Surviving the Holiday Season: Navigating Parties with Health in Mind, Tips from Coach Tim
That season is coming upon us, are you ready?
My wife sent me a text the other day.
“What dates can we look at for the Christmas party?”
I shook my head, ugh.
I hate this part of the holiday season.
As much as I love hanging out with everybody, all the things hot chocolate and lights and all things merry — the party part of it has always been something I struggled with.
Holiday parties mean:
- alcohol
- foods we typically don’t eat on a regular day
- a lot of the above-said foods
- did I mention, a lot of them?
- late nights
I’ve navigated this season in the strict times of my athletic career, and arguably, those were easier times.
I was already locked into my goals with laser focus, so it felt easy to say:
- “No thanks, I’ll pass on that chocolate.”
- “I’ll come for an hour, but I’ve got to leave, have an early night.”
- “I’m not drinking, I’ll take a water.”
And while most of us – 99.9% of us don’t live our lives in that type of strict following, these holiday parties can be extremely tough.
Most of the time it’s not about the choices we make at the moment, it’s the rollover into the successive days:
- you wake up feeling like garbage
- you had a terrible sleep if any at all
- yesterday’s food choices roll over into the next 2-3 days
- your workouts lag behind if your motivation even brings you in
- that crappy sleep drags through the next 3-4 days
And that’s where the problems begin.
My wife’s text sent this topic off in my mind. I wanted to write about it to you today.
Not because I have some sort of rigid advice for you to say no to everything, eat salad and meat and that’s it, and leave your party and family and friends early that night.
That’s not realistic for the majority of us.
But because I’m right there with you too. I’m a human too. I struggle with the same things you do too.
So if you have upcoming parties starting to happen, instead, here’s some advice:
- If you choose to drink, stick to 1-2 and nothing more.
- If you choose to drink, hydrate yourself with water early in the day, and toss a glass of water in between each drink.
- If you choose to indulge, make sure you get some protein front-loaded in your day.
- Get your workout, or get some movement in earlier in the day.
And most importantly: When the next day rolls around, pick right up where you left off. The small things count the most.
If you have other things that you do to ensure you can walk away from your holiday parties feeling good, by all means – hit reply and let me know. Share your tips with me so I can pass them on!
Do you know where’s a great place to do that? In our free public Facebook group.
(You had to expect a holiday email at some point.)
Happy planning,
Coach Tim
PS: When you’re ready, here are 3 ways we want to help:
1. Join our free Facebook group – Get Fit and Healthy Glen Cove. Just click here and jump right in. It’s just a group of like-minded individuals all aspiring to take control of their health and fitness, and there’s a ton of support waiting for you.
2. If you’d like to work with my team and me, we’ve got a few openings left before the new year. Click here and schedule a Free No Sweat Intro to come into the gym and chat.
