Staying active and eating moderately during the holidays is a challenge for most of us.

Enjoying family, friends, and great food while maintaining fitness goals is most effectively achieved through proper planning. Take these action steps before your holiday outings by getting back to the basics of thoughtful planning.

Because the holiday season, with its emphasis on beautiful caloric rich foods and drinks places us in high risk situations for continuing healthful living, we need to recognize, identify, and practice a new set of skills. But before these skills are practiced, a little perspective helps in accomplishing our holiday goals of fitness and weight maintenance. The key is in not being too hard on ourselves, while asking ourselves to take responsibility and execute a plan.

Keys to Feeling Good During The Holidays

Stay Organized and Thoughtful. We tend to think that others are more disciplined in integrating healthy behaviors, but in reality, they are just more organized and thoughtful. Have a plan and tell yourself that you are in training for a new skill. As you improve at organizing yourself and projecting possible barriers, the newly learned skills will come naturally. Keeping healthy and maintaining your weight during the holidays will get easier with each passing festive season.

Stay Focused. It’s easy to rationalize unhealthful behaviors while shopping, cooking and enjoying festivities with friends and family. Recognize this type of thought process as destructive, and replace those thoughts with visualizing the people you admire who have mastered healthy skills. Know that it is within your reach to enjoy the camaraderie of the holiday season while maintaining your health. Take an attitude that others are doing it and so can you!

Stay Honest. Certain events during the holidays will inevitably occur, that you as an individual cannot control. Recognize and identify these events. This is no time to indulge in self-berating behaviors. Conversely, many events will be within your control, and will directly correlate to decisions that empower you to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Visualize how you want to feel after the holiday season has ended. It’s true, gyms are crowded with new members after the 1st of the year and we assume it is because of well thought out New Year’s resolution planning. The truth is, many people go to the gym in January simply because they have under-exercised and over-indulged in food and drink during the holidays. They are feeling out of control. Tell yourself that it does not have to be this way. We can enjoy the holidays, make workouts and or walking/jogging programs a priority, and try various foods that our friends, families and favorite restaurants have to offer in a moderate manner.

Take control this holiday season! And get back to the basics of what an increasingly growing number of savvy people consider the cornerstone of living well – a healthy life!

Action Steps

– Six days prior to the holiday festive season, put your goals of weight maintenance and adhering to an exercise routine throughout the holiday season in writing. Keep in a visible area. Read daily to reinforce mentally.

– Four days prior, visualize what your days will look like during the holiday season. Imagine the shopping and time schedule you will have, the food preparation you may do, and what parties you may have, or will be attending. Envision accomplishing written health goals during each activity, and keeping your exercise schedule consistent.

– Three days prior, mentally strategize any barriers that may occur in preventing you from accomplishing your goals.

– Two days prior, write down possible goal barriers, as well as alternative strategies you will implement if barriers arise.

– One day prior, mentally rehearse accomplishing health goals and overcoming all barriers that may arise. See yourself adjusting to new strategies in various holiday settings. Use positive self – talk as a tool to gain self control of negative defeatist attitudes. Go to www.selfhelpmagazine.com/articles/sports/selftalk.htmlfor an overview of how positive self- talk can enhance your success.

Daily, remind yourself you are practicing skills that may be easy to implement during the year when your routine is dependable, but more challenging during the holidays when activities are more hectic. Remind yourself to slow down, and think about health priorities, while rewarding yourself for making good choices.
Daily, take solace in the fact that implementation of good healthful habits becomes easier through the holiday seasons, and changing old neurological pathways now, positions you for a more vital and vigorous quality of life as you progress through the years.