Day #25 – How Do You Handle Exercise and Clean Eating During the Holiday Season

Holidays stress me out for two main reasons: 1 – my entire routine is thrown off for at least six weeks and 2 – I’m totally shy/awkward at holiday parties.  These two stressors come in to play big time with trying to maintain an exercise schedule and following clean eating principles.

I just have to make sure I force myself out of bed at 4 a.m. to get my workout in before everyone wakes up instead of hitting the snooze button.  Once they’re up I automatically switch into Mommy/Wife mode and there’s no time left for me to go to the gym.  I tend to sleep past my alarm when I don’t get to bed early enough the night before.  If guest are coming to my home, it means staying up late to cook/clean/entertain and if we go to a party without the kids we don’t get home until after midnight and it’s really hard to fall asleep knowing I have to get up less than three hours later.

Those are just excuses.  I know.  But they are extremely valid excuses.

Clean Eating and I are not always on the best of terms, especially at holiday parties.  See, I’m one of those shy people who stands next to the food table and nibbles incessantly so I won’t have to talk to anyone unless they come near the cheese and crackers.  My husband is a total extravert and could strike up a conversation with anyone.  It takes me a little while plus a drink to relax.  Drinking is totally not part of clean eating, but it does help me to function better in awkward social settings, so Ima go with a glass of red wine.

Of course, it’s not like I go to parties every night.  Although I was at one last night.  My new trainer, Mel, had a party for everyone on her team; it was at Amy’s house.  I haven’t really started training full force; I’m just doing the bootcamp on Sundays until after the holidays so I don’t really know everyone yet, which made me strongly incline towards the food table.  However, my family was with me, so this party I spent more time chasing my toddler than chasing down wine with cookies; that helped.  Also, everyone there was really into fitness and it was interesting to see everyone take one normal-size portion meal and maybe one dessert.  If everyone else could be moderate I could too I reasoned.  And, of course, once I started talking to people I felt more at ease.

Maybe I need to just focus on the day-to-day and not get overwhelmed by the entire holiday season.

How about you?  How do you handle exercise and clean eating during the holiday season?

Lisa

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