Weight Worries, Holiday Fun & “Vacation Mode”

I am probably not going to make friends with this one, buuuuuuut Holidays happen. Every year. They are not a surprise. It is really important for us to figure out a game plan IF we want to be able to avoid more extreme measures to manage our weight like a full lifestyle change or full blown diet phase. With a solid game plan, we can easily enjoy these moments with our loved ones.

The Holidays & Their Impact

There are 12 federal holidays, but these below are the most commonly celebrated in the US. Some are celebrated for one day. Some are for the weekend. Some like Halloween & Christmas are celebrated for the entire month leading up to the day itself.

AND THAT IS A WHOLE LOT MORE OF THE YEAR THAN JUST 13 DAYS OUT OF 365… We are quite possibly around some type of holiday related stuff for over a third of our year.

Think about the celebration and exposure of things related to these.

• January: New Year’s Day
• March: Valentine’s Day & Saint Patrick’s Day
• April: Easter/Passover (sometimes March)
• May: Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day & Memorial Day
• June: Father’s Day
• July: Independence Day
• September: Labor Day
• October: Halloween
• November: Thanksgiving Day
• December: Christmas Day

Before we go into the quick and dirty of vacation mode & handling a holiday weekend… other resources that may address specific situations a little better:

• Holy social events, Batman! They are one after another & I need a game plan and a half! Surviving the Holidays
• Have family coming? Healthy for the Holidays: Family Visits & Staycations
• Hosting, potlucks, recipes & mindful eating help: Weight Loss: Social Time Included
• You might need to just take a Diet Breaks: An Intentional Maintenance Period
• Strategies for the aftermath when food is lingering in the house: Summertime Changes in our Eating & Food Environment

Preparing Before a Vacation or Holiday

What I wanted to focus on specifically from this is…

Have a Game Plan.

I know that I’ve said this already and it kind of sounds a little cliché, but how do you wanna go into the vacation or the holiday? What do you want to look like on the end? Because that’s really what it comes down to here. If you want to look a certain way on the other side, your actions have to align with what will get you there.

And there is no catch to that. You get to choose what you do for you, your body and your life BUUUUUUUUT you also have to be okay with where those choices and actions take you.

Research & Plan ahead.

The full guide on preparation with goal setting ahead of time, road trips, flying, navigating cruises, and how to best help your weight management while away… it’s all here. Traveling, Vacation & Weight Management Guide.

But truthfully, you could do this on a sticky note. It doesn’t take that long.

This could be a text message to the house that you’re going to just ask what they’re going to be serving. You can ask even if you can bring a plate so that way you can bring something that you know you’re good eating.

If you’re going to a restaurant, you can look it up ahead of time.

If you’re going to an Airbnb, make a grocery list.

It does not take much. this is not a big ordeal. It just takes you to reach out or pull up Google.

Ditch the Restriction Thought Process

I recently did a write up regarding the difference between the scarcity mindset and the abundance mindset when it comes to food and outings (Tempting Foods & Feelings of Scarcity). I cannot stress this enough. There is nothing that is off the table unless you choose for it to be off the table.

Self-Control & Adulting

This is all about personal choice. That’s it.

And as much as you may not want to be an adult because adulting sucks… The choice is a responsibility that we have to take on because we are adults and there is not somebody following after us like we do toddlers to make sure that we don’t put random things in our mouths anymore.

When we’re looking at food, we want to look at it all from the thought of moderation, variation, and balance.

What Brings You Value?

And honestly, what will bring you value in that moment?

Sometimes that value is going to be making sure that a protein gets on the plate because it helps you manage your hunger better so that way it is easier to not fight the physiological urge, as well as a mental urge to reach for one more serving of potato chips that you don’t actually want.

Sometimes that value is going to be for the potato chips that came from Pennsylvania, and you have not seen that brand in over a decade and you have got to have them on your plate.

There is no wrong answer here. There is only the answer that you provide for yourself and then make do with what comes afterward.

If you’re looking for direct guidance on some portioning and mindful eating, check out: The Plate Method, Guide to Basic Hand Portioning for Weight Management, BASICs of Mindful Eating, and Summertime Changes in our Eating, Drinking Options & Recipe Links to Our Favorites!

Social Situations & Peopley People

OK, so here we go… I’m gonna step on some toes. I know I will. It happens pretty often as a coach.

If you do not want to have a drink, do not have a drink. Again, like I said above, this is your body and your choice. If you choose to have a drink, then have a drink. But if you do not necessarily want to have one and other people are trying to get you to have one with them, you can say no. And that can be the full sentence.

Pushers & the Shame Game

I wrote these up after endless amounts of stories that I heard from clients throughout the entire fall to winter season. The food pushers, and the food police have a tendency to also do the same thing during the summertime and alcohol. Unsupportive People with Health Journeys: Food Pushers and Unsupportive People with Health Journeys: Food Police

I’m totally going to do it… if they jump off a bridge with me, would you do that? I know… lame. But think about it. Everything that we encountered with is about personal choice. It’s about taking the responsibility for that personal choice. You can choose what you want to do with your body at any given moment. Literally, you do you.

Now, I fully understand if you get to the other side and maybe you didn’t feel like you had the space to say no and you’re aggravated. It happens all the time. I hear it all of the time. And it’s not so much the anger about the food being pushed or the alcohol being pushed, but it’s the anger about somebody not holding that boundary for themselves. It’s almost like a guilt or shame spiral that they have because they didn’t honor what they wanted for their body. You have a choice to make, and you can make that choice and it’s OK to make that choice.

You Do You & Others May Follow

And honestly, you can choose to set the example for other people. There have been many times where I have gone into different situations and made the uncomfortable choice that then inspired somebody else to begin their own journey. You never know what your actions might mean for both yourself and the other people around you.

If you’re feeling a little curious and inspired by this, this is another really great read. There is a hard side to sharing the healthy habits, and there is a very inclusive side to it too. Your Healthy Habits & Others

“Vacation Mode” & the Lingering

Micro Moves Out of the Lingering

ANNNNNND I can tell you from witnessing things firsthand… the lingering of this is real. It hangs in there. And the longer it hangs in there, the longer it hangs in there. The only way out of it really is to move back into an action. It doesn’t even need to be multiple. And it doesn’t even need to be big things. It just needs to be an action moving out of it.

Think micro moves out of vacation mode.

• adding in 5-minute walk breaks throughout the day
• adding a protein or a vegetable to one meal
• pre-portioning snack for the day
• writing down dinner ideas for the next 3 days
• planning out meals for the next day
• ordering groceries for delivery
• having a water bottle close to you and sipping on it all day
• doing one set of one exercise throughout the day to take a mental and physical stretch break (E.g. standing, stretching & doing 10 squats)
• setting an alarm to get to bed 30 minutes earlier
• practicing 5 minutes of gratitude, journaling, or meditation

Screw The Wagon & Fail Forward

I reference this one a lot BUT I cannot stress this one enough…Failing forward.

All of this may not go how you wanted to. You may take a look at this entire weekend or week or whatever it might be and see it as a complete and utter failure.

And there’s nothing wrong with being upset about something. It’s more about not getting stuck there. We can accept the failure for what it is and then say to ourselves OK now what do I do with this?

Do I pick myself back up and choose a different direction next time?

Or do I let myself just fall to pieces from one moment?

If you’re up for figuring it out and moving forward stronger and better. I would definitely check out this Fail Forward: Dealing with Setbacks, but for the quick and dirty on this…

1. Reflect
2. Refigure
3. Restart

That’s really all it is about. You want to take this failure and use it as a lesson to learn something more about yourself and how you act in different situations. That gives you the possibility of understanding something that you may or may not want to continue. Then you go ahead and when that next situation comes about, you show up differently and see how it pans out.