In all fairness, I’ve started writing this on Christmas day…. in bed… presents haven’t been opened… husband still sleeping (I think), but I made a very important realization yesterday (Christmas Eve) that I wanted to share – especially now that Christmas is over… or will be once presents are opened. Yeah, yeah, there’s still the big turkey dinner, but the turkey usually needs minimal supervision, so, really, most of us are there as a supporting role.

My husband and I started a new tradition last year – maybe the year before – of buying (each other) a new book and reading all evening, eating chocolate, and drinking wine. I can’t remember where this tradition originated – Iceland? Finland? Norway? – but we love the idea!

Everyone at work got some mulled wine – red wine (self bottled by the boss) and the required spices and orange, with instructions, so I’d been holding onto it for Christmas Eve…. and I swear I got a hangover from the 2 little ounces I had!

I also received the chocolates from someone at work, so I had been holding onto them for Christmas Eve as well.

And here’s the important part…

I didn’t have any chocolates. I eagerly unwrapped the box and stared at the “legend” to try and determine which chocolate was what… some of my favorites were there! I stared at them for what seemed like forever… but I didn’t have any. I can’t even say that I wanted any – which is very unusual for me! My past self would have eaten half the box before passing it along to my husband… okay, that’s a slight exaggeration, but probably not by much!!!

But I just didn’t want any! We even went to a Christmas Eve spin class and burned a shit ton of calories – mostly because I really enjoy the classes, this one happened to be free, we’re going away for a week, so exercise will be limited, and I knew we were planning on chocolates and wine that evening.

And here’s the important thing…

• It doesn’t matter what you did or didn’t do for exercise during the holidays.
• It doesn’t matter what you did or didn’t eat during the holidays.
• You don’t need to “earn” your meal or dessert.

Yes, I know what the end of the previous paragraph sounded, but I would have had the chocolates and wine whether we had the spin class or not. I simply didn’t want any!

Now that Christmas is over, you’ll probably start seeing more and more advertisements and posts on social media about “New Year, New You”.

Don’t fall prey. The new year isn’t to punish yourself for what happened over the holidays. You may step on the scale and be appalled by the number. No. Don’t do that to yourself. Sure, use it as motivation to get started if that had been your intention all along, but you don’t need to do anything drastic.

Think about your history. Do you have the habit of buying into a membership, or supplement,  or something, commit for a couple of weeks, then give up? Do you bounce around from one “quick fix” diet to another? Do you end up throwing out a lot of your veggies as your good intentions were better than your actions, and you didn’t eat them quick enough?

Yup. I’ve been prey to all of that.

So you have to ask yourself a few questions:

Q: What were your goals before the holidays?

A: If your goals were health related, then just pick up where you left off! No expensive plan is required! No punishment is needed! Just get back to your “regularly scheduled program”

Q: If you want to lose weight, what is driving that desire?

A: Are you miserable overweight, and you think losing weight will make you happy? Hint, it won’t. It may solve some things, but it won’t make you happy.

Is the reason for your health? This is a much better reason to want to lose weight. I have a few health related issues, I’m on WAY too many prescription medications for my age,and at this point, I don’t meet the physical requirements for my job (I’m military). So, yeah, it’s really important for me to lose weight!

Q: What are you willing to give up?

A: Yes, you’re going to have to give things up, whether it’s time, certain foods, or money! However, thinking of it as “what are you gaining” will make it a little easier.

So you still want to actively lose weight? Here’s some tips to get you started:

• Work on how you fuel your body. Go for a variety of nutritionally dense foods – get your fruits and vegetables. Frozen fruits are a good option.
• Make sure you drink enough water. Don’t like water? Tough – you need it! Try adding water flavor or get a SodaStream to add carbonation.
• Prioritize protein. Especially if you are more mature. Ideally, whole foods are best (eggs, egg whites, poultry, lean beef, etc) but it can be challenging, so consider adding a protein shake.
• Sleep and recovery is ESSENTIAL. You are doing yourself a disservice by thinking you can skip out on this!
• Walking is highly underrated, but most accessible to the most people. If you’re able, get a smart watch (eg, Fitbit) to track your steps. Just wear it and track your steps to get a baseline, then start adding a little bit to it each week until you reach 10k steps.
• Before you commit to a membership anywhere, most places have a free week trial. Try it during the hours you would normally be going. For example, a gym membership, if you’re on some extended leave for the holidays, don’t go at 10am if the normal time you’d be going once you go back to work is 4pm. I guarantee that it will be MUCH busier with a VERY different demographic and you need to decide if it’s what you want. Or, if you want to check out a studio for yoga or something, try a punch card. My husband and I have been going to the same studio for 6 months now and have only been using punch cards. This is because we know that for a monthly membership to be financially worth it, we need to commit to 3-4 classes a week, and we know we can’t!
• Get involved in a fitness group of people with similar goals. The social aspect is beneficial and helps with accountability.
• Find something that you really love to do. I HATE cardio. With a firey passion. BUT, I love spin! Especially the studio we go to! I’m hoping to add at least 1 more spin class during the week, but we’ll see.
• Don’t over commit. You’ll be more susceptible to burnout, and illness or injury may occur.
• And MOST IMPORTANTLY! Have fun, appreciate your body for getting you through your hardest days, and enjoy the journey!

Don’t let people complicate things. “Diet and exercise” really isn’t that hard – not really. It’s so-called “influencers” that complicate things – saying that fruit is bad for you, seed oils are from the devil, and they demonize whole food groups.

Worry about the intricacies later – worry about the basics now!