The holiday hangover: Getting back on track

We all spend the Holidays differently. The time is spent with family, away from home, on vacation, and sometimes on the couch going into a Netflix coma. One common aspect of almost all holidays and celebrations is food. These past few months I have been bombarded with more sweets than Willie Wonka’s factory, not to mention Christmas hams, mashed potatoes, and stacks of pie, literally. Every year before the holiday season I resolve to avoid all of these delicious temptations, and every year I fail. During Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Eve I ate more than a starving village’s yearly ration.

Now that the holidays are over I can no longer use the, “I mean, it is Christmas month” excuse, or the, “Well, there is no use in dieting before the New Year,” excuse either. It is officially time to pick up the pieces of our shattered healthy lives and start fresh.

I thought about creating my own New Years resolutions to lose weight and run a certain number of miles a week. Let’s be honest, how many New Years resolutions have I kept? I haven’t read any books worth mentioning, taken any dance classes, and I continue to eat ice cream.

This year I simply resolved to live healthier. I decided New Years resolutions are overrated and rarely followed through and they also have an expiration date. A healthy lifestyle should be just that, a lifestyle. It should not be something you begin and then binge on Cheetos as soon as the next year rolls around.

If you have Facebook you are most likely sick of bloggers and their New Year tips. I am not going to tell you to eat a salad everyday or that you should take ridiculous risks in your 20’s.

If you need to beat that holiday muffin top (cookie top, pie top, mashed potato top, etc.), just make some small changes throughout your daily life to make it happen. Go for a walk instead of snacking. Cut back and only sample the desert bar once a week. Do not set yourself unrealistic standards like losing 15 pounds this week or quitting all “bad foods” cold turkey. Do what you know you can handle and set small goals along the way.

In the end, do what is going to be best for you. If you are happy with your health, then stay that way! Just because it is a New Year, you do not have to be a new you. No matter what, you are exactly who you are supposed to be. Only you decide if you need improvement. As for me, I will see my fellow Holiday bingers on the treadmills.