Hi friends! Today we are talking all about planning ahead for the holidays. Thanksgiving is only two weeks away and most of us are making plans with friends and family - and while the holidays are such a fun time of year, they can also bring some challenges and stress.  Especially if you have been making progress working toward a health goal or if you’re trying to manage a health challenge, the holidays and all delicious but less-than-healthy foods that come with them can feel daunting, BUT it doesn’t have to feel that way! In this episode, I want to share a few ways that we can plan and prepare ahead to reduce some of that stress and keep us in the holiday spirit!

Make a Plan for Your Food

• Choose which holiday foods are your absolute favorite and be sure to eat/make those just the way you like them, then you can either choose to skip or upgrade the other less-than-healthy foods that you care less about. For example, if the stuffing and mashed potatoes are your absolute favorite parts of the meal, then make sure to eat those! But if you could take or leave the green bean casserole, then skip it or try making a healthier version using all whole, natural ingredients. Try using healthier sweeteners in your cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie, if you are doing a lot of the cooking. 

• Drink water with your holiday meal! If the drinks are your favorite part, then plan to drink plenty of water before and after to help give your digestive system a little extra support. 

• Don’t take leftovers or only take enough for one day. It’s easy to take tons of leftovers home to snack on for the next several days, but it’s best if you can keep it to just enough for one. Most of the time our bodies will do just fine to process and digest all the extra rich, yummy holiday foods, but when we eat them every meal for several days, it will usually catch up with us and leave us feeling pretty bloated and lethargic. 

• Be sure to get some basic meal prep done for the rest of your week. This will help to ensure you are still getting plenty of nutrients and balanced meals into your week. It’s also common to just feel tired from all the festivities and you may not feel much like cooking for the next few days, so having prepped nutritious meals will keep you from going to the drive-thru. 

• If you’re hosting or making several dishes, do a holiday meal prep. Several dishes like mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, and even your pies can be made several days (and even a couple of weeks) ahead. This will not only save time the day-of but will reduce so much stress from trying to cook a lot of things at one time! (Check out my friend Lindsey Loope’s story highlight to see how she is doing her holiday meal prep!)

• Remember that this is just one day - so enjoy it and allow your kids to enjoy it - and then get right back into your normal way of eating! Again, when you choose to live a healthy lifestyle, that just becomes your normal way of life. There is no wagon, so you don’t have to worry about falling off or ruining any kind of progress you’ve made. Even some of these foods that don’t necessarily nourish our bodies well can be very nourishing to our souls - so just take a deep breath and relax!

Make a Plan for Your Exercise

• Go for a walk or run your local Turkey Trot together as a family! There are so many fun ways to be active as a family and what a great way to start your day together!

• If it’s not possible for you to exercise on the actual holiday, plan your workout for the other days of that week. Even if you will be traveling and away from home, you can plan to go for a walk or jog in a near-by park or do a quick bodyweight circuit where you are staying. Yall know that I love Nourish, Move, Love’s Youtube workouts and those can go with you anywhere you go!

• Ask a friend to workout with you or to keep you accountable to your plan. Like I mentioned before, it’s so easy to get a little lethargic and lazy during a holiday week, so go ahead and plan that you will need a little extra motivation and accountability to keep you on track. Remember that moving your body will help boost your mood and keep your digestive system working well!

Make a Plan to Manage Your Stress

• Choose something you will do or a specific time that you will do something that renews you and fills you back up. We all know that the holidays are busy and you can feel like you are on the go all the time, so planning some time to decompress will be even more important than usual. 

• Set specific expectations with friends and family- and for yourself! Personally, a lot of my stress around the holidays comes from setting expectations that are just too high. Expecting that everything is going to go perfectly according to my plan for the day, and it will only be filled with sweet, memory-making moments isn’t realistic and will only lead me to stress myself and those around me by trying to make it happen.

• Shift your focus for the day to others! The best way to reduce stress and remove unrealistic expectations for the day is to take the focus off of yourself or your plan for the day. Instead of focusing on making everything perfect - perfect food, perfect memories or pictures, perfect environment - focus on the people you will be spending the day with and having meaningful conversations with them. Focus on being thankful for another year together. Focus on being thankful for the gift of life, health, and a good, good Father that loves you unconditionally. Holidays are fun, but the meaning behind them is what really counts. 

I hope some of these ideas help you as you make plans for the upcoming holidays and I sincerely hope that you choose to enjoy this wonderful season.