It’s great to relax during the holidays, but sadly at some point you do have to face reality and get back to normality. Here are some ways to get back on track with your weight loss goals after the holidays.
Relish the fresh start
Sure, New Year’s Resolutions have a bad reputation, but there’s nothing wrong with setting them and taking advantage of that ‘new year, new me’ feeling. You’ve just gotta be realistic about it: 2025 probably isn’t going to be the year you become a professional athlete or hone an eight pack where your beer belly used to be.
Set realistic, attainable goals and focus on the reasons you want to accomplish them for a fresh boost of motivation. The hope a new year brings is something to relish and take advantage of, so leave your cynicism at the door.
Get back to normal as soon as you can
If the holidays have mainly been about food (and lots of it), it can feel hard to say goodbye to eating your body weight in candy on a daily basis. You might have a lot of holiday food leftover after Christmas, and that’s fine, but slowly returning to your old healthier favorites can go a long way to making you feel like you’re getting back on track.
Remember that the longer you leave it, the harder it’ll be to stop overindulging, and the more work you’ll have to put in to get back to where you were.
Do some activity
We tend to feel sluggish after the holidays, mostly down to overeating but also because we tend to be less active than usual. It’s great to have a break and you shouldn’t feel guilty about it, but starting to move your body a bit more when the holidays are over will help you get back to healthy habits.
If you’re not ready for anything too strenuous (and we don’t blame you!), go for a few gentle walks to get back into the swing of things.
Give your body a break
If you’ve had a lot of alcohol over the holidays, give your body a break for a few weeks by cutting the booze out. What about taking part in Dry January? It’s a month-long alcohol-free challenge which started in the UK but has since become popular around the world.
The rules are simple: no alcohol for one month. There are many benefits to passing on the alcohol: you’ll cut calories, have more energy, be better hydrated, and you’ll save money. Check out Dry January’s US site for more info.
Don’t deprive yourself
One thing that makes overindulging worse is trying to compensate for it by undereating. It might seem like it makes sense, but binging following by restricting is a vicious cycle that’s hard to break free from. It’ll just make you more likely to eat more, as you’ll get too hungry and want to eat everything in sight,
Instead, just draw a line under any holiday indulgences and focus on nourishing your body. It’s perhaps a cliché, but eating healthy, balanced meals that satisfy your hunger is the best thing you can do to get back on track. Make a meal plan, do a healthy grocery shop, and try your best. Don’t beat yourself up if it takes longer to get back to normal eating than you’d like, just keep trying and most importantly: don’t quit.
