{"id":59520,"date":"2011-11-28T12:04:59","date_gmt":"2011-11-28T17:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/?p=59520"},"modified":"2011-11-28T12:37:24","modified_gmt":"2011-11-28T17:37:24","slug":"defeat-seasonal-stress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/11\/defeat-seasonal-stress\/","title":{"rendered":"Defeat Seasonal Stress by Setting Realistic Expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Catherine Holecko is the Guide to Family Fitness at About.com<\/a> and suggests Harry Connick Jr. for all your holiday karaoke needs and workout playlists. <\/em><\/p>\n

I absolutely love the winter holidays and everything that goes along with them, but as my kids grow and life gets busier and more complicated, I\u2019ve noticed my stress level rising each November. Since we have no family nearby, we travel for Thanksgiving every year, and Christmas every other year\u2014which, I swear, has to be the top holiday stressor ever. So this year, I\u2019m formalizing a plan to make the season merrier. It starts with thinking clearly about what matters to me and my husband and kids.<\/p>\n

1.\tWe need a tree<\/em><\/strong>. I need a live (well, cut) Christmas tree even if we are not going to be home for Christmas. Yes, it\u2019s a pain to wrestle into the stand, to clean up after, to keep watered, and to dispose of. But nothing can take the place of the sight and scent of a real tree. My daughter has already asked me if we\u2019ll have a tree this year even though we won\u2019t be home on Christmas Day, so I know it\u2019s something she cares a lot about too. Plus, choosing and decorating the tree is an important family activity, something we all insist on doing together, while singing carols like some kind of television commercial or cheesy sitcom.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

2. We don\u2019t need cookies<\/em><\/strong>. Our diets don\u2019t need them, we don\u2019t need to clear two days on our calendar to bake them, and our neighbors don\u2019t need to eat them either. Yes, I feel a little guilty when we receive a plate of treats and we don\u2019t reciprocate. But we express our thanks warmly and strive to be good neighbors all year round instead.<\/p>\n

3.\tWe need gifts\u2014but only up to a point<\/em><\/strong>. A few years ago we finally started drawing names for gift exchanges among my parents, siblings, and so on\u201411 adults. It makes such a huge difference to chop 10 names off your list! Plus, it\u2019s so much more enjoyable choosing something for one person thoughtfully, vs. buying something just to check off a name. And since we often see each other for Thanksgiving, I make an effort to have the gift ready then. If we\u2019re seeing the other side of the family for turkey day, I try to shop and wrap during the visit and stash the gifts before we go. Anything that I\u2019d otherwise ship, I buy online and have sent directly. The shipping and wrapping fees may rack up, but it\u2019s a worthwhile trade for my time.<\/p>\n

4.\tWe don\u2019t need cards\u2014to go out by Christmas Eve<\/strong>.<\/em> I still love to send and receive cards, but sometimes I just have to send them after December 25. I always get one that has a \u201chappy holidays\/season\u2019s greetings\u201d type message, because I send cards to people that don\u2019t celebrate Christmas\u2014but also because the cards tend to arrive more for New Year\u2019s than Christmas anyway.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>5.\tWe need exercise<\/em><\/strong>. Nothing, I mean nothing, gets in the way of my yoga classes<\/a><\/strong>, especially during this time of year and no matter what else is on the calendar or how long my to-do list is. The same goes for my kids, who luckily love winter sports<\/a><\/strong>. If they\u2019re not at the ice rink, they\u2019re probably outside playing in the snow.<\/p>\n

6.\tWe don\u2019t need parties<\/em><\/strong>. We moved to our current home and town 7 years ago. For that first Christmas, we hosted a party for our neighbors and other new friends, to get to know them better and thank them for the warm welcome they had extended. I was 6 months pregnant and spent the better part of a week on my feet, baking, until I thought my back would give out. Then on the day of the party the dog ate more than half a tray of my precious cookies and bars. We haven\u2019t had a holiday party since! OK, so it\u2019s not really the dog\u2019s fault. It\u2019s just facing reality.<\/p>\n

I have some more suggestions for holiday fitness<\/a><\/strong> (and the fitting-in-of) and I\u2019d love to hear yours too. Here\u2019s to a happy, healthy, holiday season for all of us!<\/p>\n

___________________________________________________<\/p>\n

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If you would like to apply to be featured as a guest blogger, please <\/em>contact us<\/em><\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Catherine Holecko is the Guide to Family Fitness at About.com and suggests Harry Connick Jr. for all your holiday karaoke needs and workout playlists. I absolutely love the winter holidays and everything that goes along with them, but as my … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3687],"tags":[8199,23,3864,320],"class_list":["post-59520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adult-health","tag-catherine-holecko","tag-guest-blog","tag-healthy-holidays","tag-stress"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59520"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59534,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59520\/revisions\/59534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}