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  (this is the bi-weekly article that appeared in the Evansville Courier & Press 12/03/07)

I often preach the benefits of a healthy lifestyle — eating right, exercise and a positive mental attitude. However, this week I want to switch the emphasis away from the usual suspects and touch on the one thing that will throw a wrench in your healthy lifestyle faster than you can say “Can you supersize that?”

Stress! Stress is oozing out of our pores this time of year, and if you don’t take action to decompress, it will mean bad news for your health, not to mention suck the joy right out of this wonderful season. Let me explain.

Two years ago, my holiday stress meter shot off the charts. I had just about killed myself trying to be “super Christmas mom” and squeeze every possible thing into our holiday schedule. I had to get the kids’ picture taken so I could send out the cute little Christmas cards; help with the Christmas program at church; the kids both had school programs to be in; and we had several parties to attend. I baked cookies for family and friends, made personalized ornaments for my training clients, decorated the house for our own party for about 50 people and did Christmas crafts with the kids … all in addition to working and shopping almost every free evening and weekend.

How did I fit it all in? By sacrificing all the “me time,” skipping my workouts and getting very little sleep. It wasn’t long before I turned into a stressed-out Grinch, and, believe me, everyone knew it!

Last year I approached the holidays differently. For the first time in a long time, I enjoyed Thanksgiving and Christmas like never before. I realized it wasn’t about being everything to everyone — the holiday season is about peace, family, giving and faith. It’s not about hurrying, shopping and staying up till midnight baking cookies.

None of that stuff means much when those around you can’t stand to be near you, and you feel — and look — like a run-down mess.

So here’s what you can do to de-stress and find your healthy “joy” this holiday season:

1) Exercise. You know I couldn’t write an article without at least touching on health and fitness. This is the “me time” we all need to get the stress out. It doesn’t always have to be the super hard stuff. Get up and stretch, take a yoga class. Try your hand at Thai Chi, which is offered at many gyms. The stress of weight gain during the holidays is something none of us needs, so take some time to care for own well-being and everyone around you will benefit from your newfound peace and joy this season.

2) Lower your expectations. Christmas doesn’t need to look and feel like a Norman Rockwell painting with all the perfect cards, cookies and decorations. Family and friends aren’t going to disown you if they don’t get a card, and no one will complain if you don’t hang lights from your roof. Make time to kick back, listen to holiday tunes and sip on spiced cider with your loved ones.

3) Remembered the reason for the season. One of the biggest time savers and hardest moves I made was to skip some of the parties and programs. I also didn’t make home-made crafts for everyone, and I didn’t spend so much time shopping and fighting traffic (thank goodness for online shopping). What I did do is read the Christmas story with my children, finally enjoyed a peaceful holiday season, took care of my health, and thanked God for all the blessings in my life. Now that’s what healthy living is all about!

This entry was posted on Monday, December 3rd, 2007 at 3:05 pm and is filed under healthy solutions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.