Top Tips for Holidays and Starting your New Year on the Right Track

Whole Happy Health
13 minutes ago
4 min read

Hi Team

Happy New Year to you all!

It's that week where everybody isn't sure what to do with themselves or the kids! and we are all itching to get back to normal routines and habits!

We had a "Winter spring clean" and I cleared out a few books and I have a lot of books about habits changes, fat loss, positive motivation, and A LOT of Exercise books. I had a quick flick through all of them before deciding what to keep and what to donate to chairty.

Some of these books were pushlished in the 60s and what I realised is that nothing had changed in the last 50s years when it comes to building muscle, losing fat and changing habits.

The fundamentals and principles are the same and will always be the same.

Set a goal
Set a plan
Ignore what others are doing
Stick to the plan
Keep a record and track what you're doing

Other top tips

To tone muscle and get stronger - lift heavy weights
Little and often over the long haul
Fruits and veggies are your friend
Drink water
Eat like an adult
Go for walks

What I like to say is

Show up

Eat well

Be consistent

Do your best

also - just get it done.

10 Tips for holiday Eating from Bill Hinbern

"Here are 10 tips on eating your favourite foods while enjoying this time of the year:

1. Focus on maintaining your bodyweight rather than fat loss during the holidays.

Let’s be reasonable...traditionally speaking, there are no low calorie foods prepared during the Christmas Holiday Season.

If you manage to survive the holidays without gaining any body weight, that’s quite an accomplishment.

2. Don’t plan now on dieting after the New Year.

Why?

Simple.

Psychologically, the anticipation of food restriction after the first of the year will set you up for binge-type eating behavior, now.

You know, the big, “I’m going to eat anything and as much as I want because, come the first of the year, I’m going on a diet!”

Don’t get caught up in that mind set.

3. Be physically active every day.

Keep in mind, you simply want to maintain your current body weight.

You can help combat the result of extra holiday calories by working on the other end of the equation...exercise.

Exercise as you normally would, or, better yet, add an extra exercise session each day.

This will maintain a balance in your calorie intake and expenditure.

4. Eat a light snack before going to holiday parties.

In anticipation of the availability of delicious food, don’t go into the battle extra hungry.

Eat a nutritious snack about half an hour before meal time.

This will take the edge off any ravenous hunger pangs.

5. Have a plan of action.

That is, know where you will be, how much and what kinds of food you plan to eat ahead of time.

6. Take the necessary steps to avoid “recreational eating.”

That is, don’t eat for the sake of eating.

Just because others are eating doesn’t mean you have to eat to be sociable.

Select your choice of food wisely, eat slowly, keep your hunger in check.

For example, ask yourself, “Do I really want that second slice of pumpkin pie?”

7. Reduce the fat in holiday recipes.

While this is a debatable issue, there are ways to cut calories and still maintain the flavor of your favorite recipes.

For example, rather than butter, consider using olive oil.

8. Choose your beverage wisely.

Alcoholic, soda, and fruit drinks are high in calories.

Try replacing them with: diet sodas; soda water, club soda, seltzer water, carbonated water, or just plain...H2O.

9. Try to take the focus off of food and transfer it to enjoying the holidays with good friends and family.

10. Keep the holidays in proper perspective:

Overeating just one day won’t make or break your eating plan.

However, multiple days of overeating will cause weight gain."

A year in Review

Every month I write down a few things in a little notebook.

Salary for that month
Weight
Amount in savings
Good days
Bad days
What I have learned

This year, I have not been very consistent doing this as I have been in the past 3 years. But I flicked through my notebook yesterday and it's a nice reminder of how many good days or weeks I have had.

And even in the worst of years - the good days always seem to outweigh the bad days.

This great scene from City Slickers about best and worst days is a nice reminder.