The holidays are a difficult time for anyone who is trying to stay true to healthy habits… Including me.

The “holidays” are not just ONE day.  They are a string of days lasting from Thanksgiving until New Year’s Day.  The past weeks have been difficult to stay on track given the added stressors of the holidays.

There are more things happening day to day, making it more difficult to find time to exercise.

Find time?  Correction… MAKE time. 

There are “food traps” all over the place.  I am a sucker for homemade goodies.  Actually, I am a sucker for any good food. 

The holidays have historically been my time to just forget any healthy habits because the holidays only come once a year.  That has not worked out well for me in the past.  Because the holidays are WEEKS, not days, my body pays for my excessive eating and less physical activity.  Instead of entering the new year feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world, I find myself feeling sluggish and tired and searching for the right New Year’s resolution (or resolutions) to put my life on a good path right from January 1st.

Or maybe January 2nd.

Or maybe, I have told myself, I should “wait until January 10th, because that is a Monday”… and it is always better to start on a Monday.

When January 10th comes around, there may be a birthday celebration of some sort, or a post-holiday get together that week, which causes me to shift my start date to January 17th.

You get the picture.

I have been a champion at finding ways to postpone getting back to my healthy habits.

When I think about it, it is actually kind of silly.  I always feel better when I eat well.  I always feel better when I am physically active.  My entire being feels more alert, on track, and able to take on more when I am following healthy habits 80% of the time.

So why have I always found ways to postpone it?

Ahhh…. I forget sometimes. 

I am human.

It is emotionally satisfying to eat sweets and carbohydrate-laden foods.  It is much more comfortable to put on a cozy sweater, or wrap up in a quilt and sit on the couch with a nice, warm, snuggly dog than it is to put on workout clothes and sweat for 20 or 30 minutes. 

My comfortable, cozy body wins out over healthy.

Unfortunately, that trend tends to slip past January, into February, and so on through the year until I find “comfortable/cozy” is well ahead of “healthy” more often than not, and I feel it. 

I do not like what I feel.

So, here I am, weeks into my healthy habits and smack-dab in the thick of the holidays. 

Am I avoiding all of the sweets and holiday favorite foods?  Nope.  Although I have been more careful about what I want and how much I eat.

Have I figured I am too busy right now so my workouts are on hold until “sometime” after the first of the year?  Nope.  I am sticking to my commitment of five workout days per week.

I am working on the right balance for ME.

I have enjoyed my favorite cookies and sweet treats.  I have had glasses of lovely red wine.  I have savored prime rib, potatoes, and my Mum’s Polish delicacies of kapusta and pierogi.  It has been wonderful!  I have also made sure I keep to my commitment of exercise five days a week… which included some time on the treadmill Christmas morning and a great workout at the gym today.

I am realizing I can have my healthy habits AND the holidays.  I am, however, making a conscious decision for myself that the celebration comes in small doses, not weeks and weeks. 

Extra cookies and bread will go in the freezer for enjoyment on a weekly basis rather than day to day.   The commitment for exercise will continue as I am feeling so much better with that I do not want to fall back.

Is it easy?  No way.  It is simple.  There is room in my life for both, in healthy proportions. 

I am embracing “hygge” (thank you my Danish friends).  It is a great non-caloric way to satisfy my need for comfy and cozy.

It is Monday after Christmas.  Boxing Day.  I got myself to the gym for a great morning workout and feel refreshed and ready for the remainder of the day.   I do feel a bit sluggish from my weekend of feasting, but a day or two of healthy eating will fix that feeling.

I am looking forward to the New Year, not so much as a need for a fresh start, but as a way to start the year from a different perspective. 

This journey is not about how many weeks it will take and I can be “done”. 

This is my life style.

This is my life.