7 Ways to Get Back on Track After the Holidays

Happy New Year from all of us at Life-Minded Nutrition! Give yourself a pat on the back – you made it through the holidays.

If you stayed on track with your healthy habits and behaviors throughout the entire holiday season, props to you. Way to stick with it! A feat like that is not easy.

And if you felt like the holidays got the best of you, don’t beat yourself up – join the crowd.

However, a new year is upon us. It’s a fresh start! The perfect time to get right back to your nutrition, transformation and wellness routines is now.

If you’re struggling to find motivation, need new ideas on how to hop back on the wagon or are completely lost, don’t fret – Coach Breezy has you covered. Here are her tips and tricks on how to reestablish structure in your life, rediscover your discipline and get back on track.

1. Dig Deep and Get Started

All it takes is a single step. Dig deep and do what you need to do. Open your go-to tracking app and start logging your macros, write yourself a clean grocery list, walk through your gym’s doors, get outside and go for a run – whatever it is. Don’t wait for the right Monday or first of next month to get started.

We hate to break it to you, but there’s never an optimal time to jump back into your nutrition, fitness and wellness routines. Life is always going to be chaotic and something is always going to come up! Each minute of every day is a new opportunity to move forward.

2. Set Yourself Up for Success

What steps do you need to take to ensure you’ll be successful? For Coach Breezy, it's Instacart.

“I’ve never had Instacart before this round of holidays, but I ended up using it in a pinch when I had family visiting. With a new baby and my sister's three-year-old, grocery shopping was the last thing we wanted to do. I fell in love with it!

Being able to put exactly what I need and what I’ll eat in my cart, and then having it delivered eliminated the temptation of picking up holiday treats and other random urges while shopping for groceries.

I can say I use it quite often now - so much so that my cart knows I always need kale, sweet potatoes, and eggs, which are the foundations of 90 percent of my dinners. (Side Note: Breezy follows a vegetarian diet!) Long story short, make grocery shopping a priority – no matter if you use Instacart or shop in-store.”

Think about how you can stay successful in keeping yourself on track. Do you need to set reminders in your phone to log your food, purchase a daily planner and schedule your week out, lay out your workout clothes the night before or purchase a gallon-sized water bottle?

Whatever it is, stick with it!

3. Take Charge of Your Nutrition

Get back in control of what you’re eating. If you like to track your macros, weigh and measure your food and accurately log it in your app or journal. If you’re focusing on cleaning up your diet, center your grocery lists and meal planning around whole, high-quality and nutrient-dense foods. 

If you use a food scale, keep it on the counter in your kitchen in plain sight. This will help remind you to use it!

4. Drink More Water

Water, water, water. Boost that water intake! Start and end your day with a full glass of water, then drink as much as you can in between.

Here are a few strategies to keep yourself hydrated:

• Purchase a gallon-sized water bottle and drink it daily. If that seems impossible, gradually build yourself up to it.
• Set hourly reminders in your phone to drink a glass of water.
• Drink a glass of water each time you do a daily task, like going to the bathroom, walking into the kitchen, standing up from your desk, checking your email or scrolling through your social media feeds.

Staying adequately hydrated has so many benefits, like boosting your metabolism, reducing inflammation, flushing out excess water weight and icky bloating, improving cognitive function, leveling up your fitness performance and stabilizing your mood, among others.

5. Movement is Medicine

Get yourself moving – your body and brain will thank you! No matter if you’re hitting up a CrossFit class, going to hot yoga, lifting weights at the gym, heading out for a run or enjoying a 20-minute walk outside, exercise is great for the soul.

Remember this, though – exercise should not be punishment for what you ate during the holidays. Burning hundreds to thousands of calories while you’re working out isn’t going to cancel out food consumed – energy balance doesn’t work that way. It’s negative and toxic thinking when you believe you convince yourself you need to burn off every single calorie you’ve eaten. (We’ll dive deeper into this in a later post, so stay tuned.)

Instead, exercise for its benefits and what it adds to your lifestyle. Focus on what your body can do, how good you feel and what you’ve accomplished. Working out is meant to be fun, not a chore!  

6. Plan Ahead and Meal Prep

Look at your schedule for the week. When will you be dining in versus dining out? On days that you’ll be eating at home, draft up a meal plan. This will help dictate your grocery list and shopping trips – along with taking pressure off trying to come up with a meal on the spot. Plus, you’ll avoid the urge to order takeout or delivery! Prep your meal for day or for the week ahead, whichever you prefer.

Pro tip – don’t forget about healthy snacks while you’re grocery shopping. Stock up on fresh fruits and veggies, dips like hummus, salsa or guacamole, protein bars, beef jerky, nuts and nut butter or popcorn. Of course, this list isn’t definitive! Having healthy snacks on hand will eliminate the time spent staring in the fridge when you’re hungry.

7. Stay Accountable

Having friends or family members that are in on your goals Is always great, but this is what us coaches are here for! If you have nutrition and body composition goals, use us. Let us know so we can play our roles in keeping you accountable to your efforts. It can be as easy as a text asking if you drank your day’s water goal, got your daily workout in, or as in-depth as daily feedback on your food journal or a weekly check-in via Zoom. We’ll meet you where you’re at with your accountability needs!

We hope all of you had an amazing 2021 and holiday season, but let’s take these steps to make 2022 one of our best years yet.  

If you don’t know where to start or need help with accountability, schedule your complimentary nutrition consultation today. We’ll help you cut through the confusion and achieve results that stick.