It’s mid-November, and no matter how, when, or what you celebrate, the holiday season is almost guaranteed to goof up routines, habits, and the best-laid plans. (Seriously. Look it up sometime. When considering all the possible religious and secular celebrations, there are more than 30 that occur in just two months!)
So let’s talk about holidays and routines.
Schools are out for a lot of it, which means if you have kids or if you are a student, the schedule is off and that messes with everyone’s routines. Work is closed for some of it, which means the same.
Simplest things?
Go to bed at the same time…or close. I mean who doesn’t love sleeping in on a Tuesday morning if you don’t need to be at work? Get up at the same time…or close. Changing your sleep & wake routine for the weird schedule during a holiday makes it harder to go back to normal when needed, and that just makes everything worse. I recently had a lousy three or four weeks of waking up one to two hours early and never getting back to sleep. Those days were awful. The days when I actually slept past 3 or 4 a.m.? Those days were SO much better. (Seriously…when the alarm is set for 5:21, because yes I have a nine-minute snooze, don’t judge me, and I wake at 3:45 or 4:15 and can’t get back to sleep? Those are ROUGH.)
Exercise as normal…or close. On those days recently when I was having rough sleep issues, I exercised on some days and didn’t exercise on others. Want to guess which days felt better? Go ahead. I’ll wait.
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Did you guess that on the days that I exercised, I felt better? Very good!!
Eat as normal…or close. I have another blog post marinating in my brain about meal planning and intentional leftovers, but that’s for a different day. Holidays mean special meals, family-secret baked goods that are only made once a year, and so on. Am I saying to skip all that? Oh heck no! We’ve developed a Thanksgiving tradition of Hungarian pork chops with my folks and I’m already salivating over here even though it’s a couple of weeks away. Could I make that recipe myself? Absolutely. Do I enjoy it as part of that holiday gathering with family? Absolutely! Also my mom makes a killer cheesecake and there are really good GF graham cracker crusts available nowadays so HECK yes I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving! But balance is important. Maintaining a little bit of routine and habit through all of the holiday craziness is important. Getting through December without feeling like you need a total reboot is important. (New Year’s resolutions are such a fraught topic!)
Drink LOTS of water. I am not going to say it’s easy; I struggle with drinking enough water when winter comes around and I’m less active outside. It’s difficult, but water is still a vital part of maintaining a healthy body and mind. Have the eggnog? YES. (Once again, don’t judge me, I love it! LOL!) Glass of wine, punch, whatever…yes! But drink water. Balance the alcohol consumption, if you drink alcohol, with water. Balance the festive non-alcoholic punch with water. But drink water.
Simple things can make the biggest difference, and having support for those simple things is huge! Let’s have a conversation about how coaching can help you get through not only the holiday insanity, but make positive changes to feel better all year long!
Cheers! Here’s to your health!