Getting Back on Track After the Holidays: A Healthy Guide
The new year has started, so now’s the time for getting back on track after the holidays with your healthy habits. The holiday season presents a wealth of challenges that make it difficult to stay on top of the healthy habits you spent the rest of the year building. That’s okay! The past is behind us, so let’s focus on correcting the course as we move forward.
Today, we’re presenting our guide for getting back on track after the holidays. The key is making small adjustments that ease you back into healthy decisions and set you up for success. Read on, and let’s get healthy!
How to Start Getting Back on Track After the Holidays
If you found yourself slipping away from your healthy habits during the holiday season, you aren’t alone! Between busy schedules, holiday events, parties, cookie exchanges, and more, the festivities present a challenge for even the most disciplined among us. Getting back on track after the holidays a little at a time will set you back on the path you want.
Some of our favorite methods for this deserved self care after the holidays are:
- Let yourself off the hook from holiday choices
- Leave the holiday vibe with the holidays
- Get active and exercise
- Start planning meals or preparing them ahead of time
- Take time to breathe
- Set health goals for the new year
- Create new daily health routines for self care
- Prioritize healthy sleep habits
Let Yourself Off the Hook
The first step to getting back on track after the holidays is to let yourself off the hook for however you might’ve strayed. While it’s important to acknowledge the ways you might correct course and get back to your healthy habits, don’t beat yourself up over any ways you might’ve overindulged. The past is the past, and it’s time to look toward the future. The most important choice you can make is the one to start anew.
Leave the Holiday Vibe With the Holidays
The holidays were fun! Hanging out with friends and family, enjoying wonderful food, and having a good time are all fantastic. Now that they’re over, however, part of getting back on track after the holidays means being more mindful of your choices. That’s not to say you can never indulge yourself, but letting the festivities be part of the exception, not the rule, is important.
Get Active and Exercise
You can jump start your self care after the holidays by getting active and exercising. Whether you’re playing winter sports, hitting the gym for a session, going for a run, or learning how to stay fit without a gym, being active reignites your drive for healthier choices. Experts recommend being active for 30 minutes a day, at least five days a week as part of your routine. Getting back on track after the holidays with your fitness goals might be a small struggle at first, but over time they’ll go back to being secondhand healthy habits all over again.
Pro Tip: People of every age and fitness level need to prioritize recovery after physical activity. You can use a zero gravity chair for post-workout recovery to benefit your body and mind.
Try Meal Planning and Prep
Another method for getting back on track after the holidays is meal planning and prep. Not everyone loves getting into a routine of making most of their meals for the week on a given day, so if meal prep isn’t your thing, you may be surprised how effective just planning ahead can be.
Meal planning doesn’t have to be difficult or take a long time. Create a simple list of meals for the week and make out a grocery list for what you need to make them before you shop. Not only does this give you better control towards eating healthy after the holidays, but it avoids impulse purchases for sweets and other choices we’re minimizing.
Eating healthy after the holidays serves another function beyond reaching your fitness goals, too. The sugars and processed foods we may have indulged in during the holidays often disrupt our gut health. Eating healthier food choices helps you get your gut health and digestion, as well.
Bonus Tip: Need tips for eating healthy after the holidays? Check out our guide on how to avoid winter weight gain this season after this article!
Take Time to Breathe
Wondering how breathing helps with getting back on track after the holidays? Practicing mindful breathing exercises may help counter the negative effects of stress that lead to cravings and eating for comfort.
Mindful breathing lets your mind and body calm down and refocus on what’s important. It can be a useful form of self care after the holidays to get back on track with purposeful healthy decisions. There are many calming breathing exercises you can try, so see which works best for you and try to practice them for a few minutes each day.
Set Health Goals for the Year
We’re all aware of those New Year’s resolutions. They make up the list so many of us make and then throw out a month later. This year, focus on your New Year’s evolutions instead! Smaller, more manageable goals make getting back on track after the holidays more successful. You can quantify and track your new year health goals as you progress throughout the year and use them as motivation to maintain your healthy lifestyle all year round!
Create Daily Self Care Routines
Practicing self care after the holidays is made easier when we create a routine for ourselves. As creatures of habit, our bodies love a routine. It allows us to form habits we stick to more easily and use as benchmarks for measuring progress as we’re getting back on track. These routines can be as simple as starting a relaxing night time routine to help you unwind before bed. Actions like taking a warm shower, turning off the television, journaling, and relaxing in a zero gravity chair for mental and physical recovery set us on the path to better sleep and easier days.
Prioritize Healthy Sleep Habits
Speaking of better sleep quality, the last entry in our healthy guide to getting back on track after the holidays is to prioritize sleep habits. Our bodies respond best when we get enough sleep and stick to a consistent sleep schedule. Going to bed and waking up at the same time each day is beneficial for the mind and body. This year, try to get the recommended 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night and notice the difference it makes as you awaken each morning feeling rested and ready to take on the day!
If you find yourself having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, consider pairing a zero gravity chair with your nightly routine. The health benefits of zero gravity chairs aside, they’re also great for increasing sleep quality and even potentially help with how to treat sleep apnea or other sleep disorders. The zero gravity position reclines the body in such a way as to enhance bodily healing and relaxation while helping keep the airways open, alleviating sleep apnea symptoms and complications like snoring or high blood pressure.
We hope our healthy guide to getting back on track after the holidays has given you some tips and techniques to consider. Remember that the past is the past, so if you strayed from your healthy habits these past holidays, now is the perfect time to start them up once again. Let your holidays be happy memories, but start down the path to creating healthy habits you can follow all year long.
