Stretch Your Way Out of Unconscious Holiday Eating

Tis the Season to Stretch

How are your health goals faring this holiday season? There is a smorgasbord of healthy living advice about how to navigate the holidays but somehow what we know and what we do tend to diverge.

What’s the solution?

There’s never a one size fits all solution but here is one simple thing that might help.

Stretch! Every Day!!

During the holiday season exercise can dwindle in frequency or worse yet, disappear altogether now that we order all our gifts online! This begets a holiday season of being “disconnected” from our body. It’s like when you’re trying to avoid talking with someone at a party – you don’t make eye contact and “duck”. It’s the same with our body – we just kind of ignore it during the holidays. And it’s easier for us to engage in unconscious/default food behaviors when we’re avoiding our body. A simple way to counteract this is to stretch everyday.

Stretching, you remember? That thing you might do before and hopefully, always do after exercising. That thing you’re probably not doing if you’re not exercising. It’s quick and painless – in fact; it’s more likely to make you pain-free, especially if you’ve been avoiding your body this holiday season.

The Balanced and Whole 21 Day Jumpstart Program book has 6 simple full body stretches – if you have a copy, they’re on page 162.

If you don’t have the book, try these 6 simple stretches that you can do at home or at the office. (https://99u.adobe.com/articles/6999/6-simple-yoga-stretches-for-daily-de-stressing)

If you hold each stretch for 30 – 60 seconds that’s 6 minutes a day. You can do it longer if you’d like, but we all have 6 minutes. Your body will thank you, yes, but you may also notice that it’s helpful when you’re staring down that chocolate babka…maybe you’ll decide to have a piece, if it’s your favorite, but it might feel easier to have just one piece if you’re stretching everyday. And you might even decide you don’t want it! Either way, endeavor to make it a conscious choice and PLEASE, stop avoiding your body!

Besides a daily stretch, here are my top 5 suggestions for staying on track this season:

Eat before your event.
Mind portion sizes on everything, including sweets!
Survey ALL the choices first and eat what you love – a conscious choice tops an unconscious grab, every time.
Carry an insulated bottle with plain hot water – sipping warm water is easier in the cold weather and you’ll avoid falling off on water consumption, another common holiday malady.
If the holidays stress you out, remember the things you do to de-stress the rest of year. What do you do when the house isn’t full of holiday cookies? Go for a walk? Yah, do that instead : )