7 Strategies Prepare for Holiday Season

It’s truly the most wonderful time of the year. These next weeks often bring out the best in people through exchanges of gratitude, gift giving and upbeat and positive attitudes.

But for anyone on a their own weight loss and transformation journey, it can also be the cause of deviation from our plans and create setbacks.

But if I’ve learned anything with my clients, it’s that a little planning can have a huge impact on whether or not this season will hurt the waistlines.

Below are seven ways to plan for it now:

1) Pick Your Cheats Get a planner/calendar and write this all down. Because there are so many extra events throughout this time of year, it’s important to write them all down so you can see (from a bird’s eye view) everything going on and all the opportunities that can make or break your healthy routine. Determine which events will be harder for you to avoid the extra treats (or adult beverages) and decide if/when you’re going to allow yourself some indulgence. It shouldn’t be every event, especially during the weeks you have multiple of them. But if you pick your cheats now and plan for them, you’ll feel more confident during the season, without feeling deprived.

2) Practice Your Polite “No’s” Everyone has a relative or family friend that can be overly pushy. If you have people in your life that don’t fully support your lifestyle or tend to offer a less-than-healthy option over and over, practice saying no now, so you know how to respond when that opportunity arises. Even saying I’ll have some later.

3) Determine When You’ll Bring Food One of the best strategies to help get through the holiday months is planning to bring your own food. This could be a dish to share with the group (fresh fruit, vegetable platter, shrimp cocktail) or your portable snack or beverage (think protein shake) to have on hand so you have at least one option to eat and stick to your plan.

4) Find Non-Food Ways to Embrace Sometimes it feels like any and all celebrations are food dominant. Although there are some amazingly tasty treats around this time of year, think of other ways to celebrate the season and different ways to give gifts. Try incorporating some non-food celebrations with your family. Instead of food-based gifts, try gifting handmade soaps or lotions for your friends or coworkers.

5) Enhance your Exercise Routine Let me suggest this: now is the time to really stick to your exercise routine and add a little variety. When we stick to our workout sessions, we’re more likely to stick to our nutrition strategies, which is hard to do during this season. The goal is to stick to a plan and stay consistent each week, knowing that you’re bound to have a little extra indulgence coming in during this time. Don’t punish yourself with exercise for overindulging.

6) Have a Craving Strategy If you’re going to a party or an event and know you’re going to run into some foods that are hard to resist, having a craving strategy can make all the difference. For most, using a glutamine supplement or protein powder prior to that event can help keep cravings at bay and keep your blood sugars stable so your energy doesn’t drop (causing a craving). At the event, focus on the foods that help keep them at bay, including healthy fats, lean proteins and fiber (starchy vegetables).

7) Expect it At Work Everyone brings the food they don’t want to consume at home to work. Candy bowls, flavored popcorn, you name it. We bring it to work to share because we know it’s not healthy, (whether gifted to us or something we bought ourselves) so we bring it in to share with everyone else. Expect extra treats and candies in the break room and commit to not consuming any of it. It’s easy to overeat and not think those little treats count, but they can absolutely add and impact to your goals.