The holiday season is a time for family and good cheer. It’s also the time of the year when even the most health-minded individuals will let their guards down. It’s difficult to see all those wonderful holiday foods sitting on a table and resist the temptation to partake in the fruits of the season. It’s equally difficult to forget to take care of oneself.
The reality is there’s never a good time to put health aside. If you are truly committed to living a healthy lifestyle, it’s incumbent on you to stay on track no matter what else is going in your live. Yes, that also applies to focusing on your health during the holidays.
By the way, living a healthy lifestyle includes a lot more than eating healthy. It also includes focusing on your spiritual and mental health as well.
With the holiday season knocking at the door, now would be a good time to discuss things you can do during the holiday season to stay healthy. These are things you can do to make sure you come out the other end of the holidays just as healthy as you are now.
Eating Healthy During the Holidays
In case you haven’t noticed in the past, holiday foods are delicious but not necessarily endorsed by nutritionists. Everyone loves turkey, ham, candied yams, cranberry sauce, dumplings, holiday cookies and pie. Unfortunately, many of the foods you will encounter in your family/friend events will violate even the most simplistic diet plans.
If you happen to be a vegetarian, your task of finding holiday foods you can enjoy while staying in line with your vegetarian menu plan is a tall one. This is time your discipline and commitment to eating healthy is really going to be tested.
Assuming you fully intend on participating in holiday events, you have three choices if you wish to stay on track with your vegetarian menu plan. First, you could always choose to simply pick and choose from what your event hosts have put on the table for dinner. Of course, the pickings could be slim if the host is more focused on traditional and not so much on healthy eating.
Second, if you are willing to be a little presumptuous, you could reach out to the powers to be and request a little extra consideration in the form of food choices that would conform to your vegetarian menu plan. If that’s not a reasonable thing to do, you have a third choice. You could always bring foods you prepare yourself. Who knows, you could share your vegetarian meals and perhaps inspire others to join in the vegetarian movement.
Whatever you choose to do, be proud of the choice you have made to eat healthy.
Don’t Forget Exercise
It’s easy to get wrapped up in the festivities of the holiday season. As you start getting busy, you might have to pick and choose the things you have to set aside so you can enjoy the holidays. Don’t let your exercise program be one of those things.
The idea you have taken the time to develop an exercise program that works for you is commendable and surely something your body appreciates. If you show just a little discipline and plan ahead, there’s no reason you can’t figure out how to make sure you still get plenty of exercise during the holidays.
Keep Your Mind on Your Mind
For all the enjoyment the holidays provide, there’s also a bit of underlying stress that comes with the holiday package. You might find it’s doggone easy to forget about keeping your head in the game as you try to meet work deadlines, take care of family and participate in holiday events.
Remember, the holidays are intended to be the time for good cheer. The best way to make sure you can fully enjoy what’s going on around you is to make sure you put aside a little time for yourself away from the hustle and bustle. You can do this by taking time to do the things you like doing the most.
The holidays are what you make of them. With just a little effort you can have a great holiday season while continuing to make sure you are living the healthy life style you have chosen for yourself.