Get Fit Friday: Holiday Pounds

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Sorry I've been MIA again. I was out of town for a bit, and getting back into a routine after a trip is always difficult...especially when you don't have much of an established routine to begin with. Just sayin'.

I know it sounds obvious, but trying to get healthy during the holidays can be incredibly difficult. And it's not just the actual days of Thanksgiving and Christmas; there are also holiday parties and other get-togethers that seem to revolve around food. (I'm thankful that I no longer work in an office setting; it seems like the office break room is always a dangerous place around the holidays, with everyone leaving homemade treats lying around.) My birthday also happens to fall almost directly between those two holidays, so there's a lot of cake and going out to eat. Plus there's the fact that I pretty much never want to exercise when it's cold; I just want to sit on the couch wrapped up in a blanket with the space heater aimed directly at my always-frozen toes.

The culmination of all these factors is a 2-pound weight gain since my last GFF post three weeks ago. But honestly, when I see it written out like that, it actually doesn't sound that bad. My body typically reaches equilibrium sometime in January, and whatever holiday pounds I gain typically fall off once daily life gets back to normal. The question is, where do I want to go from there? To help answer that question, I've come up with a personalized post-holiday game plan:

1. No desserts in the house. To me, Christmas means four things: 1) Jesus' birth, 2) family, 3) presents, and 4) cookies. I love to bake, and Christmas is one of the few times a year that I allow cookies to stay in the house. But once the holidays are over, no more. I just can't handle the temptation.

actual footage of me at Christmastime

2. Go to bed on time. I've fallen into the bad habit of staying up way later than I should. Lately it seems there's always a present that needs to be wrapped, cleaning to be done, or a Hallmark movie I haven't seen yet. But it typically means I'm useless the next day, which means no exercise (among other things). The times in my life when I have felt the most clear-minded, productive, and healthy are the times when I've been able to get up early to exercise first thing in the morning. I actually love early mornings, but let's just be real here: there's no way I'm getting up at 5AM when I've gone to bed at 1 or 2.

3. Keep up daily activity. I love my Fitbit, because even on days when I haven't exercised, it shows me how much I've moved around just from normal everyday life. Lately I've logged close to 10,000 steps just from running errands, doing housework, and climbing the stairs what seems like hundreds of times each day. I don't see those things changing anytime soon, which is a bit of an encouragement to me.

How do you re-focus after the holidays? I'd love to hear some new ideas, so leave me a comment. Merry Christmas!

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