Get Fit Quick Tip:

Make your strength workout a priority during the holidays.

Think skipping your weight workout will help during the holiday season? Think again. Here’s why logging your workout will HELP you during the holidays:

Decrease stress through forcing deep breathing to complete your set.

Look good at your party.

Increase energy and maintain your physical fitness to accomplish the extra tasks on your schedule.

Enter the New Year with fitness momentum.

Time to yourself to quiet your mind and move your body.

5 reasons why you shouldn’t skip your workout…

Get Fit Quick Tip:

Shrug your shoulders!

Shrug your stress out with this daily stretch. Here’s how:

Inhale and pull your shoulders straight up toward your ears. Exhale and pull your shoulders down and back. Repeat 3-5 times, extending the duration of your exhale/shoulders down with each deep breath.

*Consult your physician before performing exercise.

Shrug Your Stress Out!

Holidays and Party Stress –

Much of the holiday stress begins right about this time of year – November and continues through the beginning of January. For some that could mean nearly a quarter of the year depressed or stressed at a time that is supposed to be celebratory and enjoyable.

So many social functions in which to participate! Perhaps you are hosting a party or event that requires just too much of your time, energy and attention, yet you do it anyway. For others, simply attending parties is too anxiety-inducing, overwhelming and stressful.

Here are reasons why Holiday parties can be stressful:
1.    We must be in the right frame of mind to be sociable in a crowd of people.
2.    We have to get dressed up which can become an extra chore.
3.    We may have to arrange childcare or re-arrange other plans to attend.
4.    Finding extra time to either shop for or make a hostess gift.
5.    Keeping later hours, making for longer days than which we are accustomed.
6.    Eating and drinking more often than during other times in the year.
7.    Suffering headaches and poor sleep from the extra events.
8.    Experiencing unproductive days and unhappiness in anticipation of a party.

When dealing with something potentially stressful, look at all aspects of the concern and break it down. Answer the following questions:

What is there really to be stressed about?

Why must there be stress?

Is there a way to enjoy the activity coming up without having stress?

Many times attending an event just seems like the thing to do because that’s what it feels like everyone else is doing.  THIS year, reframe the situation and don’t buy into the stress game!

You know what is going to come up, right? Treat holiday parties just like other social engagements during the year. Decide as soon as you receive the invitation if you are going to attend. Know what you must do right at the beginning, and remember, you always have the prerogative to decline. Just because you are invited doesn’t mean you have to attend. Do what brings you joy, and allows you to spend the holiday season with those who make you happy.

Contributed by Juli Shulem (jshulem@gmail.com/805-964-2389), Efficiency/ ADHD Coach.www.julishulem.com, Efficiency Expert since 1984, and author of the eBook, Order! A Logical Approach to an Organized Way of Life, www.getordernow.com.

Eliminate Holiday Stress by Juli Shulem