I love this time of the year, but it seems like we don’t have much down-time to let our bodies reset from all the food we eat! We go straight from Turkey Day to attending all those awesome holiday parties (where we inevitably consume large amounts of food). It’s tough! Visiting the parents, grandparents, or friends can spell-out trouble – especially when every home has tables covered in sweets, hams, side-dishes, or just festive candy.
Today, I’m sharing 5 tips to help you balance the oh-so-sinfully delicious holidays and maintain a balanced and healthy lifestyle.
Tip #1: Treat your taste buds to a healthy breakfast
Doctors don’t say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day for no reason! On top of it actually being good to kick-start your metabolism right when you wake up, I often find that I eat better when I start my day off with a healthy breakfast. I know the go-to excuse is you don’t have time in the morning, but you there are a lot of recipes that you can prep the night before, so you can simply grab and go.
This is why I love homemade Chia Seed Pudding so much! If you want to sweeten it up, you can even add granola and strawberries (an absolutely killer combo, that is also very healthy giving you more energy).
The recipe is actually quite simple, and quick!
What You’ll Need
3 tablespoons of chia seeds
1 cup of vanilla almond milk
What You’ll Do
1. While you are wrapping holiday gifts or signing cards, combine the chia seeds and vanilla almond milk in a cup! Stir it up and place it in the fridge.
2. After 10 minutes (and about five Christmas cards later), go to the fridge and give the pudding a little stir to ensure the seeds don’t stick together. Do it two more times before bed.
3. Go to sleep, wake up the next day and enjoy your delicious breakfast.
Tip #2: Home, eat healthy! Out, indulge!
This time of the year always wages the internal war over should I or shouldn’t I eat that last cookie, piece of cake, or a couple more scoops of casserole. I find this simple guideline, extremely helpful:
When you’re home, eat healthy.
When you’re home, you are usually not with a big group of friends or family. Take advantage! Unwind with simple, quick, and clean meals and save the extra calories for when it’s a little more difficult to control your environment. Now, I’m not saying deprive yourself, but wouldn’t you rather indulge with your friends than do so home all alone?
You will enjoy the moment and appreciate the foods more by keeping yourself in check at home where there is no one to tempt you, but yourself.
A quick, healthy meal that I love to whip up when I’m home and binge watching shows on Netflix is a cajun grilled shrimp lettuce wrap. There’s often so much meat being served over the holidays, I need a bit of a break with a little seafood.
What You’ll Need
Shrimp, peeled and deveined
Olive Oil
Cajun seasoning
Bibb lettuce
Sliced avocado
What You’ll Do
1) Preheat a grill pan to medium-high heat. While it heats up, toss the cleaned shrimp in oil the the cajun seasonings.
2) Grill the shrimp on each side from 1-2 minutes or until cooked through. Then, remove from the heat.
3) Place about three shrimp on each leaf of lettuce and roll it up with a little sliced avocado.
Tip #3 Make little changes (like take the stairs)!
You don’t have to be fitness rockstar to stay in shape. While it would nice to have the time and motivation to train everyday for multiple hours a day, many of us just can’t do that. I’m with you! It’s the little things that honestly have the greatest impact.
So, when you are invited to that holiday party at your friends, maybe enjoy a nice stroll to their place instead of taking a cab. When you head into work, instead of taking the elevator climb the stairs. Or, park further away from dinner or the office. While at those cheesy and often times chuckle-worthy holiday events, get into the music! Dancing is a great way to have fun and burn a few calories.
Tip #4: Focus on the fun
While the buffet-spreads, dessert pyramids, and bread baskets seem to be a huge focus this time of year, the holidays aren’t solely about food. They are about being with the ones you love, spending time with family, doing childishly fun things in the snow (if we ever get any again – it was 60s this week!)
The point is, don’t focus on the food. Focus on the fun! Go to the park and have a snowball fight, ice skate, go sledding, or simply make a snow angel. Spend the days shopping with your friends for holiday gifts, decorating the house, grabbing a hot coffee (or tea as I love) and stroll the city streets!
Food is wonderful. Food is delicious, but food isn’t everything. Use this time to create memories and enjoy each other’s company.
Tip #5: Stash Healthy Snacks
Snacks are AMAZING. They help boost the metabolism, prevent weight gain (which we are all trying to avoid), and increase energy levels! I find having snacks on hand at the office, running errands, or driving home prevents me from over-eating when I actually get a plate of food in front of me.
Some healthy snack options are – apples, hummus, almonds, avocado, cherry tomatoes, trail mix, natural peanut butter, celery, dried fruit, dark chocolate!
Keeping a variety of options is a good thing. You may be in a sweet mood, so you’ll nab an apple or dried fruit or dark chocolate. Or, you may want something more substantial like an avocado.
Having these little nibbles on hand helps combat inhaling several holiday dinners later.
I hope you all enjoy the holidays! What are you favorite healthy meals on the go or when you are spending a night in? Any little things you plan to do to add some fitness into your day-to-day?
Love always,
Erica
Really you point out effective tips. Now i’m flowing this. Thanks for sharing