Halloween marks the first holiday of the season with treats and the potential to “fall off track” with your goals (and ultimately impact your hormonal symptoms, oof!).
Between Halloween and New Year’s Day, it’s common for people to gain weight. There are celebrations and holidays, end of year wrap up at work, travel, access to more sweet treats and adult beverages, and it’s colder outside, meaning our diet will naturally shift to a more “hibernation” style of eating.
The perfect storm for feeling like you’ve fallen off track, gaining weight, and hormonal chaos.
Over the last decade plus, I’ve seen people gain up to 10lbs during this two month period. On the flip side, I’ve seen people lose weight, maintain weight, or keep to their goals as well.
So, how do you approach seasons where you have more sweets, treats, and celebrations without feeling out of control with your diet and movement (or worse, adding to your hormonal symptoms)?
Nourishment
During a busy holiday season, you may not be fully in control of what foods you have access to at celebrations. This makes what you do around celebrations more important.
When we go crazy on sweets, treats, and alcohol during the holiday season without any balance, it can:
- Increase your cortisol, leading to midsection weight gain
- Cause funky blood sugar, which impacts your cravings, moods, and metabolism
- Impact your digestive system, leading to inflammation in your gut that causes bloating, bad periods, and bowel movements that are not your norm (constipation or loose stool)
Here’s a checklist of what to focus on around a get together or times when you know your nutrition will be “off”:
- Have protein first thing in the morning
- Remember to hydrate (and include electrolytes!) throughout the day
- Don’t skip meals – it may make you overeat later
- Focus on a balanced plate of protein, fiber, carbs, and healthy fats
After celebrations, it’s common for you to not feel as hungry, especially if you did eat more than normal. Try to keep consistent with eating – maybe eat a little lighter the following day, but eat every 3 to 4 hours to keep your blood sugar stable.
The most important thing you can do with your diet post-celebration is, get right back to your normal way of eating as quickly as possible.
Don’t let the celebration continue on. Enjoy leftovers, but keep it balanced (where can you add protein? What about fiber?). Don’t yo-yo into a deficit or undereating because you overate for one or a few days.
Though I will cover it another day, the holiday season is not the prime time to lose weight either. It’s a great season for maintenance calories (or a surplus if you’re looking to build muscle).
Movement
I’ve heard it and even been part of it, a lot of people think they either need to “earn” their celebration or they need to “work off” their celebration.
You don’t need to do either.
However, if movement helps you feel great going into a celebration or helps get your treats moving through your system, then yes! Do it!
But, you do not need to earn your food!
If you’re someone who does use working out to earn your food, you could be doing damage to your hormones like:
- Increasing your cortisol levels, which leads to struggles to building muscle, losing weight, or maintaining weight
- Decreased libido and irregular menstrual cycles
- A weakened immune system (which we for sure don’t want or need during the winter months)
- And the potential for overtraining or underrecovering, which leads to more fatigue, sleep issues, and potential for injury
Instead, here’s what to focus on for your movement in a busier season of life (like the holiday season):
- Schedule your workouts – like physically put them in your calendar
- Be okay with less workout time or less workout days if it’s a busier season than a couple months ago
- Don’t add in more workouts, more cardio, etc, to make up for eating
- If you feel drained (from a celebration, family, whatever), take a day off or get lighter movement in
Remember, your workouts are a great tool to support your hormones and your body, but they can be a slippery slope if you’re already feeling depleted.
Lifestyle
The thing about the holiday season is, it feels like it’s go go go. It’s nonstop with holidays, end of year celebrations and deadlines, and wanting to see people before the new year.
It’s interesting that the holiday season is in the winter months, which is also when our body wants to start winding down and hibernating (winter is your menstruation season!).
Because of the conflicting energy between a busy season and the body’s need to hibernate, it’s going to be very important for you to listen to your body’s needs and prioritize rest.
Here are a few things for you to focus on:
- Make it a non-negotiable that you get 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night
- Holidays can be stressful, so work on ways to manage your stress
- Say no to plans that are not “hell yes!” plans
- Take your rest and recovery seriously
- Uphold your boundaries with your family and friends
Everyone’s social meter is different, which makes it more important for you to notice when yours is running a little lower and needs to be recharged.
When you let your social meter run on empty, it will impact how you recover, leaving you burnt out, and can impact your hormones (specifically your cortisol).
And if you feel like you over did it at an event?
Welcome to the party! We’ve all been there.
But it’s not the time to skip meals, add in an extra workout session, or feel guilty about what you did.
Instead, focus on returning to your basics: nourish your body, move your body, and refocus on the lifestyle habits that work best for you! Get right back to your normal routine and don’t let the celebration hang over you for any longer than it needs to!
Oh yeah, and stay off the scale! It’s natural for the scale number to fluctuate when you have adult beverages, more food, or foods you don’t typically have!
Do you want more support during the holiday season to make sure you stay on track with your goals and don’t wear down your hormones? Schedule a free Hormone Analysis Call to chat.
