it can still be a really stressful season and something stressful for our bodies then to carry and to mitigate and to work through.
So what I recommend doing is give yourself a leg up, and this is kind of a lifestyle tip. But try to get as much done in advance as you possibly can. There’s a lot of you nodding your heads right now because I know that you do this, because you write to me and you tell me that you do this. You’re making apple pies weeks in advance and freezing them. Off of my website. You’re making stuffing weeks in advance and freezing them. That’s all wonderful. But do as much as you can as early as you can.
Get your shopping; if you’re a holiday shopper and you’re shopping for friends and family members, get that done as soon as possible. Go do the shopping, and then wrap it right away, label it, and set it aside. Get it out of the way. Get your colleagues gifts done and out of the way really soon. I’m going to have a collagen hot chocolate recipe coming to the blog that will be a really easy thing that you can put together for folks. That well be coming to the blog in early December.
But anyway, try to get as much done as you can as early as possible. That also includes prepping for foods. Sending out holiday cards. All those wonderful things that you can do in advance that kind of sneak up on us, and it becomes something else to do in addition to being there for our family. In addition to travel. In addition to all of the other things. Let’s do as much as we can as soon as we can so that we can be present in the moment and give our bodies a break.
Alrighty, guys! That’s all I have for you. I wanted to wish you a very happy Thanksgiving. A very merry holiday season as well, regardless of what you’re celebrating. I’m always here for you. And as always you can find a complete transcript of today’s show over at www.FedandFit.com. And if you’re online, while you’re at, head on over to iTunes. Leave me a review; that would be really helpful to get the show into the hands of other folks in the future. I wish you the best. Safe travels. And I’ll talk to you next week.
