99 Days of Holidays – Day 2

Today’s topic is how to stay healthy and (relatively) stress free throughout the season.  As the weather worsens and traditional foods come back in to play, I know that my diets and exercise plans tend to derail.  And I also know that I’m not the only one.  So this year I’m coming up with a different plan of attack: take it easy.

The thing about me is that I tend not to do things in moderation.  I either dive into something completely, or I avoid it entirely.  I’ve never really done things by halves.  And that can be very beneficial for parts of my life, but it can frustrate other parts just as easily.  When I was running all the time last year, for example, this tendency helped me up my mileage and kept me running even when it wasn’t what I wanted to do.  But then, after a small injury, I completely stopped running and just couldn’t get back into it.  I’ve tried tons of different programs, but I can’t stick to any of them.  I’m not alone in that either, am I?

So this year, I’m going to take it easy.  I’m going to run as much as I can, as often as I can, but I’m not going to set any concrete goals.  My goal, instead, is to get back into running and improve my overall health.  I’m not trying to run a 6 minute mile, and I’m not training to run a marathon (yet).  I’ll alternate running with workout videos so that way, even when the weather is bad, I’ll have something to do.

And that’s what I hope you all can do this season too.  Pick an activity: walking, biking, skiing, swimming, running, boxing, aerobics, yoga, soccer, whatever it is that gets you moving, and get active for five days a week.  Just keep plugging away.  Even if its only for twenty minutes at a time, even if it just means that you take a quick walk on your lunch break, even if it means that some days you just take the time to stretch when you wake up and before you go to bed, I hope you can keep on moving.  Some days are just going to be terrible for exercising, but those days will get rarer and rarer the more that you keep on trying.

Lastly, let’s face it: the holidays can be incredibly stressful physically, emotionally, and mentally.  Exercise not only makes you feel better, but gives you time to reflect and really think about what this season does/should mean to you personally. For that reason, if no other, I’ll be exercising throughout this season and I hope that you’ll join me!

I plan on doing a couple of check-in posts on my exercising progress throughout the season, and if you’d like to join me, feel free to leave a comment below.

The other part to staying healthy in the holiday season is diet.  I’m going to do my best to only feature healthy, mostly vegan meals / snacks / etc.  I won’t specify this in each post, though, since I don’t want it to get preachy.  But anything you see me post you should feel totally guilt free about eating.

Now, I know this was another long post with no pictures, so I thought I’d toss up one of my favorite little pieces of motivation.  Good luck!