I'm so excited to see you guys! So guys, what's up? Welcome back to the channel! So, we're officially entering the holiday season! This is one of my favorite times of the year. I just love it. Everything's so holly, jolly and happy. So yeah, I'm really excited for this time of year. If you've been watching my channel for a while, you would know. Your girl loves the holiday season. Yes, I do. But what also comes with holiday season is the holiday eating. You don't understand? Your girl does go all out. But I just figured I would throw out there that there's a few guidelines. Okay, that I follow when it comes to this time of the year to kind of keep that healthy lifestyle going even through the holiday season when it becomes very, very difficult. Because you got a lot of the deliciousness just kind of surrounding you at all angles. I thought today I would share with you guys a few little tips and tricks, things that I follow. I came up with five solid things that I like to keep in my mind when it comes to this time of the year. So I hope this video can help some of you out there who are just trying to enjoy, but keep a balance of also having, you know, health be your main priority. So here we go. Let's just get into it. But if you're not already, please do consider subscribing because I do make new videos every single week. Let's do this. Okay, so the first thing that I like to keep in mind is when I'm going to be eating foods that I normally typically wouldn't. Okay, so Thanksgiving, Christmas, I like to keep them in the back of my mind and make sure that during that week, that's the only cheat meal that I have. So if I know I'm going to be visiting family, Christmas day, I'm going to be eating that whole week, other than Christmas day, is clean eating. Okay, all about balance. You don't want to plan a cheat meal a day before, two days before. You just want to start eating your vegetables, eating things that are going to help you feel good, so that when it comes to Christmas day, you do indulge. It doesn't put you into a really difficult slump that's harder to get out of after the holiday season. Okay, this is all about just being able to kind of have a balanced lifestyle so that you don't completely fall off and ruin all of the progress that you've made during the year. So that is tip number one is to just plan your cheat meals, your indulgences, spread it out so that it's not touching the days you know you're going to be indulging like Christmas day and Thanksgiving. The whole week of Thanksgiving is clean, light eating for me, and Thanksgiving day. Game on, baby, that's my cheat meal. Okay, tip number two is to find healthier alternatives when baking. If you're anything like me, the holiday season just means baking. There's nothing like getting toasty and baking some goodies while it's no one outside. That is something that I like to do a lot. And that can add up, you know, you can't just deprive yourself completely from things you enjoy. So better yet, find healthier versions and alternatives. I will be filming a video on healthier like Christmas cookies and things like that coming up. James will be in it, it'll be fine. It's really healthy to find those alternatives so that you're not just indulging every single day because that is where the pounds will just really pack on fast and you will feel it. There's a lot of really good recipes online that will use say natural honey instead of straight table sugar, things like that. So stay tuned, we will be filming a video like that. For the most part, since baking is such a big staple piece in the holiday season, I just find healthier versions so I could still enjoy watch Christmas movies, eat some cookies. And it's not a huge difference. Of course it'll taste healthier but your body's also going to feel a lot better. You're not going to feel so bogged out. You can actually enjoy the Christmas season a little bit more in my opinion. Okay, so tip number three is a pretty big one. This is something I didn't realize I did until I thought about it. So when it comes time to eat all the goodness, for example, Thanksgiving day. You got that buffet up in there. You're looking at all the glorious eats. What I like to do is first put the healthy stuff on my plate. Okay, create big portions of that. Say the green beans, you know, all the healthy veggies coming on the cuff, throw that on the plate. Make that the first plate. You know what I'm saying? Typically people will pick the stuffing first, throw a couple pieces of turkey on and just kind of fill up on all the bready things. That's fine. Like I said, you do you. It's a holiday season. But what I like to do is just kind of eat like the vegetables first, the healthier lighter foods. This way it takes away that crazy hunger and I don't devour all the heavy carbs. So that is my rule of thumb. You can either fill up a plate first with all the healthy stuff. Then grab your second plate with all the good stuff. Or the other option is to just simply check your portions, kind of make sure you have more of the green than anything else. You know what I'm saying? So that's a little hack I like to do is just kind of fill up on the good stuff. And then I can indulge and not feel totally guilty. And I'll feel a lot better afterwards. Not like, you know what I'm saying? Alright, tip number four. I absolutely need to always bring water with me no matter where I'm going. Relatives house, even my own place. If I'm hosting for the holiday season, water at all times. What people don't realize is that there is a lot of sodium when it comes to the holiday season. That high of sodium can really just affect how you feel overall, can really blow you out and really discourage you, make you feel bad for eating and you don't want to do that. Okay, it's a holiday season. You want to indulge. So what I like to do is just continue to drink a ton of water. Bring a big water bottle with you. Especially during the winter when everybody has their heat cranked up. You don't realize how much it dries you out but it does. The fireplace going. Don't get dried out girl. The alcohol consumption, if you're somebody who drinks alcohol, that's also going to be dehydrating you. So you got quite a few things. You got the high sodium in the foods. You got the heat. And you got like the alcohol. You got all that just drying you out. So drink that water. It will reduce that. Low. Keep you feeling really good and energetic and not so you know what I'm saying. Okay, last tip of the day. Something I do every single holiday without a doubt. When I know I'm going to be eating a lot that day, I work out first thing in the morning. Nothing crazy. It's not going to ruin your day. In fact, it's going to do the opposite for you. So by working out in the morning time, you're actually burning more calories throughout the day. So after you work out for the next like hour or two, your body's naturally burning at a higher rate than it normally would. You're up in your metabolism and everybody's metabolism is different by all means, but you are up in your metabolism slightly. So working out has all those different benefits also helping you just feel happier. And you're more likely to naturally choose the healthier options after you've worked out. It's just a psychological thing and it's just how the human body works. So I only take like 10, 15 minutes in the morning, do some hit exercises, get that blood pumping, get it going. You're going to be sitting all day more than likely. That's me holiday season. I'm just on that couch watching movies and eating a lot. So it really does make a huge difference. If you just get that like 10, 15 minute burst in the morning, you will feel so much better throughout the day. And your body is going to thank you. Your body is going to really be like, good thing you worked out, girl, because I'm feeling in there. Well guys, that was it. Those were my top five tips of things that I kind of incorporate during the holiday season. Just to be a little bit more healthier, a little more conscious of what I'm eating, what I'm putting in my body. Again, girl, I do indulge, believe it. This is by no means a video to make you feel guilty about eating on the holidays, because girl, look at me. I eat everything that I want to eat on holidays. That is my exception. I don't care. I'm going to eat it. Cheesecake, cookies, all that stuff. These are just five tips that I like to kind of keep in the back of my mind just to help me out a little bit, so that I'm not totally suffering after the holidays. It's good to just kind of keep some things in mind like this so that you don't completely fall off, and then it makes it that much easier, come the new year, to kind of get yourself right back in it. I hope you guys enjoyed this video. I hope it helped you out there who are kind of like, excited for the holiday season, but kind of like, oh god, I don't want to fall off, because believe me, I know that feeling. So yeah, comment down below if you guys have something that you like to do to kind of keep yourself in gear during the holiday season and let's chit chat. Also, don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already for more videos just like this every single week. Definitely more holiday videos to come. Cannot wait. I'm in this spirit. Alright guys, thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you in my next video.