Navigating Holiday Wellness: Stress, Travel and Eating Strategies

In this episode, Cheryl McColgan discusses strategies for maintaining wellness during the holiday season. She emphasizes the importance of setting realistic intentions, managing weight, coping with stress, making mindful eating and drinking choices, and balancing social obligations with self-care. Cheryl provides practical tips for navigating holiday challenges, including travel and family dynamics, while encouraging listeners to be intentional and mindful throughout the season.

You can find Cheryl’s previous episodes about avoiding holiday weight gain here.

Disclaimer: Links may contain affiliate links, which means we may get paid a commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through this page. Read our full disclosure here.

Takeaways

• The holidays can be stressful, and it’s important to plan ahead for wellness.
• Setting intentions rather than big goals can help maintain focus during the holidays.
• Protein intake is crucial for satiety and managing weight.
• Eating to 80% fullness can prevent discomfort after meals.
• Cortisol levels can rise due to holiday stress; managing stress is key.
• Alcohol consumption should be mindful, as it can cloud judgment and lead to poor food choices.
• The holidays should focus on nurturing relationships rather than just food and drink.
• It’s okay to say no to social obligations to prioritize self-care.
• Post-holiday, it’s important to return to normal routines quickly to avoid weight gain.
• Mindfulness and intention are essential for a balanced holiday experience.

Watch on YouTube

https://youtu.be/1lgmn__CCgs

Episode Transcript

Cheryl McColgan (00:01.038)
Hey everyone, I’m Cheryl McColgan, founder of Peel Nourish Row, and it has been a little while since I’ve been on the mic. I took an unexpected longer hiatus than I thought I would, and I’m just now getting around to starting to record again. And I really wanted to get on here and do this episode because the holidays are such a stressful time for everyone. It’s a time where people could use extra support, could use extra ideas about how to

de-stress, not gain weight during the holidays, and just find ways to support your wellness in this busy time of the season. So I’ve done another episode like this in the past, and I’ll be sure to link that in the show notes, but for this one I did map out a few bullet points to keep me on track. I’ve got my laptop here with that on it so that I can glance over there occasionally and remind myself of what I wanted to share with you today. But the first thing is this why this, what does holiday mean?

wellness even mean or why does it matter? Again, it’s a stressful time. We’re around family for some times that’s very exciting and sometimes it can be very stressful and there’s a lot of travel involved typically and a lot of extra events and cooking and things like that. So it can be just a time where there’s so much going on that you forget to actually take care of yourself. So planning ahead now so that you don’t have to recover from everything at the beginning of the year is a good plan.

And usually what I like to say during the holidays, I mean, if you’re a lot of people that listen to this podcast are interested in weight loss or fitness or health and wellness. If you’re trying to lose weight during the holidays, that can be particularly challenging. I think what would be a better goal for most people is to just maintain during the holidays and not gain extra weight that you then have to kind of backtrack from the progress that you’ve made throughout the year. So all that being said,

I think the good way to start with this is just to set some intentions around the holidays. So for example, just to be really mindful every time that you eat or, consistent movement or practicing on your sleep during the holidays to make sure that you stay on track with your wellness. So whatever that intention is, just making something specific enough that you know what it is that you’re trying to accomplish, but generally it’s not going to be any big goals during this time of the year.

Cheryl McColgan (0