Healthy for the Holidays: Family Visits & Staycations
Tis the season for family visits in our own home, as well as us going everywhere and two performances and programs and tree lightings and cookie bake-offs and everything jolly.
But family and friends visiting… This throws off a lot of our normal routines just like a vacation would except now the vacation is in your own home and in your normal surroundings. But I’m willing to bet that your schedule is anything but normal. And there’s nothing wrong with that until there is. These moments that are meant to be filled with connection, fun, and joy can quickly turn into moments that are depleting, exhausting, and anxiety-ridden. Therein lies an issue. We are in our home without our routine that helps us function to get what we need to be done.
Issue number two arises when we then begin to realize that almost every social, and connecting moment that we experience now is surrounding food. But this doesn’t always have to be an issue. It’s all about how we look at it and how we look at the moments before and after it.
So what do we do here?
Treat it like a vacation and throw caution to the wind?
Well, that depends.
Is that what you want to do?
Will you be okay with that outcome?
My guess is no, so let’s go with figuring this out.
Have a plan
The very first thing that helps us through any given moment at any given time is to plan ahead. And planning ahead doesn’t have to be a rigid structure on a whiteboard with flags and itineraries. It can be some general ideas. But with this plan, you will want to ask yourself a few questions.
- Do you plan to cook?
- Do you want to bring your guests to certain places?
- Are you planning a social event or other festivities like baking or barbecues?
The second thing you want to try to figure out when you’re making your loose plan here are activities.
- Are there any active things that you can plan like hiking, biking or maybe exploring towns or parks?
- Do your guests enjoy any fitness activities like yoga classes or CrossFit that you can take to your local place for those sessions?
- If your guests do not enjoy structured workouts, how can you adopt your fitness-related plans to work here? Are you able to get to the gym earlier? Later? Can you switch to home workouts? What about body weight or YouTube videos?
Give it fun details
Now that you’ve taken time to work through the structure of what the next few days or maybe a week will look like. Try to work on a list of different supplies or things you may need to make those things happen. This is where things may get a little hairy for you. Your environment is quite possibly going to have a lot more than it normally does. And like I have mentioned before… Self-control is limited. We work hard to set up our homes to be very efficient for our routines and our own lifestyles. Things are about to be thrown off. So what can you do here?
For groceries and snacking plans: Buy fruits and vegetables to have out in the open for snacking as well as chips and dips, and other things that you may want to serve your guests. While they enjoy something like a brownie sundae, you can make yourself a banana split. While your guests enjoy bagel bites, you can make yourself zucchini pizza bites. This isn’t about restriction and taking away, but instead of being able to adapt and enjoy. And really… If you would rather have the brownie sundae or the bagel bites, have them and pair them with something else that will help you with your ability to moderate these things. Maybe make yourself a hot chocolate with some protein mixed in.
For more indulgent & hard to moderate foods: Go out and enjoy these foods outside of the house. This allows you to automatically refrain from having more than you would like to have because it is not in your home and available to you. It is inconvenient and that’s one of the things that helps. If you do have some of the things that you need to bring into your home, try to make them items that have to be made. Instead of purchasing a cake fully baked, purchase the ingredients and bake it when you are ready to sit down and enjoy it with your guests. The experience of baking with your guests may also be a great moment for conversation and connection. You’re creating something together that you can then enjoy.
For bigger events at home: if the intention is to have a bigger event in the home for you, your guests, and additional guests, it might be best to look at different options that were mentioned in Surviving the Holidays. There are a lot of tips regarding hosting parties. One of the best suggestions would be to also have containers available for people to take home some of the extras. Even though you do have more people staying in your home, you could use those extras to continue to feed people… This does present a challenge to your efforts and self-control. Unless there are items that you don’t particularly like that, others do that you could easily resist.
Making it fun: if you are still trying to figure out some different things that you and your guests can do on different nights, try planning fun food nights that would help you have the ability to cook together and moderate more like pizza-making or tacos-making nights. This does center time spent around food but it allows you to freely adapt the food to what works best for you. As each of you make your own pizza or tacos, you can pick and choose the things that work best for your nutritional goals.
You may be able to find some great ideas for some thing like this through the family meal planning series!
- A Guide to Family Meal Planning
- Family Meal Planning: Eating Seasonally, Fall Produce & Meal Plan Switches
- Family Meal Planning: Winter Produce & Meal Plan Switches
Some side notes
There are a few other things that are not food-related that can really help your experience with your visitors or your staycation. I’ve mentioned it before, and I’ll say it again. We don’t always have to focus on what we’re eating to feel good in our skin. We can focus on how we are eating through different mindful eating habits, and then focus on other actions that help our overall wellness.
We can look at this as an opportunity to do a digital detox. One of the main reasons for social media is connection. When we have visitors or we’re all together under one roof, we have everything that we need. We can immerse ourselves in those conversations and connections. And use this moment to give ourselves a little bit of a break from the scrolling and trying to keep up.
Our sleep eludes us many times in our own homes. We can use these moments to focus on refining our sleep habits and building sleep hygiene routines. When people are visiting, we can easily get swept up into late nights with extra food and extra drinks. They all come with extra laughs and joy, but they also come with the cost of the next morning. Again, these are all choices, and this is not said from a place that has not just said screw it and stayed up late for all of the laughs and memories. If the choice is worth the cost, go for it!
Finally… clear is kind.
There’s a good chance that some of your efforts may be questioned. In these situations, clear is kind. But clear is not always welcome. The below posts may help you navigate these different situations positively but also prepare you for the possibility of receiving some negative feedback regarding your choices and your lifestyle.
- Your Healthy Habits & Others
- Unsupportive People with Health Journeys: Food Pushers
- Unsupportive People with Health Journeys: Food Police
The Aftermath
Because these situations with people visiting are just like having staycations… Treating the aftermath just like returning from a vacation may be the best way to restore everything quickly. You’re going to have remnants of this staycation lying around. You are probably going to need to go ahead and plan and prepare for the week ahead while you are also cleaning up from the visit itself. I fully understand that this is a lot and that you’re probably tired, but every effort that you make at the moment directly after will help you save time as you make your way through the next few weeks.
As a coach, vacations are generally one of the places that people “fall off the wagon” so to say except it’s not the vacation itself, but the return from the vacation. We’ve all heard the saying that people need a vacation from their vacation so that they can head back to normal life. That is generally a pivot point. A point in a person’s health journey where they may lose track of where they want to be and what it’s going to take because of the effects of what they just went through. The only remedy is action.
- It can either be action immediately and there’s no time lost because you are right back into the groove of things with restoring your energy and giving yourself the things that you need to feel better.
- Or they can be a little bit down the road, which is usually accompanied by guilt and shame for the time that was lost due to inaction.
Once again, as long as the choice is worth the cost… I really hope this helps you during this holiday season as you make your way through a family visit or your staycation!
With love,
Coach Nik
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