I have wanted to share a little “experiment” for lack of a better word, that I did during thanksgiving and my birthday. I’ve seen a few post about this topic of eating during the holiday season, so I thought I’d go ahead and share my thoughts.
There sometimes seems to be this mentality of needing to do vigorous exercise, restricted calories, diets or what-have-you around the holidays. I used to feel like if I had overeaten, felt bloated or eaten more unhealthy foods; that I needed to do some cardio right away to help digest, or “burn off” the calories. It honestly made me feel stressed about eating during holidays/celebrations/parties etc, which probably made things worse for my digestion and overall health than the actual food. It’s kinda embarrassing to think back to that, but thankfully I found FB and D&K, who have helped immensely to change my mindset. (Thank you Kelli and Daniel!💙)
Anyway, I got to thinking about the exercise part of it as well, and I wanted to try something. So a week or two before thanksgiving, I decided I wanted to slowly lower the intensity of my workouts up until thanksgiving, and then just do yoga/Pilates/stretching routines through my b-day and for about a week or so. I wanted to seriously just relax and enjoy the food. I didn’t want to worry about if I was eating to much sugar, not stress about what was made with dairy... I just wanted to spend time with family eating what they had made, what I had made, what was given to me, etc. So I thought, “Ok. I’m not getting as much highly nutritious food, so what if I do the opposite of what I used to do and lower the intensity of my workouts. Why would I feel like I need to do more and harder, if I’m not going to refuel myself with as nutritious of food?” Now, I don’t know if that’s necessarily correct, but it seems to make sense to me and I think I’ve had better results! It’s been so freeing, and I’ve felt so much better during this time than I have in the past! For about a week and a half I had some pie everyday, cookies that were made and given to me, brownies that were given to me, all sorts of little treats and such that aren’t the “cleanest” but I haven’t worried about it! (Not all at once obviously, but some everyday spread throughout the past couple weeks.) I haven’t been super bloated, (like has happened to me in the past) my skin has not broken out like it has on the past, my body has not completely changed and most importantly, I have been relaxed about it and not stressed! Like I said, I kept doing lighter routines and I tried to work on the the strength in those things, like balance, core, flexibility, etc. ...And I did play some sports but all in all, I kept it pretty light and I think there was definite benefits from it. If anything my body has stayed the same, and the lighter exercise/rest period has helped with recovery. In fact, I’ve been noticing more tone and definition in my core lately, and I’ve noticed that doing some of these Pilates/yoga routines has strengthened it even more! It wasn’t all ruined from eating some cookies and pie. Lol! I still think it’s important to get some activity during the holidays,and I’m not saying you shouldn’t continue with your regular workout routine. I just wanted to try this for myself of relaxing with food, but at the same time not doing extreme workouts when your not getting as highly nutritious food. I think it went really well for me, and I hope maybe this post can help others who are struggling with eating during this time of year.
Now I plan to do the 1000 calorie workout today!
...But not for the wrong reasons, I assure you! 😆😜
Eating and exercising during the holidays
Hello, FB family!
I have wanted to share a little “experiment” for lack of a better word, that I did during thanksgiving and my birthday. I’ve seen a few post about this topic of eating during the holiday season, so I thought I’d go ahead and share my thoughts.
There sometimes seems to be this mentality of needing to do vigorous exercise, restricted calories, diets or what-have-you around the holidays. I used to feel like if I had overeaten, felt bloated or eaten more unhealthy foods; that I needed to do some cardio right away to help digest, or “burn off” the calories. It honestly made me feel stressed about eating during holidays/celebrations/parties etc, which probably made things worse for my digestion and overall health than the actual food. It’s kinda embarrassing to think back to that, but thankfully I found FB and D&K, who have helped immensely to change my mindset. (Thank you Kelli and Daniel!💙)
Anyway, I got to thinking about the exercise part of it as well, and I wanted to try something. So a week or two before thanksgiving, I decided I wanted to slowly lower the intensity of my workouts up until thanksgiving, and then just do yoga/Pilates/stretching routines through my b-day and for about a week or so. I wanted to seriously just relax and enjoy the food. I didn’t want to worry about if I was eating to much sugar, not stress about what was made with dairy... I just wanted to spend time with family eating what they had made, what I had made, what was given to me, etc. So I thought, “Ok. I’m not getting as much highly nutritious food, so what if I do the opposite of what I used to do and lower the intensity of my workouts. Why would I feel like I need to do more and harder, if I’m not going to refuel myself with as nutritious of food?” Now, I don’t know if that’s necessarily correct, but it seems to make sense to me and I think I’ve had better results! It’s been so freeing, and I’ve felt so much better during this time than I have in the past! For about a week and a half I had some pie everyday, cookies that were made and given to me, brownies that were given to me, all sorts of little treats and such that aren’t the “cleanest” but I haven’t worried about it! (Not all at once obviously, but some everyday spread throughout the past couple weeks.) I haven’t been super bloated, (like has happened to me in the past) my skin has not broken out like it has on the past, my body has not completely changed and most importantly, I have been relaxed about it and not stressed! Like I said, I kept doing lighter routines and I tried to work on the the strength in those things, like balance, core, flexibility, etc. ...And I did play some sports but all in all, I kept it pretty light and I think there was definite benefits from it. If anything my body has stayed the same, and the lighter exercise/rest period has helped with recovery. In fact, I’ve been noticing more tone and definition in my core lately, and I’ve noticed that doing some of these Pilates/yoga routines has strengthened it even more! It wasn’t all ruined from eating some cookies and pie. Lol! I still think it’s important to get some activity during the holidays,and I’m not saying you shouldn’t continue with your regular workout routine. I just wanted to try this for myself of relaxing with food, but at the same time not doing extreme workouts when your not getting as highly nutritious food. I think it went really well for me, and I hope maybe this post can help others who are struggling with eating during this time of year.
Now I plan to do the 1000 calorie workout today!
...But not for the wrong reasons, I assure you! 😆😜
Have a great day, blenders!💙