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Simply Your Healthiest Holiday Season Ever!

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DFHappy Holidays everyone,

This is the best time of the year, don’t you think?

The leaves are changing. There is a cool bite in the air. It is a time for families and friends to come together and celebrate the harvest, thanksgiving and the beginning of a new year.

It is also a time when we have the tendency to ignore how our bodies work and what can happen when we consume treats, processed foods, and alcohol. We stop giving our bodies the simple factors that allow it to heal.

As wonderful as it can be, the extra activities of the holiday season can add increased stress to our lives and over-burden our digestive and immune systems. We put off exercising, we eat poorly, and we don’t get enough sleep. We don’t allow time to sit and be still, or to reconnect with those activities that bring happiness into our lives.

Remember, health and wellness is a lifestyle. It is not something you can buy in a bottle or create at the gym a few times a week. How we chose to live our lives will create the health, fitness, and wellness we desire.

Making the most of this holiday season is a gentle reminder of how amazing you are.

Give yourself a moment to feel how you would like your holiday season to be. Feel it filled with loving moments with friends and family. Make those moments about sharing your thanks for having them in your life, not about the deserts and alcohol. Treat yourself with time to eat well, and prepare wholesome meals for your family. And again, feel how fortunate you are for all that you have.

Create some activities special to fall and winter – ones that get you outside and close to nature. Autumn is a wonderful season for hiking, riding horses, playing football, roaming pumpkin patches, bike riding, photography, raking leaves, canoeing, or whatever you enjoy.

Winter is even better with all its activities. Give yourself permission to get out there and be a kid. Make a snowman, take a brisk walk, go sledding, skiing, or snow mobiling. You can still hike, ride horses, and bike ride.

Winter doesn’t mean you are supposed to lock yourself up inside, sitting in front of the T.V. waiting for spring.

Our bodies love to move and be active. Give yourself this gift, and you will find that the ten pounds most of us put on over the holidays isn’t on your hips or around your stomach. Do you know what that means? You are already ten pounds ahead of the game, and you will move into the New Year with a healthier, happier, spirit, mind, and body.

Here are a few simple steps to create for your holiday season.

Take a moment to actually visualize how you will feel the day after New Years: happy, healthy, and proud that you did so well through the holiday season. Really live in it.

Create a small list of five key thoughts you will focus on each day such as:

  • eat well  – lots of vegetables, clean proteins, and little bits of fat.
  • get sound sleep – this is when your body repairs and rebuilds
  • drink lots of water – hydration is so important to your health.
  • breathe – take time to be still and quiet your mind.
  • get outside and move – start to really enjoy your outside environment.

Here are a few of my best ways not to fall prey to the abundance of sweets and such.

I always make sure to eat or juice before going to a holiday party, even if they are serving food. This way I am not inclined to crave sweets. Remember:  sweets and junk food are not the reason for getting together. This is a time for celebrating our family and loved ones. You can easily do that without ice cream, pies, alcohol, and pizza.

I always prepare myself ahead of time by visualizing myself having a wonderful time without diving into the cheese dip, and the rest.

I make sure to drink water in a wine glass with lemon, so it has the same feel of participating with the group, and folks are less likely to tease me into drinking.

Most of the time people want you to drink because they are, and they feel uncomfortable if you are not.

I make sure never to take food home with me.

I keep my kitchen filled with wholesome foods so there are no temptations.

Believe it or not, this is not challenging at all. The key is to remain focused on your desire to feel and be healthy and happy. Every time you do it right, it gets even easier. After a week or so you won’t even think about it.

You already have the ability to do so.

I would like to leave you with one last thought.

Only you can take responsibility for your life and everything about it.

Most folks hear the word “Responsibility” and think, ‘Oh great, one more thing I have to do.’ We already have responsibilities to our partners, our kids, our work, and our groups.

In actuality, responsibility is a gift.  Look at the word “Responsibility,” and let’s break it apart into two words. Response–Ability or having the ability to respond.

It is my feeling that having the ability to respond means that you have been blessed with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to take care of, solve, resolve, teach, share, and express who you are and what is important to you in each and every moment of your life.

Having the ability to respond and how you respond determines your life.

Use your gift of  “Response-Ability by expressing the best choices for your health, happiness, wealth, and wellness.

Have a holiday season full of happiness, health, and well being!

I wish for all of you Vibrant Health!

Plugging in Brightly for the Holidays

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CHAre you hearing “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” going through your head and thinking about the holidays? (Those store carols have a way of taking over your brain!)  My brain thinks “It’s the most STRESSFUL time of the year” when I realize we have just finished with Halloween, and it is only the first of November. While this can be a fun and fulfilling time, it can also be a time of great challenge. Stress is higher during the holiday season than during any other time of the year.

We (especially women) often feel the most pressure to plan, shop, cook, decorate, and coordinate seasonal rituals, gifts, mailings and parties. We try to do too much for too many people in too little time. The holidays may also remind us of losses of loved ones, friends, homes, marriages, health and jobs that stir sad feelings. No wonder some of us start the season aglow with anticipatory joy, only to end up weeks later feeling awful. Exhaustion, depression, sleeplessness, poor appetite, overeating, illness and irritability are all signs of stress. When do we know how to stop? Yikes!!!

Stress doesn’t have to be part of your holidays. Taking simple positive actions now to plan the upcoming season will reduce pressures and increase your enjoyment of what can be a lovely time of year. What’s more, you can arm yourself with quick practices to remove stress when you’re in the midst of the most hectic days. Is there a better way to live through the holidays so that you plug brightly into the “fun and fulfilling” part and lessen the “stressful” part? You bet there is! Here are ten ways I reduce my holiday stress while humming along in bliss!!!

TEN WAYS TO REDUCE HOLIDAY STRESS

1. Get enough sleep. You may wonder how this fits especially when you have a long list of things to do for the holidays. However, this truly is a simple step to a stress-free holiday. Lack of sleep leads to fatigue, which in turn reduces your ability to cope with the holiday demands.

2. Find time to exercise, even if it’s only for a few minutes. Exercise helps to increase your energy level and reduce stress.

3. Nourish yourself. In other words, take time to eat properly. In the rush to accomplish all the things planned for the holidays, you may tend to skip meals in order to get more done. You need fuel to continue on with holiday cheer.

4. Plan ahead so that you are prepared for what’s coming up. The last thing you need is unscheduled interruptions to your day. If something unplanned comes up that can wait until later, do not be ashamed to politely refuse or reschedule.

5. Set and stick to a holiday budget for things that are on your lists to do and buy. It’s easy to overspend over the holidays which can lead to stress. Once you set your budget, your decision making will be easy and less stressful when it comes time to make your holiday purchases.

6. Shop early to avoid the holiday crowd. Try shopping over the Internet and skip the hassle of crowded shopping malls, parking and the frustration of standing in line.

7. Prioritize what you want to accomplish over the holidays. Stick with the most important first, and you’ll get those things done that are most important to you.

8. Simplify your life. If you can make things easier for yourself, do so. It saves you from stress, and it works. A lot of things don’t have to be elaborate, especially with decorations and food preparation.

9. Reduce your expectations. High expectations usually equate to higher probability of stress when things don’t work out. Don’t try to do too many things or expect too much from others; take the holiday time to relax. Find little self soothers to pamper yourself throughout your day.

10. Plan to give service, and think of someone’s needs other than your own. This charitable spirit will help you be more appreciative of what you already have and remember what the holiday is really about. Having compassion for others softens our Spirit and lends its way to awakening your heart within.

Expectations are the biggest stress: those that others have placed on us and those we impose on ourselves. Our schedules fill up, and our pocketbooks become empty. Expectations of how the holidays should be keep us from enjoying a time of simpler, more meaningful joys. There is such a simple solution to the holiday stress blues, just say “no “and give yourself the gift of compassion. Let someone else do a project, let the bakery do the cookies, have someone wrap your gifts and have a party when decorating the tree, the more the merrier. Plan now and kick back and enjoy some egg nog!

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