Even with motivating goals and the best of intentions, keeping up with your healthy eating and exercise routine over the holidays is hard.  With all the parties come foods and drinks you wouldn’t normally have around, not to mention limited time to fit in your exercise routine.  If you feel you’ve gotten off track this last month, don’t worry!  Check out these five tips for getting back on track after the holidays.

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1. Release the guilt.

Negative self-talk and guilt are more likely to keep you feeling unmotivated to get back on track.  Instead of being upset with yourself for over-indulging, accept that it happened without judgement.  If you find yourself slipping into a negative way of thinking, try repeating this statement:  “I cannot change the past, but I will make healthy choices for my body today”.

2. Clear out any leftovers.

If you still have unhealthy foods hanging around the house, now is the time to get rid of them.  If you don’t feel right throwing them away, wrap them and store in the freezer.  If you don’t see them every time you go into the kitchen, you’ll be less likely to nibble throughout the day.

3. Learn from your challenges.

Reflect back on how you ate over the holidays.  Instead of judging yourself, write down challenges that you recognize and brainstorm ways to handle them differently the next time you’re in a similar situation.

4. Get back into your routine.

Sometimes after falling off track, it feels easier to stay off than to get back on.  Remember that you have the ability to get back into your eating and exercise routine whenever you choose.  Just because the last day or meal didn’t go as planned doesn’t mean the next one can’t.

5. Revisit your goals.

It’s OK to rework your goals to help motivate you to get back into your routine.  If the goals you set before the holidays now seem unrealistic, set smaller more achievable ones now. As you reach these smaller goals, you’ll build momentum and get back to your previous goals in no time!

Remember, no matter how far off track you feel you got this holiday season, you have the ability to make healthy choices today! Learn from the challenges you faced and use them to better handle similar situations in the future.  Over the course of a year the holidays are just a small period of time.  What really counts is how you handle the rest of the days and months to come.

In good health,
Caitlin