Ep #8: How to THRIVE During the Holidays

Welcome to Weight Loss for CEOs. A podcast that teaches executives and leaders how to deal with the unique challenges of achieving sustainable weight loss while balancing the responsibility of a growing company, family, and their own health. Here’s your host, executive coach, Diana Murphy.

Well, we have certainly moved into winter around here, and some of you have even experienced your first snow. I know Atlanta had the coldest, wettest week recently, and it just was miserable. But it’s actually warming up now as I pack for my Thanksgiving trip. Yes, I’m recording ahead of time.

But if you’re listening to this episode on time, it’s Cyber Monday, so the craziness has already begun. The challenges during the holidays are real, but what I want to offer you today are really some simple, powerful reminders that can be an anchor for you this holiday season. Use this episode and come back to it at any point that you’re getting overwhelmed, but know deep down that you really want to thrive and be taking really good care of yourself during this season, and to continue to lose weight or feel really great physically or mentally.

One thing that really irks me and you hear it so often in the media, I almost – even my title today, Surviving the Holidays, it’s as if the holidays were created to just be endured. But is that what we’re going to choose? Endure? Or survive the holidays? That doesn’t feel so great. It doesn’t feel like a great option at all.

So I’m choosing – and I hope you’ll join me here – to thrive. And you might have a different word, but I want to thrive during the holidays. I want to still feel really good physically. I don’t want to be discouraged, I don’t want to be overwhelmed. I want to enjoy my time off, my work, and my family. So I’m inviting you to that today.

Also, I feel like there’s also a theme in the way that we take care of our health and even our businesses. It’s like, “Oh, it’s the end of the year already.” Folks, it’s only mid-November. It’s not December 31st. The year is not over. We have a lot of time to capture new business in our lives if you’re a CEO like me, and to create great momentum for the new year, but it’s also a really great time to take care of your health.

So let me take a quick pause here and be realistic for a moment. There are trigger moments during these holidays. I want to be compassionate to those that might have some things coming up for them during the holidays. If you’ve lost loved ones, yeah, the holiday is a reminder of missing them, and it can be tough. I’m with you there. Or the overload of work really when you want to be home with your family and doing Santa type things if you have young children or just having calm, relaxing dinners with them or going to their events at school, but you’re on overload at work.

Or you have like, a part-time job of now maintaining and doing all the things you need to do for your holiday to-do list, whether it’s entertaining or going to a lot of events because that’s what your business demands, or the part-time job of just taking care of all those family gifts if you celebrate Christmas.

So the challenge really can be real, and I want you to just take a pause and be compassionate with yourself if you have some of those challenges. But what I’m guiding you to today is to begin a new way of approaching and thinking about the holidays, especially around mindset and health. It can be amazing, and it can actually be healthy.

Alright, I’ve got three beautiful ways that you can not only survive, but thrive, and they are these three; stay in your body. Don’t worry, I’ll explain. Do you. You do you. Stay with what works for you. And last but not least, love your people, and that includes you. Taking really good care of the people around you and yourself.

Alright, before I even get started, I want you to know that I planned a beautiful cheat sheet for you at dianamurphycoaching.com/CEO8, and you can use this as a daily check in. Print it out and decide what you want to do here. Don’t let my suggestions overwhelm you, but give you insight on how you can activate these three concepts that I’m sharing with you today.

Alright, what do I mean by stay in your body? I’m encouraging you to stay in your body this holiday season. What I mean is don’t move so fast, take on so much, and be so distracted that you leave your body’s needs behind. And I have three suggestions that literally I’m craving to do myself as I suggest you do them today, and I’m going to join you.

First, get quiet every morning. Take a pause and set a timer for just five minutes and get quiet with yourself every morning. If you need to put a notepad nearby, if you have a really busy to-do list and those things come up for you when you try to get quiet, just jot them down and push them aside, but keep a notepad by you. But stay committed to getting grounded, breathing a little bit with yourself every morning. Five minutes. That’s it. That’s all I’m asking.

Next, before you make any decision around food, always ask the question, “Am I hungry?” Honor your hunger signals and wait until you’re hungry to eat. This might be the biggest and most powerful question you can ask all holiday season.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m in the moment and excitement at parties and gift-giving and traditions, I am not usually aware of what’s going on for me, especially around hunger, and using this question can keep you really centered and might delay eating at the end of the party. It might mean eating a small appetizer when everybody’s having a big meal, but if you honor this decision of staying in your body around your own appetite, you can stay with your goals this winter.

Last but not least, I love this – that came up for me as an idea. Take one fresh air walk at least once a week. You know, we tend to stay inside more during the winter months, unless you’re in one of those warmer climate states. The days are shorter, the weather can be a little daunting, but get some fresh air. Get the right gear, check out your own neighborhood, make a plan to walk once a week or take a short hike, meet a friend, walk somewhere new. Meet them in their neighborhood or get out for lunch.

So, let me repeat the three of how to get in your body. Your first step, get quiet in the morning. Five minutes. Always ask and honor, “Am I hungry?” Only eat when you’re hungry. And take a fresh air walk once a week. That’s it. This is a chance for you to enjoy the foods around you more and to be more in control, I promise you.

My next step is you do you. What do I mean? I love these concepts. Stay in your routines. Stay in your routine around exercise, the food that you eat, and your normal sleeping habits, and I’m going to unpack these a little bit. In terms of your physical workout routine, stay in your routine as much as you can in terms of working out.

I know in the fall, I get usually about four workouts in a week, especially when I don’t have a lot of networking, but that just doesn’t happen during the holidays. But I know my baseline is three. If I can get three in a week, I know my body feels so much better. So if you’re out of town, join family at their workouts. If it’s in town and your schedule’s rocking around a little bit, try a new place. Try a new gym that does pay as you go classes.

But do everything that you can to stay with what’s been working for you. Take a video along, do an app. Do something that helps you to stay on track, whether you’re traveling, whether your schedule’s moved around a little bit, and stay with your minimum exercise plan so that you keep up with your routine. Our workout routine has very little to do with calories and so much to do with our mental health and our mindset. So lean in to working out during the holidays. It might actually help you with those interesting family members.

Alright, keep your foods on hand, and this is what I mean around food. You do you. You know what works for you. If you’ve been following my seven-step plan to losing weight for good, you have done food fuel testing. I think that was episode three. And when you know what works for you, lean into those. Order them, make sure you stock them in a travel fridge, make sure you stock your own refrigerator.

You know, when we’re eating out a lot or traveling, it’s so tempting to go with just what’s available. Our refrigerators get bare and we just don’t shop for basics as often, right? So don’t be afraid to possibly waste a little food here and there or to go on an extra grocery run after the hosts have stocked a refrigerator where you’re staying. Make sure that you have fresh lean and green on hand wherever you are.

Or if you’re not shopping for it, you know where to order it. You’re 80% there if you have your food on hand. Alright, another facet of you do you is stay with your normal sleeping pattern. Honor your need for rest during the holidays. Now, if you’re like me, you look to the vacations for catch up on sleep days or, oh my gosh, I don’t have to set my alarm.

But actually, this gets us more off than it does help us because you can’t really recover from lost sleep. You know, maybe the first day or two sleep in a little bit. It just feels really good, but when you return to work then, it’s just really hard to get back in your own routine. So I highly recommend sleeping the hours you know work for you, very close to what you normally do during work time, and staying on your own schedule.

You do you with your physical routine, foods on hand, and your normal sleeping habits. I highly recommend these, especially if you’re wanting to lose weight. If you lean into these, you’re not going to have to do much more and it’s a great way to maintain your weight when all these delicious foods are around us to really lean into these concepts.

Last but not least, love your people. Don’t you love that? I love it. I came up with that. What I mean by this is we know that some family dynamics can be amazing, and some can be very challenging. The holidays might be a tough reminder of someone you lost, so what I’m saying here is love those that get you, that you can lean into. Now, this is what I mean. Even if it’s a simple text to a friend while you’re in the middle of family drama, while you’re out of town, that might be what you need. Again, lean into people that can support you.

Another is making sure, even though you’re busy at a lot of work events, that you have a quick lunch or coffee with people that you’re really close to. You know, I have a friend, she’s a fellow coach. She shared with me a family drama moment she had and there was this line in the middle of this event that she was like, “Just hand me the bread.”

And now, we even use it as a quick text to each other when we are in drama with our families and we know the first thing we want is that glass of wine or that starchy carb to just feel better because things are kind of dramatic. It’s just crazy.

So lean into your people. Make sure you have the support you need while you’re dealing with difficult situations. Another of love your people is be present with those that you’re with. Work hard and play hard. You know, work hard, be at work when you’re at work, but when you’re at home, be at home. When you have chosen to go to parties, be present. When you are choosing and are attending – even if it’s someone else prepared it and they’ve invited you to a family dinner, be present at your family dinners. You can get to work later.

You know, we’re attending more social events usually than normal during this time and one way to kind of get through it – remember, this is the survival part – is to really – if you said yes to an event, enjoy the people that are around you. Appreciate that it’s the third time you’ve heard a story from an older relative, or hang with the kids on the floor for a few minutes. Just play with them. They’ve got a lot of extra energy right now. They’re not in their normal routine either, and you’re with all this family, just hang out with the kids on the floor for a minute. It might be refreshing.

Or go wash dishes with the hostess. Go have some time where you give him or her some attention. Take pictures at the party, capture the memories. So be at the parties, not wishing that you’re home, but be there. And when you’re home, take good care of yourself and enjoy the quiet, right? So be present with the people that you’re with and be present with yourself when you’re on your own.

On this last step, love yourself. Be respectful of your own needs. Be respectful of the way that you’re wired. Say no and stay in if you need to. Say no to food that you don’t need that has been pushed on you. Put some boundaries in place. If you’ve been doing the first recommendation of check five minutes of quiet, and if you do that every day, you are going to get a read, almost every day of what you might need in that minute.

If it’s a busy shopping day, you’re going to know you need a break in the middle of the day. Your favorite lunch place or at home. For me, it might be a hot bath, it might be a good sweaty run. Know what you need and take responsibility. We are all wired so differently. I love social occasions. My husband groans when we are getting ready to go out. They energize me, but I over-plan. I plan too many, and I wear myself out, even the person that loves doing these.

So know what works for you and honor that. These steps are just essential in helping you to thrive. Stay in your body. Follow the steps I recommended. Get quiet, five minutes, ask if you’re hungry, make all your decisions out of that question around food, and take a fresh air walk once a week. That’s how you stay in your body.

You do you by staying in your routine around exercise, the foods that are on hand and that you’re choosing, and your normal sleeping habits. Love your people. Have a good support system if you’re in some difficult situations, and if you’re going to events, be present with those that you’re with.

Last, take care of yourself. This is a beautiful way to love the people around you is to take care of yourself first. Do you know that my most successful clients sign up for coaching with me before the holidays? I have a lot of good memories of this situation. Of course, people sign up with me all during different times of the year to work on their wellness, on their mindset, but it’s really true that if you’re making weight loss, stress loss, or any overall health goal important, or making that a priority for you right now, sign up for a consult now.

I will never forget when we started a Weight Watchers meeting, I was a corporate leader and we finally got CNN. All the agreements had been signed between Weight Watchers and them as a corporation, and guess when we started? It was the Wednesday the week before Thanksgiving, and we shut down most of our meetings that next week, right?

The paper work went through and all of our team and the members at CNN were dying for this meeting to get started so we were all in. Do you know that they were one of my most successful meetings? Because they learned so much applying the tools that again, my clients are the same now, applying these tools during some of the most busy times, the most stressful times during the holidays provided an amazing foundation for them to be successful going forward.

You know, I had a client last year that just was over herself in November and so she signed up and she was just shocked and delighted that all she had to do was shift into mindful eating and to be on top of her overall mindset game during the holidays. And she traveled to several families during that time and she lost a lot of weight during the holidays.

It was amazing to watch. This could be you. So check out the consult button in the show notes. Dianamurphycoaching.com/8CEO. Thanks so much for listening today. This has been one of my most favorite podcasts, just kind of going right head into like, we kind of step back during the holidays in so many ways. Watch it in your business, in your regular family relationships and everything.

We kind of put everything on hold during the holidays. I just encourage you not to do that. Lean in, stay in your body, you do you, and love your people. Have a great week.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Weight Loss for CEOs. If you enjoyed this episode and want more, visit dianamurphycoaching.com for Diana’s latest free coaching tools to get started losing weight without having to start a diet now.