Six Tips for Recovering from the Holidays

Now that the holiday hubbub is over, you’ll probably need a reset to get your life back on track. Below are six tips to speed your post-holiday recovery:

Strategies for recovering from the holidays

1. Give in to your laziness. If you’re exhausted after all the parties or when you return home from traveling (or your houseguests go home), take a day just to relax. Sleep late, read a book, binge-watch your favorite show, do some yoga, get a massage, or do whatever it takes to restore your energy. This self-imposed downtime should give you more get-up-and-go as you move into the new year.
2. Work up to your workout. After you’ve recharged your batteries, it’s time to get moving again, but do it at your own pace. Start with an easy 20-minute walk or bike ride and gradually increase the duration and intensity of your exercise until you’ve worked back up to your normal regimen or developed some better exercise habits for the year ahead. Taking your time will likely keep you from becoming discouraged and giving up.
3. Ease back into eating right. Most of us overindulge in food and drink over the holidays. After you finish that plate of cookies and clink that New Year’s glass of champagne, you’ll need to get your eating and drinking back on track, But it isn’t easy to go from all to nothing overnight. Take small steps, slowly weaning yourself off the bad stuff and replacing it with more fruits and vegetables or whole foods. Over time, you shouldn’t crave that leftover fudge you hid from yourself in the freezer.
4. Get plenty of rest. You may have stayed up later than normal or slept in over the holidays, but now it’s time to resume your regular sleep schedule. Specifically, waking up at a consistent time helps regulate your circadian rhythm or body clock, which not only helps you get a better night’s sleep but also keeps various other processes like your digestion and body temperature on a 24-hour cycle. After the parties are over and your overnight guests have packed up and left, make your sleep-wake cycle a priority.
5. Undecorate piecemeal. Decorating your house can be festive and fun, but the process of dismantling everything and storing it all away until next year can be a bit depressing as well as time-consuming. But there’s really no rush to take it all down all at once. By keeping the wreath on the door, a menorah in the front window or even your tree up for just a little longer, you’ll make things easier on yourself, while also keeping the spirit of the holidays alive. (Personally, seeing my Christmas tree every morning puts a smile on my face, so I keep it up as long as possible!)
6. Make a plan. If you thrive on the hustle and bustle of the holidays and feel let down when they come to an end, plan something in January and February to look forward to. Maybe you head to the slopes or a sunny beach for a vacation or start that renovation project you’ve been meaning to get to. Even if it’s just getting together with friends to catch up on their holidays, knowing you have a fun activity ahead can help bridge the gap between revelry and real life.

The holidays can take it out of you, and recovering from the holidays and transitioning back into life as usual can be tough. But when you look back on this time, you won’t remember how hard it was to get back on the treadmill or take down the Christmas lights. Instead, you’ll recall the magic of the season and the time you spent with family and friends – and perhaps those incredible pignoli cookies!