Moving through Midlife | Habit Stack & Movement Snacks for Midlife Moms, Parenting in Midlife | Fitness over 40

Ep 32: Healthy Holidays

December 06, 2021 Courtney McManus Episode 32
Moving through Midlife | Habit Stack & Movement Snacks for Midlife Moms, Parenting in Midlife | Fitness over 40
Ep 32: Healthy Holidays
Moving through Midlife
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Show Notes Transcript

With all of the EXTRA things we have to do during the Holiday it can be really tough to get that workout in.  I am not here to tell you to wake up an hour earlier during this time of year, because I get it; you may have been up late the night before wrapping presents or going to a Holiday event.  Today I want to share a few tips with you on how to have a healthier holiday by bringing movement into your every day life.


First tip:  Keep moving!  Try to move as much as possible throughout the day (this should come fairly easy if you are out buying gifts to put under the tree), get on the floor to wrap presents to change up the position your body is in, go for a walk around the neighborhood in the evening to look at all the Christmas lights.  Take the kids to the mall to see Santa and try to park on the opposite end so you get some walking in that way as well. 

Tip #2: Get in the holiday spirit and play that Christmas or seasonal music.  It is so hard not to sway, move your hips, or have a little more pep in your step when holiday music is on.  These little bouts of dancing around add up to big calorie burn (steps made) during the season.

Tip #3-Convenience is killing you!  Do not rely on the convenience of packages delivered to your door and sitting in your car outside of Target while they conveniently bring your packages to you; unless of course you have little eyes in the back seat.  I understand it is easier but think about all of the extra time you are just sitting in your car waiting for someone else to get their movement in while you wait.  If you live an active life, than this is not a big deal; but for those that sit at a desk all day and then drive to and from work, and then have everything delivered so they can relax and watch Netflix, this is not helping you live your healthiest life.

Tip #4-Get together with family or a friend to workout with you.  We always think about getting together for lunch or coffee with friends to catch up, but what if you asked to go for a walk instead?  You get to catch up with a friend and get your exercise in.  It's a win-win!  Looking for other mom's in your area?  Look into stroller friendly fitness classes to meet other moms.  Working out with friends is always more fun!

Tip #5-Consistency is Key!  Try to make it a daily habit to perform some sort of fitness regimen into your life.  Even if you don't have a lot of time, most people have 5 minutes to devote to something.  Do a Sun salutation at the beginning or end of your day, follow along with any of my 5 min workouts; the key is to set aside at least a little time each and every day for consistency and then it will become a habit.  Once it becomes an every day thing, you will start to find more time to commit to it as you will probably start to see the positive effects it has on your life.

Join our Form Fit Mom Community for conversation and to join our Movement Advent.

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Welcome to raising healthy humans. I am your host Courtney, a personal trainer and health coach, and the founder of formfit. A community where I help busy moms move more. As a busy and sometimes overwhelmed mama three myself, I understand that it can be difficult to find ways to live and raise healthy families. It is my goal to help provide you with the information you need to help raise healthy humans. I want to wish you all the happiest of holidays, this is such a wondrous time for our families. And I hope that you are enjoying this holiday season. Right now we are a week into the holidays. And you may notice that you are starting to feel overwhelmed. Your energy might be starting to deplete because you have a lot that you're thinking about as a mom, it is our responsibility to do most everything in regards to the holidays. So you might be baking cookies, you might be working on all of the meals and coming up with what meals you're going to be making for the holidays. You're then also the one going out and shopping and getting all the gifts for not only your family, but maybe the extended family and friends and your children's friends. Lots of that going on. And then you have to then wrap those presents and make sure everything is perfect. And then if you have other things that you need to do in regards to Christmas, maybe you have certain things that you ensure that you do every year, because they are your holiday traditions, you have those as well. And if your children are in school, then you are adding up all of those events that are occurring at the school. So it can be really overwhelming. And I just want you to take a deep breath. And remember that the way that you get energy is through movement, movement and taking care of yourself. So I want us to think about what we can do this month to create a healthier holiday. And I don't mean oh, we're gonna cut back on the sugar and we're gonna cut back on the alcohol, we're gonna stop doing this, this and this No, what I want you to do is let's look at what we can add into our day to create a healthier holiday, then what we are going to take away. So one thing that I always recommend people do you, I'm sure you've heard me hundreds of times say this. But it's move just a little bit. If you are new to movement, or don't feel like you can move right now in the way because you're too busy. You don't have time. Just give me five minutes, do something for five minutes. I don't care what you do, you can decide what you do. Or if you need help. I am here to guide you, I can help you. I have many YouTube videos, I have fun challenges that we do. Right now I have that movement Advent that I mentioned, as well. So there are things that you can do but take five minutes. And if you commit to just five minutes, you will more likely continue on past those original five minutes. The other thing is just keep moving throughout your day. Try to move as much as possible. And this should be fairly easy right now because you're out buying gifts and you're you're doing a lot of things you're putting things under the tree you are like I mentioned wrapping you are probably running to the grocery store and doing things like that. So you're going to be very busy. But I want you to look at movement as more than just exercise. So even just when you are wrapping your gifts, get down on the floor to wrap your gifts because there's a different element that comes into play when you bring your hips down onto the floor rather than up on the table. So it changes the way you move. It changes your hip positions. And that is something I want you to think about when you're doing stuff like rapping presence. Another thing that we love to do, we do live in a neighborhood that Has sidewalks but if you don't, there might be a neighborhood within your town where you can go for a walk around the neighborhood and look at all the Christmas lights, and will sometimes have fun with it. And we'll all grab a hot chocolate and walk around together. But it takes that element of getting out of the car rather than driving through the community. Get out of the car and go for a nice walk, you can do this as a bike ride as well. But just take you know, find those little things that you can do. To change it up a bit, you're keeping that same Christmas tradition, but you're changing it up a bit for more movement. Another way you can get more movement is is turn on that holiday music. I mean, this is such a time when people like to listen to the holiday music. So turn it on, enjoy it in the house, and you will start to see that you will start to move more, you'll dance around the house and move more and so will your children while you're doing this, so have fun with it while you're making dinner, you can turn on some music and dance around the house. So that's another thing that I usually recommend people do. The third thing that I'm going to recommend is stop outsourcing your movement. I believe I've mentioned this in the past, but this has to do with the amazing thing that technology has provided us, but it has outsourced our movement. So instead of going to the grocery store, we all click on Instacart. And magically our groceries appear at our front door. But think of all the steps in the movement that is taken away. When we do that. Same thing with purchasing from Amazon. If you're buying everything from Amazon, and everything's being delivered to your door, you're not taking a lot of steps like you would if you had to go out to the mall and go to all the different shops. And looking that way. Now I do understand that time is of the essence. So I'm not saying change it all. But look at what you can do to maybe think about things differently. Where can you maybe bring some of that small movement back into your life? Where do you have time, maybe you can turn it into a afternoon with your husband. And you guys can go on a shopping date, where you go together. Or if you have older children, taking them each out to pick out presents for siblings, making it more fun. Rather than just click click click cart full. Buy the product, it's all delivered to the front door. But just working on trying to get back into doing a little bit more for yourself than rather outsourcing everything. The fourth thing I usually recommend is find a friend to work out with call someone up, hey, I haven't talked to you in a while can we go for a walk? So many times during especially during the holidays, we want to get together with people reconnect people with with people we haven't seen in a while. And we all decide to go out to dinner or let's go grab a drink or let's go grab a coffee. And then we sit wherever that is. And we drink our coffee or we have a drink or have our dinner. And we're sitting. What if you changed it up? What if you said hey, I'm going to grab some coffees, I'll meet you at the park and we'll go for a walk around the park together, you still have your coffee with your friend, you still get the fun chit chat, but you're gonna walk while you do it. It may also be fun to go try something new in the way of fitness classes. So maybe you've always wanted to try the yoga studio around the corner. But you've been nervous about going alone. Great opportunity call a friend you haven't seen in a while, Hey, I just wanted to maybe see if you'd be interested in going with me to a yoga class for a fun afternoon or morning time with your friend. It might be something even that you could give as a gift to a friend, maybe giving them a certain amount of classes and you go to the classes together. So that would depend you know on what is being offered in your community. But that's just something I was thinking of that might be fun. You know, there's these fun different aerial yoga poses and different things that you can do as well that might be fun. And then consistency is Key, making sure that you are committing to it every day, every day doesn't mean you have to work out every day and break a sweat. No, but it does mean you need to find ways to move every single day in your life, go for a walk. I had someone mentioned to me the other day that they wanted, it was their goal to get up in the morning and go for a run again. And what I said is, maybe what's holding you back, is that thought of having to go out and run. What if you prefaced it, I'm going to go out for a walk today. Because I think we all tend to enjoy walking, right? It's less strenuous, you can go out there and you can listen to music, you can listen to a podcast, you know, it's very simple, and not stressful. So I said to her, why don't you just look at this as an opportunity to go out for a walk to get outside for a few minutes a day, get that fresh air, it's beautiful, where we currently live. So you've got that cool morning air, you get to watch the sunrise up, and you have a few minutes to yourself to just relax. And then once you're out there, if you decide you want to run from this mailbox to the next mailbox, then go for it. But that's not what you are setting yourself up for before you walk out the door. Once you're out there based on how you're feeling will decide what you do next. So if you don't feel like jogging, then don't jog. We are all adults. And we are so hard on ourselves about what needs to be done, or we hear what needs to be done. I'm hoping that you understand that what I'm recommending is not stuff I think you need to do. It's more what can you do to make yourself feel better? What can you do to provide yourself more energy today. And if it means just getting up and walking out the door, and walking to your mailbox, and then coming back in, then that's all you need for movement. In that day, maybe tomorrow, when you walk out to that mailbox, you decide to walk up to the stop sign in your community. And then maybe the next day, you walk even further. That is the goal for movement. And then when it comes to nutrition, and what you should be eating during this time, I'm going to recommend just ensuring what can I add to my plate rather than what can I take away? What can I add to my plate. And if you can focus on adding more fruits and vegetables onto your plate, especially if you can do it first. So when you go to fill up your plate, you add your fruits and your vegetables first, and then add the other items, then I think you're going to set yourself up better than if you add all the fat filled goodness that's out there. And then you only have a little space left for like the green beans. That's what we need to start flipping that is focus on filling the plate with your fruits and vegetables. And then whatever room is left, you can fill it with the other items. That's really what I would recommend doing is focus on what you can bring into your diet rather than what you take away. So the more you can add fruits and vegetables into your diet, the better. And that is what I feel will help make your holidays a healthier one. So feel free to join us in our Facebook community. That is form sit mom community. We currently have our movement Advent going on. It is very little. We're doing just a couple of things each day. And let us know when you're come over there. What you are doing to make your holidays a little healthier. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you could do me a favor if you like what you hear. Could you leave us a review or take a screenshot and share your favorite takeaway on social media and make sure to tag us over at raising underscore healthy humans. Now go out and enjoy more movement throughout your day.