Hello and welcome back to the podcast. Today we're going to be talking about some strategies to help you manage your health through the Christmas season. This is also relevant anytime throughout the year when we are not in our normal routine. So it might be summer holidays or any school holidays, or you might have a week off of work anytime when we're not in our normal routine.

and meaning that we're not necessarily eating or doing our exercise or doing our stress management, all the things that maybe we have got a really good plan and routine that we normally follow.

So there are three kind of real strategies that you can take when it comes to the holiday season. Number one, just kind of forget everything that you normally do. Just go and have fun, eat lots of food, have lots of alcohol, anything that you want to do, not really bothering about any of your normal kind of patterns.

The trouble is, Christmas often starts the first of December, or maybe even the end of November, how Christmassy you get However, if we think that Christmas starts then, and we've decided to take the strategy that we're not going to bother with any of our normal health routines or habits, you've got a whole month, or actually probably longer than that, because then I'd probably go into the new year.

got a whole month where you're throwing all of those habits out the window. It's not necessarily the best strategy because once we get out of the habit of doing things it's really difficult to get back into that habit. However it's still a strategy that we could take that you're going to enjoy Christmas, not worry about what you're eating, what you're drinking. However maybe make that Christmas.

day, Christmas week, choose the amount of time that you're going to say, right I'm just gonna enjoy it, so maybe you break up the Friday before Christmas so you've got a week or two weeks off of work. Yeah okay, right for that week I'm just gonna eat what I want to eat, I'm not gonna do exercise.

I'm just going to enjoy myself, lounge in front of the telly, watch films, have good family fun, have a nice Christmas meal, have lots of chocolates, have mince pies, one of my favourites. And just kind of think, right, that is a strategy and you could do that. What you don't want to do is do that and then feel guilty about it.

because then that guilt will lead to, well I've blown it now, I might as well just continue to eat loads of bad food, I might as well not bother restarting my exercise because I've not done it for a week or two weeks or three weeks. If you're going down that route I would highly suggest choose the set number of days or a week. I think right that's it. I'm gonna enjoy myself, I don't care if I put on weight, I don't care what I eat.

but have that amount of time, think right once that time is up, I'm gonna get back on it. I'm gonna go back to eating the healthy food, I'm gonna go back to doing my exercise, and I'm gonna go back to my normal kind of healthy routine. If you're just getting into the path of healthy habits and healthy routines, it can be really difficult to think, okay, well, I've only just started, I might as well not bother doing anything, and then

after Christmas. well, I hadn't really got very far. I hadn't really lost any weight. I might as well just continue eating more and more food. there's still leftovers. There's still chocolates. If you've made any strides forward in your health journey, then try and think, I'm going to get back to them and then I'm going to add to it. So strategy one, all out the window. Don't bother, but have that set amount of time.

and then think, this is what I've decided to do. Don't then think, I have blown it now. I'm not gonna bother. Have that set amount of time and then get back on it. Don't feel guilty about it. If you've had a week where you've eaten whatever, fine. If you've enjoyed it, great. Enjoy every mouthful, enjoy every drink that you're having and then get back on it. Strategy two.

would be actually I'm gonna stick with my really healthy habits, I'm gonna stick to my healthy diet, I'm not gonna allow myself any extras, I'm gonna just stick with it, do my exercise every day as I have been, not gonna stray from my healthy habits. That is a good option if you want to do that, but you may then feel that you're depriving yourself if everybody else around you is eating.

whatever they want to drinking, whatever they want to. And then you may resent those healthy habits that you have. That then can lead you to going off the wagon and then going way too far the other way and then feeling guilty and then just keep going. It's often all or nothing. But if you can stick to your healthy habits and that's what you prefer doing, that's how you feel good. Right.

good way to kind of keep those healthy options going. However, if you then feel that you're gonna feel deprived and you're gonna go too far the other way, the third option, third strategy may be better for you. So we've got all out the window, stick really strictly to any habits and healthy routines that you have. Options. The third option,

may be the best because that's a little bit of everything. So allow yourself to have a little bit of extra food, a little bit of alcohol if you want it. Maybe you have a few days where you don't want to do your exercise and you just lounge in front of the telly or just have party games or spend time with family. Great. But it's trying to maintain some of those healthy habits. So if you

are exercising every day, you go for a walk every day, try and maintain that. Maybe you haven't got time to go for an hour walk, maybe it's only a 20 minute walk. If on Christmas day you don't want to do any exercise, fine. Or a few days over Christmas, that's fine. Often it's nice to go for a, well we often go for a boxing day walk because burn off all of the calories that you may have eaten or some of the calories that you've eaten over Christmas, but it's nice to sometimes get out and get a bit of fresh air.

on Christmas Day, I take the dog for a walk. So it's nice sometimes just to get away from all of the presents and the food and everything else, go out and get a bit of fresh air. So I would highly suggest anytime that you're out of your routine, if you're going away on holiday. The third option is always the better bit of moderation, give yourself a bit of leeway, allow yourself to have the extra food.

but try and maintain some healthy habits within that. So it might be, right, I might eat whatever I want, not bothering about the diet, but I'm going to try and exercise a few times that week to try and maintain that. So that habit continues. After those few days or a week, I'm going to get back to eating some healthy foods again, and then get back onto those healthy habits. But the main thing is whatever you choose to do, enjoy it.

mindful eating if it's food that you love and you want to eat whatever you want to eat great but enjoy every mouthful don't think I feel guilty because I'm having pudding or I'm having some chocolate because then you're not going to enjoy it and there's no point having it so enjoy every mouthful if you can make any healthy options like or maybe only have two chocolates instead of the whole tin great fantastic if you eat the whole tin okay draw a line

move on, think okay well maybe I'm not going to have as many chocolates tomorrow or when I get back to work on Monday we're going to get back to our healthy habits, get up, our exercise, make my healthy lunch, have a healthy breakfast and not feel guilty about what you have had over the Christmas. Or this might be if you've gone on a holiday, particularly if it's like an all-inclusive type buffet and you just want to go all out, fine.

but don't feel guilty because guilt may then lead to emotional eating or stress and that's not going to help our body either. But if you can have a few healthy habits scattered amongst all of the joys of Christmas, maybe you're getting a good night's sleep.

maybe you're gonna do a bit more exercise, maybe you're eating some fruit and vegetables and healthy options. Have a few of those sprouts on your plate for Christmas dinner. I always put one on my husband's plate even though he hates them. I like Brussels sprouts, but having some vegetables, having some healthy food, drinking some water amongst any alcohol that you may be drinking.

it all helps to maintain your body's health. Often this time of year we go down with colds or kind of any bugs that floating around, keeping your body healthy to a certain extent is going to help to fight off any of those bugs. You don't want to be poorly over Christmas or New Year, but the main thing enjoy it. So just a short and sweet episode for today just to give you those few tips.

Enjoy your holidays, enjoy your Christmas, and then maybe think about the new year as a new start. I'll be talking in the next episode about New Year's resolutions, whether they are a good thing or not, but try and maintain a few healthy habits over the Christmas and enjoy. So thank you for joining me today. Take care and I will speak to you next time.