“Karla! It’s still six weeks away!” I know, I know, but Snovember has started me thinking about the holidays which will be here before we know it. Top of mind is all the holiday parties, treats and over indulging that happens during December. Ten years ago, 26 year old me worked mighty hard and even avoided certain events in an effort to not gain that holiday fiver – I would spend time at parties calorie counting and thinking about everything I ‘couldn’t’ eat because it didn’t fit into whatever diet I was on that week. I’d spend more time at the gym than I would with my family and the holidays were almost dreaded because my routine would be so thrown off. Now? Well I do two things differently. First of all – I don’t care. And I don’t mean that in a ‘eat all the gingerbread men’ kind of way, simply it’s the holidays and if someone has lovingly made me a cherry square from the recipe their grandma passed down to them, I am going to gobble it up and then ask them to tell me about their Nana. Secondly, I prepare BEFORE the holidays. For the next few weeks I will be focusing on more of the good:

• More water.
• More fresh fruits and vegetables.
• More movement – especially outside! 
• More time at home. 
• More meal prep. 
• More quiet meditation. 

I’m doing this all for the remainder of November with the completely realistic expectation that over the holidays I will likely have more coffee and wine, more sweet treats and chartcuterie boards, more time indoors being cozy and lazy, more dinners out with pals and much more Christmas chaos – all of which sounds like perfection to 36 year old me!