My Holiday Traditions for Staying Healthy

With the business of the holiday season and all the yummy holiday treats and extravagant meals with family and friends, staying healthy can be really hard. And if we let them, the holidays can take a toll on our mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health. And while many of us become uber health-conscious come January 1 (I’ve never seen lap pools as busy as they are the first week of January…and it stops there lol), it can be so taxing on our bodies to find themselves in seasons of unhealth, especially when we want to be the best version of ourselves as we spend extra time with family and friends.

Over the years, I’ve started practicing some habits that have helped me stay healthier mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically throughout the holiday season. Maybe they'll work for you too?

Mental Health

The holidays can be one of the most stressful seasons of the year with all the get-togethers, holiday parties, expectations from family and friends, etc. As the stress of the season increases, it’s so important for us to intentionally cope with the increased stress so that we can not only get through the holidays in one piece without letting all of our normal day-to-day suffer, but also hopefully enjoy all that the holiday season can be.

One of the best ways I have found to cope with the added stressors of the holidays is continuing to workout and get the sleep that I need. For me at least, my ability to cope well with stress decreases significantly when I’m inactive and sleep-deprived. And if you can incorporate an active activity or two with your get-togethers, all the better!

Yes, it's that simple. Now, there are stressful circumstances that are out of our control that no amount of exercise or sleep can touch, but those are hopefully the rare holiday situations, not the norm.

Emotional Health

When it comes to staying emotionally healthy, consistently journaling and processing expectations about the holidays with my family are two of the best things for staying emotionally healthy. Doing these two things doesn’t mean that I won’t ever get frustrated, annoyed, or disappointed about something (I mean we’re talking about immense time spent with family and no family is perfect), but they allow me the space to check-in and see how I’m feeling and consistently process my emotions in healthy ways.

Having lost my dad unexpectedly on Christmas Eve 2 years ago, I can also anticipate that sadness will accompany Christmas forevermore. And being aware of that helps me immensely. If you’ve ever lost a loved one, you know that grief hits at unexpected times. So, I can’t always know when exactly the sadness will hit at Christmas time, but I know that it will, and when it does, I know that taking time by myself to just grieve and be sad will help me process my emotions and work through them. It's incredible how much simply being aware of our triggers can help us take care of ourselves emotionally.

Spiritual Health

Staying spiritually healthy can oddly be quite the challenge during the Christmas season even though Christmas is all about celebrating the birth of Jesus. I’ve found that reading a Christmas devotional can be especially beneficial for helping me keep the main thing the main thing whether I’m at holiday gatherings or shopping or wrapping gifts to go under the tree. These days, I especially love reading Sarah Young’s Jesus Calling for Christmas before going to sleep at night.

I also keep up with my daily devotional time in the morning, which definitely helps keep me centered on the main thing.

Physical Health

As our schedules fill up with fun activities for the holidays and our plates are filled with extravagant treats, staying physically healthy can be quite the challenge at the holidays. But it honestly doesn’t have to be. Being a foodie, I absolutely LOVE the treats that come with Thanksgiving and Christmas. And definitely do not deprive myself of them. We take an “everything in moderation” approach for the holidays in our house. Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, and Christmas day are filled with amazing food we don’t normally eat. So, we intentionally eat healthily when we’re not celebrating with family and friends. From more soups and kale salads to extra water and lots of sleep, our bodies are grateful! :)

And I definitely keep up with my workouts. They honestly help with not only my physical health, but also my mental, emotional, and spiritual health. While I may not be doing much more than a few 30-minute workouts a week during a busy holiday season, even getting in 3-4 30-minute workouts each week helps so much.

Staying healthy throughout the holidays doesn't have to be one more thing added to your likely ever-growing to-do list. It can easily be done by practicing simple healthy habits that will keep you from feeling like you're starting from scratch come January 1.

If you’ve ever struggled with staying healthy during theholidays, I’d love to hear from you!

• What’s the biggest insight you’re taking away?
• What’s something you can do right now to bring the best version of yourself to your holiday gatherings?

Leave a comment below and let me know. Here's to the best versions of ourselves this holiday season!