Holidays...

Holidays…ah, holidays… the stress, the rushing, the trying to fit everyone into your schedule, the attempts to make everyone happy, the FOOD!! Yes, the food.  Everywhere you look.  Food.  And more food.  And cookies.  And candy.  Everywhere.  Without a doubt, this is one of the most difficult times in anyone’s life when it comes to trying to eat healthy and not go overboard on just about everything.  Everywhere you look, food, drinks, alcohol… add the stress of the holidays in general into that mixture and it is a recipe for healthy living disaster.  I completely admit that in prior years, I was guilty of too much of all of that!!  There was one Christmas eve in particular where I almost didn’t wrap any of the kids presents due to too much, shall we say, splurging in the drinking department… I wanted to nap in between each present!! I actually think I may have between a few.  Luckily I have a husband that didn’t help, but was more than happy to poke at me and make sure I didn’t sleep…  

I am proud to say that this year though, I did not fall for any of the holiday food tricks!! I wish I could say I avoided the stress and the rushing, but I most certainly cannot say that.  I also have a birthday party to plan and have the week before Christmas so I was feeling the stress full force.  With split families, the rushing from house to house trying to accommodate all those we could, will probably never end.  We had 5 Christmases this year on 3 different days.  All that being said, I can proudly say that I kept my eating well within check and that truly makes me happy.  I don’t at all feel like I was deprived of anything, I never felt so sick from overeating that I just wanted to lay down, I kept everything food related in my control.  I ate what I could at home before we went anywhere, I constantly had water with me in my hand (and only water every day!!), I ate what I wanted in moderation, I enjoyed cookies (thanks mom!!), I had pizza (with a side salad) – all in all, I can sum it up that I made the best decisions that were available to me.  I have learned through this process what is worth splurging on and what just is not.

I am, however, not proud of the lack of real exercise that I have gotten.  Oh, I have been moving, I have been on the go non-stop, but no real bust your butt, work up a sweat workouts have found their way to me lately.  That will all be ending in the extremely near future.  And I truly can’t wait to get back to it.  I miss it.

I have taken over as our Health and Wellness Coordinator at work and it is something that I am extremely excited for!!  We have a new program starting January 2^nd through Virgin Healthmiles and I received my pedometer for the program this morning.  I definitely plan on using this all as some extra motivation to get moving more and more this upcoming year.  More on this all in a future post – and yes, there will be more!! I have already started making a little checklist of what I want to change/do better and this blog is one of them.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are ready to ring in the New Year with a new you and outlook on life!!  And remember, if you fell into the vicious cycle of holiday stress and eating, the best thing is, its over!!  Well, almost,  for those of you that actually party on New Years J Every day is a new day and another day to make the better, healthier decisions… Good luck!!