{"id":36780,"date":"2018-11-30T17:11:53","date_gmt":"2018-11-30T22:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=36780"},"modified":"2018-11-30T17:11:53","modified_gmt":"2018-11-30T22:11:53","slug":"the-holidays-are-here-how-im-healthily-indulging-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2018\/11\/30\/the-holidays-are-here-how-im-healthily-indulging-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"The holidays are here! How I\u2019m (healthily) indulging this year"},"content":{"rendered":"Ahh, it\u2019s the most wonderful time of the year! There\u2019s something so magical about the holiday season. I don\u2019t know if its all the twinkly lights or that people seem to be just a bit nicer to each other. Either way, it\u2019s definitely my favorite time of the year! I also cannot wait for the break, because school has been kicking my butt this semester. But luckily, my exam schedule was kind to me this year and I get a whole three weeks\u2019 vacation! Plus, I get to hop on a plane back to the warmth of California and escape Toronto\u2019s miserable weather! Can you tell I\u2019m excited?!\r\n\r\nWhat other time of the year do you get free license to eat handfuls of peppermint bark, slabs of fudge and icing coated shortbread cookies (in the shape of Santa, no less!)? I have an insatiable sweet tooth, so all these decadent treats are very hard to resist. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s the glow of the lights that blinds me or the drone of the Christmas music that drowns out my sense of self control, (it could very well be the eggnog) but my goodness, I seem to lose all ability to restrain myself in the presence of holiday treats. Not to mention that I end up sprawled on the couch for most of the time, forgetting I even intended to work out. Then of course, the New Year brings in the guilt and shame of the holiday weight and we all rush out to the gym for all of three days before sliding back into our old routines. But this year will be different. This year, I have a plan.\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2018\/11\/xmas-tree.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-36782\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2018\/11\/xmas-tree-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Image of a Christmas tree w\/ presents\" width=\"279\" height=\"372\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2018\/11\/xmas-tree-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2018\/11\/xmas-tree-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 279px) 100vw, 279px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\r\nThe easier thing would be to just deny myself any kind of treat to prevent myself from eating too much, but I\u2019m not a masochist, so I\u2019m taking a different approach. I do that thing where I try all the different treats, even if there\u2019s one I\u2019m almost certain I won\u2019t like, just because it might surprise me. I\u2019m optimistic, what can I say? But this year, I\u2019m not doing that. There is nothing wrong with indulging in my favorite holiday goodies, but I don\u2019t need to overdo it and eat things just for the sake of eating. I think being mindful about which foods I am choosing will help me enjoy them more and take away the guilt of overeating.\r\n\r\nI\u2019m also going to try and exercise this break. But I\u2019m not going to put pressure on myself to work out every single day. Instead, I\u2019m going to be realistic and make an effort to do something active at least three or four times a week, even if it is just a long walk with my dog or a quick 10-minute workout. It\u2019s absolutely better than nothing and will (hopefully) counteract some of the shortbread heading straight for my hips.\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2018\/11\/friends.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-36783\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2018\/11\/friends-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Image of author and friends in front of a Christmas tree\" width=\"399\" height=\"299\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2018\/11\/friends-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2018\/11\/friends-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2018\/11\/friends-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 399px) 100vw, 399px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\r\nI fully intend to treat myself this holiday season, just a bit more healthily. Wish me luck!\r\n\r\n&nbsp;","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\n<div class=\"entry-summary\">\nAhh, it\u2019s the most wonderful time of the year! There\u2019s something so magical about the holiday season. I don\u2019t know if its all the twinkly lights or that people seem to be just a bit nicer to each other. Either&hellip;\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2018\/11\/30\/the-holidays-are-here-how-im-healthily-indulging-this-year\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;The holidays are here! How I\u2019m (healthily) indulging this year&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2018\/11\/30\/the-holidays-are-here-how-im-healthily-indulging-this-year\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;The holidays are here! How I\u2019m (healthily) indulging this year&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":366,"featured_media":36781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1758,7204,60,67],"tags":[863,869,270,25663,25664],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36780"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36780"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36829,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36780\/revisions\/36829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}