The holidays offer a much-needed break for busy construction pros, but the shift in routines can disrupt your health and well-being. Maintain balance, manage stress, and prioritize physical and mental health during Christmas with strategies like limiting sugar and alcohol, pre-planning your workouts, and practicing mindfulness. 

Quick look

• Holidays can disrupt regular schedules, causing poor sleep, weight fluctuations, and stress.
• Remember nutrition tips like not skipping meals, eating fruits and vegetables, staying hydrated, and supporting your health with supplements.
• Stay active and energized by pre-planning your workouts, moving your body, and getting quality sleep.
• Find calm by practicing mindfulness, focused breathing, and self-care.

The importance of balance over the break

Many of us look forward to the holidays for a much-needed break in our daily routines. We can sleep in, slow down, eat home-cooked meals, and spend time with friends and family. However, the same shifts in routine can wreak havoc on our sleep, stress, and even weight. 

Spending time relaxing and hanging out with friends and family can mean skipping your regular exercise routine, and all those holiday parties, dinners, and treats can cause you to overindulge in rich, heavy foods. Sleeping in feels fantastic—until your schedule gets all out of whack. And while the Christmas season can be truly magical, creating that magic can come with a lot of stress! 

We’ve collected a few key tips to help you maintain balance and enjoy the holidays without sacrificing your mental and physical health.

Tips for staying healthy and balanced this holiday season

Mindful nutrition

Even the healthiest eaters often struggle around the holiday season—and not just because of the influx of unhealthy snacks, meals, and treats (it’s OK to indulge occasionally!). But a sudden switch to rich cheeses, lots of drinks, and desserts with every meal can mess with your digestion, energy levels, and overall health. Being mindful of your nutrition lets you enjoy all the fun while still feeling energetic enough to enjoy the holidays.

Don’t skip meals

It might seem like skipping meals can help balance those big Christmas dinners and boxes of Ferrero Rocher, but it can sometimes have the opposite effect. Nutritionists warn that skipping meals can cause anxiety, low energy, food cravings, and nutrient deficiencies, among other things. Instead of skipping meals, try to eat balanced portions throughout the day. 

Stay hydrated

You probably have a water bottle to drink from throughout the day at your desk or on the job site. However, being at home or a relative’s house can throw you off your regular hydration habits. Staying hydrated can help keep your brain sharp (great for those family game nights), prevent headaches and constipation, and stave off holiday weight gain. 

Eat fruits and vegetables

When surrounded by charcuterie boards and Christmas cookies, it can be tough to reach for a nice green salad or fresh piece of fruit. If you remember to fill your plate with fresh food, your body will thank you! Balancing the decadent indulgences of holiday meals with the vitamin- and nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables can help keep you energetic, balance blood sugar, and ensure you’re getting enough fiber—something that’s especially important if you’re eating lots of meat and cheese.

Be mindful of sugar and alcohol

There’s nothing wrong with knocking back a few glasses of rum and egg nog or helping yourself to some of Grandma’s shortbread—’tis the season, after all! But there’s a point where enjoyment tips into overindulgence, and that usually comes with unpleasant consequences like crashing blood sugar or painful hangovers. To avoid paying the price for too much sugar and alcohol, have smaller portions of sweets and limit yourself to one or two drinks a day.

Support with supplements

Taking supplements may help you stay healthy during the holidays. Immune supplements like vitamin C, D, and zinc can help prevent seasonal colds and flu, and digestive enzymes like lactase and bromelain can help your gut handle all those Christmas treats. Probiotics may help improve your gut health and minimize the effects of sugar and alcohol. 

Stay active and energized 

Meeting your nutritional needs is just one part of staying balanced during Christmas. Whether you work out in the gym or play tag with your nieces and nephews, moving your body can keep you feeling your best. 

Pre-plan workouts

Holidays can be hectic, filled with family obligations, parties, and a seemingly never-ending cycle of meal preparation and cleanup. If you don’t pre-plan your workouts and carve time for yourself, it’s easy to lose track of your fitness goals amidst the hustle and bustle of the season.

While you shouldn’t think of working out as a way to “earn” indulgences, exercising is a fantastic way to release stress and stay healthy. Prioritizing workouts (even during the Christmas break) can do wonders for your physical and mental health. Take some time to intentionally pre-plan your workouts, and make sure your partner, family, and friends are aware of your schedule—you never know, they may even want to go with you!

Move daily

You can still prioritize movement if you don’t want to miss anything by heading to the gym for regular workouts. Try incorporating an after-lunch walk, a morning dance session, or joining in on the kid’s game of tag—by doing so, you’ll spend time with loved ones while getting your heart rate up. 

Focus on quality sleep

Whether staying up late to catch up with your cousins or doing the last of your gift wrapping, sleep often suffers over the holidays. Late bedtimes, sleeping in, and ingesting more caffeine, sugar, and alcohol than usual can also mess with the quality of your sleep. Try to balance revelry with rest to ensure you get the sleep you need to stay healthy and happy. 

For your best chance of a good night’s sleep, experts recommend sticking as close as you can to your regular bedtime and wakeup time, having your last meal 2-3 hours before bedtime, and limiting the amount of alcohol you consume. You may think that alcohol helps you sleep because you feel drowsy after a few drinks, but the quality of your sleep tends to decrease after drinking.

Find calm and balance

Staying grounded can help you counteract the chaos of the holiday season. Tools like mindfulness, planning, and self-care can make for a stress-free holiday season. 

Practice mindfulness

Mindfulness is another word for awareness—specifically, focusing your awareness on the present moment and how you currently think, feel, and experience the world. Mindfulness helps you let go of worrying over the past or feeling anxious about the future so you can fully inhabit and accept the present.

Experts say that mindfulness exercises like meditation, focused breathing, or yoga can help reduce stress and anxiety during busy times. Mindfulness doesn’t need to take hours, either; it can be practiced with a simple 10-minute meditation to start and end your day or a brief 20-minute yoga session.

Use a calendar

This may seem like a no-brainer, but using a calendar to schedule events can help avoid over-commitments and schedule conflicts. Seeing everything laid out can help you realize when you may be at risk of doing too much—and feeling exhausted. Sharing the calendar with family will ensure you don’t double-book the school Christmas concert and your work’s holiday party. Whether you use a digital calendar or a good old-fashioned paper wall calendar is up to you; either one will help you manage busy holiday schedules.  

Prioritize self-care

We often get so busy caring for others that we forget to care for ourselves. The holidays are meant to be enjoyable for everyone—even you! Make sure to build some time into each day for self-care, whether it’s a workout, a hot bath, a walk in the woods, or even just time alone watching your favorite show. Taking time to rest and recharge means you’ll be a better friend, partner, and parent when you rejoin the festivities. 

Bottom line

This holiday season, the best gift you can give yourself is the gift of balance. Amidst the flurry of overindulgence, overstimulation, busyness, and to-do lists as long as Santa’s, remember to make time for your physical and mental health! You’ll be thanking yourself for it come the new year. 

Want more ways you can stay healthy and happy under the hard hat? Subscribe to our newsletter!