During the holiday season, our access to tempting foods is outrageous. To make matters worse, the month of December can be synonymous with tension, pressure and overwhelm to get things done and please everyone.

Whether it’s year end preparations or gift giving, it’s hard not to get overwhelmed.

Most people resort to eating. It’s a quick way to feel better.

The problem though, is that it’s temporary. It’s like a 2 minute band-aid. Who wants that? It’s much more effective to get to the root of the problem.

The most common feeling people want to get rid of is the feeling of being overwhelmed.

Let’s noodle on how we can do that:

1. Let’s all agree that eating isn’t going to make your to-do list get any shorter.

2. What does help is planning ahead, getting organized, asking for help, and as much as possible, being in the moment. (Read: Toothbrush meditation)

3. Honesty is everything. If you know the times, as well as the activities that overwhelm you the most, why can’t you ask for help or plan for them even more than you usually do?

How to do that you wonder?

We all have good intentions that don’t ever get fulfilled. We all have to do-lists that are multiplying faster than ever before.

I just said the answer.

Write it down somewhere!

You’d be amazed at what gets done when you make a to-do list and keep a schedule. It gives us great satisfaction when we can tick things off our to do lists. And schedules make us feel safe!

So many people are amazed at how well they do when they plan their week and weekends out in advance.

One of the reasons why I love doing it so much and why I stress it so much on the Daily Feedback under outcomes is because tasks like the ones I’m talking about take up space in our head.

If we keep having to remember them that’s using up valuable mind power. And it makes us stressed!

Instead – just write everything down! This way you don’t have to think about it again. You can let your mind take a rest so it doesn’t have millions of ‘to- do’s’ floating around.

The ideal way to do this is to plan your week out in advance and then plan your day out in advance the night before. You’d be amazed at how much more relaxed and in control you’d feel if every night when you were doing your feedback you were working off your master list (that you should always keep with you).

You’d also be amazed at much less stress you felt because you wouldn’t feel as overwhelmed.

The more you can work on becoming less stressed – the easier eating healthfully is because your emotions will be a lot more in check!

Simple yes. Insanely effective? Check!

When in doubt: Just write it!

As it’s getting cold outside these workout tips and tricks keep entering my mind. We’re also smack in the middle of the holiday season and everyone seems to be extra ‘busy’ so hopefully these tip will help too.

1. Go directly to the gym on the way home from work, if possible. Bring a gym bag with you. Going home and then changing and then re-bundling up is going to make it that much harder for you. So just go directly there!

2. Workout before you shower. Since time is limited (when is it not though?) – instead of having to shower 2x per day, just plan your workouts before you shower.

3. If you’re going to a holiday party – make it a rule that you must workout that day. Whether it’s in the morning, afternoon…get it done. It’ll help you feel fantastic and you won’t want to throw in the towel on your diet.

4. Never go to a holiday party hungry. But we know this. This is by far the most important rule.

5. Instead of just cooking one healthy meal at a time like chicken, etc., why not cook a large batch one time? Put the extra in the fridge and viola – you have healthy meals ready to go and for when you come home (maybe a little tipsy from a party) and want something nutritious.

6. Work out!

Exercise – if you push yourself enough – will make you feel fantastic. It will also make you realize that you work very hard in the gym and you won’t want to negate all that hard work outside of the gym.

I find I enjoy eating healthfully more when I’m consistently exercising because I want my body to recover as good as it can by feeding it what it really wants – which feels really good.

What a great tip you say. Workout! Duh.

But I mean, even if you do 20 push ups or jumping jacks before you go to a party, it’ll help a lot.

7. Piggy back it! The more you plan ahead, the better. Go to the gym after you do errands, etc., is obvious but not really (or else we’d all do it). Doing this has made it almost impossible to skip workouts! Piggy back it. Do it after something. On your way home! On your way somewhere.

8. Don’t leave things until the last minute. When you’re stressed your mind doesn’t or can’t grasp anything and in turn you won’t do anything. Buy your gifts now if you haven’t. Do your work that might be due by year-end. The more you plan ahead, the less stressed you’ll be!

Think about what you can do the next few weeks to make it as easy as possible for you to feel as good as possible!

In other words, set yourself up!

Let’s say you don’t know how to swim and you decide it’s finally time to learn. You want to overcome your fear of water.

So, you find a local gym or pool club. Maybe there’s even a public pool that you weren’t aware of.

Then, you look online to find a swim instructor. After plenty of wrong numbers, you find someone who’s really passionate about helping people learn how to swim.

Next, you need to get the gear! You look online and find a bathing suit. Ohh, there’s one you like. Eh, you don’t really like it, after all. You go to another website.

You find the bathing suit. Ugh, it’s not in stock! After spending 3 hours searching you finally find the one.

What about goggles? Can’t swim without goggles!

The big day comes. It’s the day of your first lesson.

You realize that you don’t have any shoes to wear by the pool! Whoops! You can’t swim without shoes to wear around the pool!

So you cancel and reschedule.

You’ve done everything you could possibly do BUT swim.

Sometimes, no matter what, we just gotta jump in the pool.

It’s like the monster I always talk about. Once you see it, it’s not so bad.