HOW TO GET YOUR HABITS BACK AFTER THE HOLIDAY SEASON - Fitmariamaria

Christmas is gone, New Year’s Eve as well, but what’s left? A full stomach and a happy body with maybe a few pounds extra. 

The first thing many people do after the holiday season is to regret about what they ate, they did or the exercise they didn’t do. Instead of accepting with gratefulness what happened and what they did, chilling and just start to get back to the routine slowly, they just think every single minute about what they did “wrong.” What’s done, it’s done, we can’t time travel. 

One of the first things I want you to do is to stop thinking about the food you ate or didn’t eat. Thinking about it won’t make you feel better and it can be pretty bad for your emotional and psychological health. Remember, a healthy relationship with food is about not obsessing with it. 

I want you to realize how much you enjoyed eating all the treats you like during this season and how happy you were by sharing amazing meals with your family and friends, remember that life is about moments. Something that you might not know is that most of our memories are built by smells, flavors and feelings, and food is all of that combined. Amazing, right? 

Food is not a problem anymore when you stop seeing it as such. If you eat to live and not the opposite, I believe you will start being happier and healthier. What happens during holiday season is that we face all these emotions and endless opportunities for eating, like friend’s dinners, family lunch, leftover breakfasts, tea time with the girls, etc. Often, we find ourselves in a place with not exit, we just have to stay there, taste, chew, swallow and enjoy the moment, because, sometimes there is not other option, and more if there are leftovers from the day before and you are so lazy that you can’t bother cooking at the next day. 

The good news is that this season only happens during a short period of time, so please don’t stress too much about losing those pounds too fast, because at the end of the day you really enjoyed those foods and the pounds were not gained from one day to another, right? 

On the other side, we all learn with the experience. I think if you regret something you did, you might want to change the way how you do things the next time. So, if you regret because you ate too much chocolate during Christmas season this year, next year you might want to slow down a bit the chocolate to make sure you get away from the awful feeling of repentance. Something we must have in mind all the time is that balance is everything in life, and getting crazy and overeating during any season can be really harmful for our health and wellness. However, today we will be talking about how to reset your body and not about how to make sure you don’t overeat on Christmas season, that’s another topic. 

Tips for after the holiday season:

1. Leave the feeling of repentance aside: Don’t torture yourself thinking about what you did “wrong” or the things you didn’t do. 
2. A fresh start: The new year already started, so try to immediately get back to your old or new habits straight away. If you overthink or procrastinate, you won’t change the current habits and you will be stagnant the whole year. 
3. Take it easy: Don’t saturate yourself with a bunch of activities and diets the first month of the year. Slow down, and start step by step. Start by drinking only water during the next few days and eating light meals full of greens and natural foods. 
4. Your health is first: Think about your health as your number one priority. In this way, it will be so easy to stay on track during the whole year and the possibilities of quitting will be less. 
5. Stop the alcohol, the parties are over: I personally don’t drink alcohol, but I do know a lot of people do during this season. Therefore, stop drinking alcohol, closing the bottles of wine and champagne can be a good solution to get back on track and drop your calories intake. 
6. Start doing easy and short workouts: Forget about the structured long workouts, give yourself a few weeks of short sessions of conditioning to get back to the old or new routine. This will be great to recover your strength, fitness and avoid plateau. 
7. Exercise whenever you have time during the day: For the first two weeks of January don’t worry about setting a specific time to go to the gym, just go when you have a free time during the day. This will help you to get back on track without even stressing about it. But, one thing, you should be 100% committed of going to the gym at least 3 or 4 times a week. The idea is to give you the opportunity of freedom to adapt, at the same time that you start accomplishing your goals. 
8. Forget about crazy diets: Instead, start eating by intuition, eating the more natural you can; a lot of homemade food, vegetables, fruits, lean protein, complex carbs, natural fiber. In order to reset your body, you should fuel it with plenty of fresh and natural foods, that’s the base of it. 
9. Reduce processed sugar: Reduce your processed sugar intake without even thinking about it, just do it. Forget the biscuits, chocolates and cookies. Save them for later this year when it’s Christmas again, just joking haha. But, seriously, save them for later, for when you feel ready and have control over yourself.     
10. Eat plenty of ginger and leafy greens: Ginger is an amazing anti-inflammatory and helps improve your gut health. Leafy greens, such as spinach, lettuce, rocket, kale, parsley, coriander, broccoli and others, are full of vitamins and minerals that your body needs in order to balance your hormones, lower blood sugar levels and lower cholesterol levels. 

I hope that you are ready to get back on track and start fresh this new year! I wish you the best of life for this new year to come! Remember, health and balance are the keys for a successful and happy life.