Nine Ways To Reduce Holiday Stress, Number 3
3. Don’t Overeat.
This sounds simple enough, but it is incredibly difficult during the holidays. There are cookies everywhere, one huge meal after another and parties galore. It is not uncommon for people to gain five or ten pounds in the month of December. Think about that: five to ten pounds. That is like adding the size of a housecat to your abdomen and carrying it with you everywhere you go. It adds to the physical stress on your body (your knees and your back especially) and the extra weight and calories can add unneeded emotional stress as well. You worry about your health. You worry about how to lose the weight in January. You worry about what you look like with your cat-sized mid-section.
Rather than eating whatever you want during the holidays and vowing to lose the pounds next year, vow to keep the pounds off now. Eat smaller meals. Limit yourself to one or two cookies per day. Avoid drinking too much at parties (after all, alcohol is nothing more than a long chain of sugars). If you can show a little restraint in December in terms of your eating habits, you will reduce your holiday stress and set yourself up for a great 2007.
Tomorrow’s tip: 4. Spend Your Money Wisely
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I just got back from an 8-mile run. It is supposed to be in the 60’s today in Denver, and I ran in shorts. Makes me wish it was Spring already! Thanks for reading– Max Wachtel, Ph.D. (www.CherryCreekPsychology.com)
