The holiday season can be a tough time to prioritize our health in normal circumstances, but what about on top of all the stress and uncertainty we’ve been through this year?  How do we both enjoy the holidays AND not feel guilty or like we’ve been too hard on our bodies once January comes around?

One simple idea: Take everything into context.

What does this mean?  

It’s a way to see your life as a whole, and rather than focusing in on each minute thing (i.e., feeling guilty for eating a lot of Christmas cookies), it allows you to make decisions based on the big picture.

What does this look like in real life?

Here are three scenarios where this idea can play out:

Eating

The holiday season often includes eating food you don’t normally eat or eating more than usual.  Instead of worrying about every little food choice (“Should I eat this?  Should I not?”), and perhaps feeling guilty if you’ve indulged, you can instead take your whole day into context.

This looks like thinking through your meals for the whole day, and planning where you can get in something green, some protein, AND where you’d like to indulge.  

For example, you could decide that at the end of each day, you want to eat some peanut brittle your grandma used to make, because it reminds you of being at her house for Christmas.  Throughout the rest of the day, you can eat in ways that give your body energy, then thoroughly enjoy that peanut brittle as an evening snack.

You’ve not only fed your body well the majority of the day, but you also haven’t restricted yourself from a treat you only have during this season.

Exercise

Taking everything into context with your exercise is something we’ve discussed a lot on this blog, especially lately.  This looks like assessing how much stress you have on a daily basis outside of exercise (because exercise is a stressor, though usually a good one), how much sleep you got the night before, how your body feels and what it needs, etc.  

If you haven’t slept well and you’ve been fairly stressed, exercise could take the form of recovery…a slow walk around the neighborhood, a gentle yoga practice, or doing a few stretches.

But if you feel rested and your overall stress load is pretty low, a higher intensity workout, such as running, HIIT, or lifting heavy weights can feel great.

Taking into context the overall stress on your body each day can help you determine what type of exercise would be best and would serve your body well, rather than add additional stress.

Energy

Figuring out what depletes your energy and what fills you back up is a worthy endeavor.  As you get clear on this, you can take into context if your day is full of energy filling or energy depleting things. 

For instance, if having all your kids at home 24/7 fills you up, you might not need to carve out time to do additional energy-filling activities.  But if this depletes your energy, then you’ll want to find a way to fill up your tank again so you can continue to engage your family in the way you want to.  

When you take into context your entire day based on what will add to or subtract from your energy, you can see where you might need to take pockets of time to fill back up.  This isn’t always possible, of course, but it can give you a sense of where you might delegate tasks or ask for help or time so you can pursue those things that give you life.

Taking everything into context-lifting your eyes up from the minute details to look at the bigger picture-can help you make decisions on eating, exercise, and energy in a way that isn’t caught up in feeling guilty about each little thing.  

Rather, this helps you approach the holidays in a way that serves your body well and still empowers you to enjoy them to the fullest.

Photo Credits:
Photo by Chad Madden on Unsplash
Photo by Marie Despeyroux on Unsplash
Photo by Vlad Tchompalov on Unsplash
Photo by S&B Vonlanthen on Unsplash