Behavior Change: The Holiday Gift That Keeps on Giving
It’s here. The holidays have arrived. Filled with traditions, smells, and tastes of past holidays. Hopefully, you’re not one of the many people who started eroding your healthy habits in October when the candy corn showed up! It can be a downward spiral for some. When you start to get off track with your eating, it feels like permission to just keep making poor choices. Before you know it, you are staring at January with an extra 10 pounds and 30 days you missed at the gym.
No one wants to hear all the nutrition advice about healthy holiday eating. Why would I load up on veggies over a piece of pecan pie, or eat dinner before I go to the party? While these can be helpful and I usually recommend more veggies to my patients, it simply is not too realistic that you will always pass on the indulgent treats that encircle the holiday table.
What if instead, we focus on the behavior changes rather than counting calories or grams of fat? It may permit more progress during the festivities.
Make a List and Check it Twice
It has been shown that tracking and self-monitoring leads to weight control during the holiday season in a study by Baker et al in the Journal of Health Psychology. For many, tracking food intake in an app like MyFitnessPal or Lose It can be time-consuming and annoying. For others, it can be a helpful tool. If you record and witness to yourself all foods consumed over a day or week, it may influence a different choice. Consider taking a week or two to log your food into one of these apps and see what you are eating. It may cause you to choose a green tea rather than a cinnamon vanilla frappe. Or give you the evidence that you are making more of the healthier choices than you think you are.
Run, Run Rudolph
Sticking to your exercise schedule can also be a way to flex your healthy habits. Choosing a behavior change like daily active movement may feel like an easier way to actively reach your goals. While you can’t outrun a poor diet, creating consistency with your runs, walks or lifts can set you up for success when you feel like making healthier dietary choices would be harder. Look for the “low-hanging fruit” when it comes to behavior change. Starting with something like exercise that can build confidence through discipline may lead to more healthy choices on your plate.
Silent Night
The wearable device company Whoop, released data from users that shows sleep patterns rise during the holidays. Analyzing sleep information from over 10 million records suggests that people are using the holidays to “catch up” on rest. More data show that when we sleep in, it may make sleep more difficult the next night. Humans are creatures of habit and the circadian rhythm has a strong pull on our biology. Keeping your bedtime routine to no more than one hour off your regular schedule can help. With interrupted sleep comes higher stress hormones like cortisol. It can raise our craving for quick energy (cue the pecan pie). Review your calendar for holiday engagements and plan ahead to honor your sleep schedule as best you can.
Prioritizing your self-care may be challenging during the holidays. The speed of things seem to be moving so fast, the list of to-do’s is long, children will soon be out of school, and travel plans may be affected due to weather. Keep yourself on Santa’s nice list by honoring your exercise, your sleep, and behaviors that exhibit who you are and want to be in the New Year. Happiest Holiday wishes to you!