Coming into the holiday season can bring equal parts of stress, joy, challenges, and fun, especially when it comes to food, family gatherings, and parties. And this year, it most definitely all looks very different!

I would like to share some thoughts on a NO REGRET, Thanksgiving to New Year’s Plan.

To begin, consider writing yourself a destination postcard on how you want to feel on January 1, 2021, and set your intentions. This postcard could include anything about your health and wellness.

What are your goals?

• Do you finally want to make peace with your plate and your body?

• Do you want to improve the number of hours you sleep?

• Gain energy?

• Learn how to talk to yourself with kindness?

• Is managing your time something that can be improved?

• Do you need to think about how to manage holiday stress?

However you want to feel and show up on January 1, 2021, write it down and state you intentions.

Your intentions are your desired outcome. 

Now go one step further, and think about what you can do today, this week, or even this month that will help you achieve your desired outcome on January 1, 2021. Write it down; keep it small and simple to set yourself up for success!

It’s easier to focus on your intentions when it’s out in front of you in “black and white.” Our thoughts can get quickly confused or lost running around inside our minds.

Surviving a pandemic, managing your kids, their school, your work, limited socializing with friends and families, we somehow lose our focus on what’s essential to make ourselves feel good. I know you have heard me share this statement before; there is a Ripple Effect of Self Care!

Being an optimist, I believe there is light at the end of the tunnel. While we are all still in survival mode, we need to dig a little deeper than usual and ask ourselves, “what do we need now?” What is the little “voice” in your head saying to you? What is that initial first response you hear and how do you learn to honor what you need?

You are not alone if your relationship with food and your body has become even more complicated over the past nine months. Add in the holiday’s and your discomfort may continue to rise.

It doesn’t have to be that way!

My Top 15 Helpful Hints for a NO REGRETS Thanksgiving to New Years Plan!

• Ask for help!

• Dump the junk - Remove what you don’t need or what causes you stress around you - (this could be social media to unwanted house clutter to un-necessary obligations)

• Progress, not perfection - Give yourself some space and grace,  you are doing the best you can!

• Eat slowly

• Notice and Name - Try to identify and name your thoughts and feelings.

• Pause and ask yourself if you are hungry vs. thirsty?

• Honor your hunger and respect your fullness - don’t wait till you are starving or completely overstuffed!

• Drink water before meals, in between drinks, and hold the glass in your hand to keep your hands “busy.”

• Move away from the food! Pay attention to where you are standing/sitting in relation to the food: it can be easy to simply pick, eat and talk on auto-pilot, (even when you know you are not hungry)

• Who are you sitting or engaging with in conversation? Notice how you eat based on the environment and company around you. They both may have an impact.

• Start new traditions and go for a walk before or after family food feasts. You may find a new way to connect.

• Most importantly, offer yourself some self-compassion this holiday season. It’s one choice, one meal, one walk, or one day at a time. Any strategy or improvement over last year is a win!

• Remember, there is no failure. Learn to turn a challenge or experience into a gift or opportunity

• When stressed, we often react, take a minute to breathe, and learn to respond.  You then have a choice on what you choose to do.

• Mindfulness and Meditation

Bonus Tips:

• Practice living gratefully, learn to find beauty in each and every moment

• Meal Prep

• Think beyond the food

• Get enough sleep

• When dining out or getting take out, decode the menu

How to Decode Menus

I would love for you to share your favorite strategies, ones you have discovered on your own, and even your destination postcards!

Wishing you all a happy, healthy, and safe holiday season!