hi friends! as we approach the last full week before the holidays really begin, i wanted to share some of the ways i’m staying sane this holiday season, both emotional and physical. since the holiday’s can be an intensely stressful time of year, for many reasons, i’m really trying to relax and let things be while still staying on top of kids/home/work/gifts/ etc. it’s a delicate balance between enjoying and going completely insane, but here are the ways i’ve found helpful to keeping my love for the holidays. #notjadedyet
eating good foods
i have learned to love veggies and mastered the art of making a good, hearty salad at home. by doing so, i’m ‘crowding out’ the bad stuff on my plate and making it so i am getting enough nutrients to keep my bod running strong. i also credit eating a lot of good food + the next point with why i have been able to stave off the common cold pretty well the last few years.
sleeeeeep
at the risk of sounding like a broken record, i’m an eight-hours-a-night kinda girl. sure, kids have put a little hiccup in my sleep plans, but i’ve done a pretty good job of moving my bedtime forward enough to make sure i’m getting AT LEAST 6/7 hours a night. i’m sure i don’t need to remind you of all the details around why we need to get adequate sleep, but the cliffnotes is that your body needs time to regenerate and heal itself from the wear and tear of daily life (not to mention keeping you from getting sick). honestly, the next time you feel that cold coming on, hit the hay and let me know how you feel after a good night’s rest. it’s a cure-all. and if you’re the parent to small children … well, you have superpowers because it’s amazing how little sleep your body can survive on.
move your body
again, broken record. but these are all the habits i have put in place over the last five+ years to make it so i don’t feel like i HAVE to go on a post-holiday diet. i get some form of movement in nearly every day, and my body thanks me for it. i used to think that if i wanted to build some muscle, i had to put in a lot of extra time doing additional workouts. lately i’ve started adding fifteen minutes or less, and i can tell that i’m starting to have more defined muscle mass, and more importantly, i can lift heavier things. like children. i’ve been doing 15 minute workouts with the mirror and the tone it up daily moves, and that is the greatest example of where small tweaks make big differences for me.
chill, and then plan
i know this isn’t really realistic with the holidays, but i try to find five or ten minutes to just get my thoughts on paper on what i need to do. i’ve started carrying the same notebook around with me everywhere, because it helps to be able to get all my thoughts down in the same place. they’re not always organized, but they’re in the same place.
enjoy the time
the thought of having to run here, there, and everywhere is stressful, but hopefully at least some of what you are doing is enjoyable to you. enjoy the time with family and friends, and just look at travel/logistics as the means to an end. do we have five family christmases to hit in two days? yep. but the travel/scheduling/ensuring naps happen/coordinating what gifts go where/etc.etc. is all part of what it takes to make sure we see all of our people and be able to show up for them, physically and emotionally. i have a tendency to make it even more chaotic by stressing over it, so i’m going to do my best to just go with the flow this year.
i’m far from perfect, but this year i’m doing my best to just enjoy the time i have with the people i’m with. after all, that’s really the best part of the season, right?!