How to Stay on Track During the Holidays

How to Stay on Track During the Holidays
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It’s a cold, fall day here on Long Island, and I write this to you from my parents’ home. Every Tuesday and Friday, I visit my hometown of Port Washington, and work with my grandmother on rehab from hip replacement surgery last summer, and my dad on improving his strength, tone and overall cardiovascular health.

It’s also the first night of Hannukah, and while I’m not religious and I don’t personally celebrate the holiday, I did want to say Happy Hannukah to those out there celebrating!

Today, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: How to stay on track during the holidays! As someone who’s worked in the health and fitness industry for 10 years, I can safely tell you that there is no tougher time of year for keeping folks both accountable and motivated than it is between now and January 1st. While it’s certainly not bad to ‘check out’ every now and then, your health shouldn’t be regularly neglected in the process!

While the message you’re about to read isn’t the sexiest, it’s one that I feel has to be articulated if you’re hanging onto your goals by a thread, and you really don’t want to give into temptation time and again between now and the end of the year…

Below you’ll find my Top 3 Tips for staying on track during the holidays. Later this week, I’ll be putting together a Holiday Recipe Guide, so if you have any input for recipes I should include, please EMAIL ME at ‘pete (at) weightlossbypete (dot) com’ with your number one favorite unhealthy dish during this time of year:

Tip 1) Be Forgiving of Yourself!

Now more than ever is a tough time to stay perfect. And let’s be honest: The chances of you, or me, or ANYONE staying perfect with our nutrition between now and the end of the year is damn near impossible! That being said, it doesn’t make sense to let one bad decision became a few weeks’ worth. Perfectionism is more of a curse than it is a blessing — Trust me, I experienced it quite a bit on my 100 lb weight loss journey! While I never let things fall off too far, I sometimes waited WEEKS before getting back on the horse. This leads me to my second tip…

Tip 2) Stop Trying to Be Perfect!

While certain elements of perfectionism can yield some positive results (such as the forming of good habits and regular practice), the cons definitely outweigh the pros. People who expect to be perfect and aren’t tend to fall off the wagon HARD! Trust me — Again, I’m one of those people…

The thought of getting back on the horse and regaining any traction on your journey is painful when you feel you’ve screwed up irreparably, which is why it often takes perfectionists so long to get back on track.

Be forgiving of yourself, and don’t expect perfection. Instead, do what I do 98% of the time, which is…

Tip 3) Plan Accordingly!

You’re not going to be bombarded with an impromptu holiday party. Don’t even try that crap on me! Often, you’ll have AT LEAST a week’s notice before it happens. So, instead of conceding defeat a week or more out, be proactive!

If it’s a family or a friendly get-together, ask what you can provide, and bring a healthy dish of that variety. If you’d already downloaded and utilized the Thanksgiving Recipe Guide, then you’ve seen about a dozen different ‘Pete-approved’ healthy recipe websites where you’ll most likely find a healthy one for the dish you’d like to prepare.

If you like everything being wrapped up in a bow for you, I did mention that I’ll be releasing my Holiday Recipe Guide a little later this week. Tomorrow, I’ll let you register to get a copy once I’m done setting up the back-end of it ;-)

Again, this wasn’t the sexiest message in the world, but it’s one that I hope you can take to heart, and implement throughout the remainder of this holiday season. Have a great rest of the day. Talk to you tomorrow!

Sincerely,Pete Weintraub

P.S. Like I mentioned above, I haven’t set it up yet, but if you’re interested in a copy of the Holiday Recipe Guide, EMAIL ME at ‘pete (at) weightlossbypete (dot) com’ with the words ‘I’m interested,’ as well as your favorite unhealthy dish or dessert ;-)

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