The holidays are an ideal time to recharge, reconnect and refocus before heading into the New Year. But for many of us, it’s also a time to indulge, imbibe and even burn out amid a flurry of festive gatherings. They’re fun and essential, of course, but can also be exhausting. Turning this time off to your professional advantage means prioritizing your personal wellness.

Executives and other professionals can use their downtime to not only spend time with loved ones, but to draft new goals for the year to come. Where do you want to be at the end of 2022? Did you achieve all that you’d hoped this year? If not, it’s time to review what went right and wrong and make strategic course corrections as necessary. Remember: failing to achieve certain goals is simply a part of life. Without failure, we don’t have progress. As long as we continue making those professional steps forward, we’re on the right track.

Using our data-driven approach, we encourage professionals to use benchmarks to assess performance. That could be either a quantitative or qualitative metric, but the idea is to measure performance wherever possible. It’s one of the only ways to make objective improvements from one year to the next. Perhaps you can set financial objectives to improve your personal finances or to track and spend more hours with your family. Everyone’s goals will be different. The key is to set and take steps toward achieving them. 

Making the mind-body connection for wellness

Another important consideration that’s often overlooked is our physical and mental health and wellness. Our fast-paced culture has hard-wired us to perform better, faster, on less sleep and on a processed diet—oh, and still make it to the gym at 5 am after entertaining clients until midnight the night before. In short, it’s simply not sustainable. We believe that total wellness starts by taking care of yourself to be a better business person—both in production and engagement—as well as a better partner, parent or friend. 

But how? We turned to Vincent Miceli, the founder of personal accountability app and lifestyle consultancy Verb—who’s also an SFP Solutions advisor—for his unique insights. His advice, beyond being present in the moment and truly appreciating the people you have the opportunity to spend time with this holiday season, is to work to keep your nutrition and weight under control. Weight gain and general loss of fitness are a common festive challenge that can derail not only gym gains, but interrupt productivity, sleep, performance—you name it. Here are Vin’s seven tips (in his words) for surviving the holidays with your waistline intact and preserving your personal wellness at the same time:

Enjoy your time with loved ones—This is a time for family, friends and fun.  Don’t waste it beating yourself up.  If you drink or eat too much, enjoy it and move on.  Guilt does nothing for you.  Remember that one healthy meal won’t make you fit or skinny, just as one day of poor nutrition won’t make you sick or obese.

Don’t sweat that extra few pounds—Most of the time that extra weight is indicative of the memories you wish you made.  While some of us can sit through Christmas dinner and just eat plain turkey and veggies, skip dessert, and drink only water while still laughing and loving, the vast majority of us will feel chastised or lonely.  Enjoy your food, laugh and make lasting memories—but be prepared to get back on the right nutritional track once the holidays are over.

Water can set you free—Drink more than you think you need, and then drink more. During seemingly endless days of antipasto, pastas, and desserts, filling some of that empty stomach space with water can save you 500-2000 extra calories of things you probably wouldn’t normally eat, but do during the holidays because, well, ‘tis the season.

Enjoy a cocktail or two, but focus on moderation—I don’t drink and I’m now a big advocate for living a sober life, but I’m also OK with being around people who enjoy a glass of red wine from time to time. If you do drink, this worked for me for years: Mix your drinks with water (yes water), because no one drinks alcohol for the taste. Then, after every drink, take about a 15-minute break and enjoy your next drink as only water. No, don’t chug the water to get to your next merlot. Sit and drink it as if it were alcohol. Two things will happen. You’ll still get drunk, but you’ll probably enjoy yourself more and will drink less than half the calories you would have otherwise. A fun, unintended consequence? You’ll snack less later in the evening when everyone is feasting on cookies, salty snacks or cakes.

Choose apps and hors d’oeuvres carefully—What happens when you arrive at a friend’s house and the meat and cheese platters are laid out? By eating freely, you could easily rack up 2,500 excess calories without much of an effort. Choose healthier options such as veggies and fruit. My personal “must haves” are mozzarella and tomato (with Balsamic of course) and some wheat thins with Beau Mond dip (family recipe). I ignore everything else.

One plate only, please—That’s right, you don’t need two plates of lasagna or a second helping of cake. Portion control and moderation is what will keep you healthy this holiday season. In addition, make sure your plate is full of color. That means veggies, salad, and protein. You could even add a small serving of pasta if you’re craving a carb fix.

Last but certainly not least, MOVE—You can’t outwork 10,000 calories of food in a day, but a great run, a long walk after a meal or your favorite HIIT class in the morning can offer a mental reset and ease any looming sense of guilt for eating those extra indulgences, while offsetting some treats or drinks later in the day. 

It’s completely possible to emerge from the holiday party and family gathering season even better than you entered: refreshed, engaged and with a new level of energy as you prepare to tackle your challenges and goals for 2022. Maintaining balance and wellness takes planning, moderation and discipline, but it’s all worth the effort.

Your body and mind will thank you for laying the foundation for a successful year to come.

Scott Polworth, founder and principal, SFP Solutions

Contact a member of our team to develop a wellness and professional optimization strategy for yourself or your team.