How Older Adults Can Stay Healthy During The Holidays
If you start to feel a combination of stress and anxiety in the early fall months when you think about the upcoming holiday season, you are far from alone. Today, many people feel a great deal of pressure over considerations like buying and wrapping gifts, cooking the perfect meal, cleaning and decorating the house, making travel arrangements, dealing with stress-inducing family members, and paying credit card bills at the end of the season. This year, you can add lingering uncertainties and worries over COVID-19 and flu season to the list, making it more imperative than ever to find the right coping strategies to minimize stress and maximize the joy of the season.
Of course, many of us find comfort in delicious cookies and candies, despite knowing that path leads to resolutions for the new year that only add to our stress. It is better to avoid the weight gain that comes with comfort-snacking and unchecked stress. Once we reach our 50s, we have to stay especially vigilant about managing our weight and overall health, so we need a well-plotted strategy to manage our stress and enjoy ourselves without tipping the scale to our disadvantage. We shouldn't put our focus on healthy aging on pause for two months of the year.
Take some time to read about what we all can do to commit to staying healthy during the holidays.
Coping with Holiday Stress
One of the biggest problems with the holidays is the heightened expectations placed on us. Guess who most often places those expectations on us? That's right; we do it to ourselves. Of course, everyone gets excited and wants each holiday season to go smoothly, yielding happy memories, but we shouldn't sacrifice our health and peace of mind in the process.
According to The National Library of Medicine, a 1999 study from the journal Circulation suggested that holiday stress and overindulgence might play a significant role in the inordinate rate of fatal heart attacks each year in December and January. There is no reason to take a risk on your heart health during the holidays.
One of the most important tips for you to keep in mind during the holidays is in control. Between fear of encountering toxic relatives, burning the big dinner, and forgetting to mail the holiday greeting cards in time, we feel at the mercy of all these acts supposed to make everyone feel better. If you feel that everything is out of control and that you will disappoint everyone with a single misstep, WebMD recommends taking control over the holidays instead of letting them control you. Remember that you are good enough throughout the year and that the holidays are no different.
How It Can Affect Your Health
Holiday stress can wreak havoc on your health if you do not develop a good stress management plan. Here are just a few ways that holiday stress can negatively impact your body:
Weight gain
Headaches
Stomach upset
Moodiness and sometimes depression
Fatigue and exhaustion
Insomnia
Elevated blood pressure
Neck, back, joint, and muscle pain
Weakened immune system and increased illness
Tips for Managing Holiday Stress
Learning some of the most alarming negative health outcomes listed above is likely to spur you to action to find positive ways to manage stress. Here are some ideas:
Adjust Your Outlook. Keep the holidays in perspective, and try to remember all the good that you do every day and that your "holiday performance" does not define you. It is meant to be fun and joyous for everyone, including you.
Create a New Shopping Strategy. If you work long hours, consider doing more online holiday gift shopping or take a personal day, with your shopping list in hand, and make a day of it when stores are less busy while everyone is working.
Don't Take on Too Much. If you are planning to host Thanksgiving, let someone else host Christmas, for example. If family members offer to stay in a hotel, rather than your already crowded home, let them.
Skip Some Activities. You don't need to go to every Haunted Hayride, Thanksgiving Turkey Trot road race, or Christmas tree lighting ceremony. Slow down and enjoy the season by carefully selecting events that mean the most to you and allow you to pace yourself and stay safe during COVID-19.
Keep Exercise on the Table. Even a short walk outside gives you some fresh air, improves circulation, and gets you away from all the stress inside.
Avoid Holiday Weight Gain
You might think avoiding holiday weight gain is more challenging than it sounds. Because of the temptation to eat unhealthy foods, healthy eating and weight loss often become lost concepts during the holidays for many of us. It is not impossible if we make a plan and stick to it.
Prioritize Exercise
The holidays sometimes feel like an alternate reality, causing us to cast our standard activities to the side for two or three months. The truth is exercise is an important part of reducing stress, but the idea of squeezing in your usual 3-mile run or 45-minute treadmill walk might cause its own stress as you try to find the time. As noted earlier, taking a 15-minute brisk walk during your lunch break or asking family members to take an after-dinner walk with you are easy ways to keep your body in motion, your mind clear, and your weight under control.
Make Healthy Food Choices
The most important thing you can do during the holidays is to make a nutrition game plan. Whether you plan to do the cooking or you are expected at several different family members' homes for various breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, you need to stay vigilant about your health. If you are cooking, there are plenty of healthy dinner ideas for the holidays, such as reducing the number of desserts and snacks while adding more vitamin-packed vegetables. Serve a large salad filled with leafy greens and all your favorite vegetables to help you and your guests fill up on something healthy before getting to the main event. If you are attending other celebrations and know there are dangerous foods on the horizon, eat something healthy at home so you can eat more modestly when you arrive.
Most importantly, eat mindfully. Even if you plan to enjoy a few indulgences, take time to chew your food carefully, and relish the experience.
Snack Wisely
If you want to keep your energy levels running high during the day, prepare healthy snacks to avoid caramel corn or pumpkin pie. Stick with snacks you ordinarily eat to feel full, satisfied, and energized, such as a serving of raw almonds and a slice of cheese, veggies and hummus, or an apple and peanut butter. Remember to stay hydrated and drink plenty of glasses of water as well.
Prevent Overeating
Besides incorporating healthy snacks into your strategy, there are a few other tips and tricks for you to consider to prevent overeating:
Choose a small plate or a napkin when visiting the snack area.
Politely decline seconds.
Plan to indulge in a few favorite decadent foods (be mindful and intentional about it), but don't overdo it.
Track food intake on a nutrition and fitness app like Mighty Health that helps you stay focused on your caloric goals.
Improve Your Sleep
Psych Central states that inadequate or poor sleep over the holidays adds to any other stress you might feel, so sticking to your regular healthy sleep patterns is essential self-care.
Create Moments for Mindfulness
Sometimes the best thing to do when you feel stressed is to pause and create moments of mindfulness. The chaos often overwhelms us, but we have the power to regain control by stopping to observe, listen, or meditate on all that's going on. Stay open to the range of emotions you feel, and use empathy to consider that others might feel as stressed out as you do.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you feel more optimistic about the holidays and how you plan to have fun while maintaining a healthy weight. The great thing is that you don't have to face all the food and exercise stressors on your own. Rely on an online health coach app like Mighty Health to keep everything on track throughout the holiday season and beyond.
