10 Ways to Have Happier and Healthier Holidays

In this article:

• The holidays can be joyful and stressful. Too much stress can lead to unhealthy consequences like weight gain and inflammation.
• Planning ahead is a great way to manage stress.
• Lark can support your goals and help you stay motivated as you progress towards your health and weight loss goals with or without GLP-1s as you log food, get tips for eating healthier, and make small changes that can turn into healthy habits.
  

The holiday season can be a joyful time, but it can also bring stress. Social events, time with family, and special meals can all create lifelong memories, but they can also challenge you if you are trying to manage weight and eat healthier. Here are 10 tips to better manage stress to stay on track while enjoying yourself. There are also tips for healthy ways to react if you do start to feel overwhelmed. Let’s make this the happiest holiday season yet!

1. Get motivated to manage stress

Managing stress is easier when you are motivated to do so. Some common reasons to want to manage stress are to feel better, avoid weight gain, have a stronger immune system, and function better at work and home. Reducing stress during the holidays can allow you to enjoy this special time more and help you stay healthier, so there’s less work to be done come January.

Here are additional benefits of managing stress.

2. Depend on anti-stress foods

What you eat affect stress levels. Many of the same foods that help with weight management and health also support lower stress levels, so eating to reduce stress is as simple as eating for health and weight management. Look for foods high in nutrients and antioxidants.

Here are foods that should be in your regular rotation.

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At the same time, it’s good to limit low-nutrient foods like the following.

• Sugar-sweetened beverages and foods
• Fried foods and fatty foods
• Salty snack foods like chips and crackers
• Highly processed packaged foods like white bread and pasta, canned soup, and frozen dinners
• Processed and fatty meat

Healthier swaps can help overcome cravings while you stay on track. In addition, there’s always room for “better” choices when you’re at holiday events or offered holiday foods. Here are some ideas.

3. Plan meals and snacks

The holidays can bring a lot of opportunities to overeat or select low-nutrient, high-calorie foods. Plan ahead so you don’t get caught without a good option when it’s time to eat. This may mean calling ahead to see what’s on the menu or requesting a substitution like plain fish instead of fish in butter sauce. Or, feel free to help the host out and offer to bring food to share!

Here are some ways to be sure to have nutritious foods on hand.

• Plan regular healthy meals for when you’re in your routine.
• Have healthy swaps on hand when you may come across less healthy treats. For example, you might keep some popcorn kernels and a collapsible silicone microwave popper in your office at work, so you can have air-popped popcorn - a healthy whole grain - instead of snacking on caramel-coated popcorn from a holiday tin.
• Bring a source of protein like an ounce of nuts or low-fat cheese if you’re not sure what will be available at parties.
• If you’re hosting a meal or party, plan to serve foods you can eat.

You can always opt for water to occupy yourself without taking in calories. In addition, it’s always okay to say, “no, thank you.”

If you’re on medications that can affect your dietary needs, be sure to plan for those. For example, it’s best to limit fat and get plenty of water and protein when you’re on certain medications like GLP-1 medications.

4. Set realistic goals

With so many opportunities to eat high-calorie, seasonal food, it can be more challenging to lose weight during the holidays. Setting realistic goals can help you stay positive and be more successful.

For many people who have been losing weight, a realistic goal for the holidays is to prevent weight gain. If you’ve been losing weight quickly, your goal might be to continue to lose weight, but at a slower pace. Another goal might be to maintain your exercise routine, but not push to increase the duration or intensity of what you do.

Reducing the pressure on yourself can reduce stress, increase success, and allow you to notice how you feel when you take healthy steps like being active and eating mindfully.

5. Define a successful holiday season in other ways

In addition to goals around weight and physical health, think about other goals for the holidays. Sometimes we lose sight of what the holidays are about or what we really want to get out of the season. That can lead to the holidays passing by in a blur of stress, rushing around, and worrying.

Here are some possible goals to set.

• See certain friends or family members that encourage and support you.
• Live in the moment.
• Only attend events and do things that make you happy.
  

6. Create a schedule that reflects your priorities

The holiday can be busy. Along with regular duties like work, caregiving, and errands, there may be extra activities like gift wrapping, attending and hosting parties, and seeing friends and family.

Create a schedule to make sure you set aside time for the things that are most important to you. It can help you see how much time you have and where you are spending time. When you’re making a schedule, you may find yourself trying to add more activities than time allows. That’s when it’s important to prioritize the items that are most important to you.

Here are some possible things to include in a schedule.

• Work or any other obligations like your children’s activities or running errands
• Time to shop and prepare food
• Workouts and physical activities
• Consistent bed and wake times
• Holiday events like parties
• Holiday preparations like gift shopping and making cookies
• Family time
• Special treats that you know you’ll want to have
• When to take your medications if you’re on any

It’s best to be flexible even if you do have a schedule. Unexpected events and opportunities may come up, and if done thoughtfully, changing your schedule can be an improvement. It’s not a failure.

7. Be mindful.

At any time of year, it’s best to eat mindfully. Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full, and notice and appreciate how your food smells, tastes, and feels. Mindful eating can help you eat less while enjoying more.

Eating mindfully is a good tip during the holiday season, too. Check in with yourself each time you’re about to eat and while you’re eating. Ask why you’re eating. Is it for hunger, are you enjoying a carefully planned treat, or are you eating for another reason?

Here are some possible options if you’re not eating for hunger.

• Eating because someone offered you food: Say you’re not hungry now, but you appreciate it, and you may try it later. You can also explain that it’s not what your healthcare provider told you to eat.
• Eating because you pass by something tasty at work: Have snacks in your desk that can substitute in a healthier way. You can also tell yourself that you can have one treat later.
• Eating because you’re bored. Find something to do like taking a walk, reading a book, playing on your phone, or chatting with a friend or neighbor.
• Eating because you’re stressed: In the moment, ask yourself if you’re hungry and what you expect eating will do to help your stress. Other times, manage stress with exercise, proper sleep, good nutrition, and other techniques.
  

8. Play “hard to get”

It can feel good to get a lot of invitations to holiday parties, concerts, and more social events, but too many of them can be time-consuming and tiring. They can add to your stress instead of making your holidays better.

Here are some ways to respond if you’re feeling stressed.

• Politely declining invitations
• Letting someone know that you’ll attend, but only for a short while
• Leaving when you feel ready to leave

Everyone’s level of tolerance and excitement for social events is different, so you’ll have to look within yourself to decide which are worthwhile and how many you can handle happily. It’s also good to spend time with people who make you feel good and avoid people who don’t make you feel happy.

9. Plan for treats

Making tough choices can be stressful, so anytime you can skip a tough choice, you can avoid extra stress. During the holidays, there are often tempting and high-calorie foods that you look forward to all year. Fudge, fruit cake, scalloped potatoes, prime rib, cranberry salad, and candied sweet potatoes may be just a few delicious options.

Ideally, you can avoid feeling deprived and you can stay on track. Here are some tips.

• Identify the treats that you feel are absolutely necessary. For example, you may regret passing up your great-aunt’s green bean casserole because you love it, it’s been part of your holiday season since you were born, and you can’t imagine the holidays without it.‍
• Identify foods that just “waste” calories. For example, you may realize that you normally have pecan and apple pie because they’re both on the table, but you only love apple pie. Skipping pecan pie can save 500 calories per slice.‍
• Serve smaller portions of treats. For example, having a half-cup instead of 1 cup each of sweet potato casserole, creamed corn casserole, and sausage stuffing can save over 500 calories. If you want more to eat, try roasted vegetables like roasted fennel, green salad, or another salad like healthy Brussels sprouts slaw.‍
• Have an alternative plan. For example, nuts have 800 calories per cup. Instead of munching on them mindlessly before the meal, be sure to serve some baby carrots or other raw vegetables or some grapes or other fruit.
  

10. Plan to overcome challenges

When you know a stressful event or period of time is coming, Harvard School of Public Health suggests that you plan for it, so that it’s less stressful. The holidays may be stressful, but you may have some ideas about potentially challenging situations that can arise.

Think about which situations are likely to occur during the holiday season that cause you to react in unhealthy ways like getting upset or overeating. Here are some examples.

• Having a cookie, a serving casserole, or another serving of something because it’s their family recipe, and then overeating the rest of the day because you’re “gone off your diet” anyway.
• Hearing comments about your appearance, health, or weight from family members whom you see only once a year, leading you to overeat because you feel that at least food doesn’t judge you.
• Purchasing a cinnamon roll or soft pretzel and lemonade at the mall when you’re in the middle of gift shopping.
  

Then consider healthier ways to respond. Here are some examples.

• Saying, “No, thank you” to foods you don’t want to eat.
• Planning for a treat or a serving of a family recipe when you’re getting together with the person in your family who makes it and eating healthy the rest of the day.
• Asking your friend to be available for a phone call when you know you may see people who make you feel bad.
  

Keep in mind, a holiday is one day of the year. You have every other day to be healthy and stick to your goals; one day does not ruin anything. If you get off track, that’s okay. Get right back on track, don't be too hard on yourself, and keep working towards your goals!

How Lark Can Help

Managing stress can get you closer to your weight and health goals. Lark can also help you make positive choices on a daily basis. Your Lark coach is available 24/7 for encouragement and nutrition and physical activity coaching and tracking. Lark can help you make healthy choices and establish habits that fit into your lifestyle so you can lose weight and keep it off with or without GLP-1 medications.

Click here to see if you may be eligible to join Lark today!