ESTIMATED READ TIME: 4-5 MINSThe holidays are supposed to be one of the happiest times of the year. So why do so many of us arrive at January feeling exhausted, stressed, several pounds heavier, and desperate to "get back on track"?
If you think about what happens between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, it makes sense. You might be traveling, spending more money on gifts and get-togethers, attending and hosting parties, staying up later, eating differently, and exercising less.
Even good things, like celebrating and socializing, can become stressful when they're piled on top of each other, and you're running on empty.
An American Psychological Association survey found that 89% of U.S. adults experience stress over the holidays. Forty-one percent said their stress increases during this time, while 43% said holiday stress is intense enough to interfere with their ability to actually enjoy the season.
That stress doesn't stay in your head, either. It affects your body in many ways, including by influencing hormones, especially cortisol, often referred to as the "stress hormone."
Below, I'll explain how holiday stress and disrupted routines can affect cortisol, appetite, sleep, and your waistline, plus the strategies I suggest using to stay balanced during the busiest time of year.
The Holidays Are Prime Time for Weight Gain
Cortisol itself isn't bad. In fact, you need it to survive. It helps your body respond to stress, manage blood sugar, and regulate metabolism, inflammation, blood pressure, and the sleep-wake cycle.
The issue is chronic stress, which can result from poor sleep, overeating, excess alcohol, feeling overwhelmed, and disrupted routines.
High cortisol can increase your appetite and cravings for high-calorie foods while also encouraging you to store more fat, especially around the abdomen.
It's no coincidence that the holidays are also one of the easiest times of year to gain weight.
One classic study published in The New England Journal of Medicine followed adults before, during, and after the holiday season and found that, on average, they gained just under one pound during the six-week holiday period.
That doesn't sound terrible until you consider what happened next. Most of that weight didn't come off. The researchers concluded that holiday weight gain may account for a significant portion of the weight people gradually accumulate throughout adulthood.
Another study that followed nearly 3,000 people in the US and other countries found small but predictable weight increases around major holidays, including Thanksgiving and Christmas.
So how do you enjoy Thanksgiving, Christmas, parties, travel, and time with your family without spending January undoing six weeks of damage? It mostly comes down to establishing healthy habits and routines and sticking to them. Let me explain…
1. Keep Your Schedule as Normal as Possible
It might not be realistic to stick to a perfect routine during the holidays, but you likely do have a lot within your control.
Start by waking up at roughly the same time. Get outside in the morning and expose your eyes to natural light, even for just 5–10 minutes.
Try to find time to move your body, such as by taking a walk or doing a quick workout at home before everyone is up. At the end of the day, go to bed at a reasonable hour, if at all possible.
Morning sunlight is especially important because it helps regulate your circadian rhythm, the internal clock that influences both cortisol and melatonin.
Exercise is another powerful stress-management tool. You don't need a 90-minute gym session on Christmas Eve. Walk with your family after dinner, do 20 minutes of resistance training, or take the family outside and play a game with your kids.
You want to avoid turning six weeks of celebrations into six weeks of abandoning almost all the habits that normally keep you healthy.
2. Put Boundaries Around Your "Cheat Meals"
I've never believed you need to eat perfectly every day. I enjoy special meals too.
But there's a big difference between eating Grandma's pie on Thanksgiving and treating Thanksgiving as the starting point for a 40-day eating free-for-all.
One strategy I use is putting a time boundary around an indulgent meal (or what some call a "cheat meal"). Give yourself one hour to eat a meal that's special to you. Enjoy it, don't obsess over calories, but then be done.
That prevents a cheat meal from turning into grazing on appetizers at 2 p.m., eating a huge dinner at 5, going back for dessert at 7, having several alcoholic drinks, and finishing leftovers at 10.
Make the holiday a meal or, at most, one day. But don't make it an entire season in which you give up on trying to eat well.
3. Choose the Foods That Are Actually Worth the Splurge
Here's another strategy that works well: don't indulge in everything just because it's there.
Imagine you're going to a Christmas party. There are appetizers, bread, cocktails, dinner, potatoes, dessert, and more drinks. Do you really need all of them?
Choose only the things that you want most. Maybe you skip the appetizers and alcohol because you really want the Christmas dessert your family makes once a year. Or enjoy the special dinner but skip the foods you could eat any other Tuesday.
Be selective. An indulgence should be something you truly enjoy, not something you mindlessly eat because it happens to be sitting in front of you.
4. Get Back on Track at Your Very Next Meal
This might be the most important rule of all. Never let one indulgent meal become an excuse to drop all of your normal habits.
If you eat more than usual at Thanksgiving dinner, you don't need to "start over Monday." Start over at the very next meal.
One meal won't cause a problem. It's what happens when we tell ourselves, "Well, I already blew it," and continue the same pattern for another five weeks.
Decide what the "next right thing to do" is and then do it. That might mean drinking only water, going for a walk, fasting, or eating protein or vegetables. Whatever it is, do it and return to your normal routine.
Try not to beat yourself up with punishment, and avoid the temptation to follow a crash diet, which can wind up backfiring.
5. Give Your Stress Response Some Extra Support
During stressful seasons, adaptogenic herbs can be helpful for supporting your ability to handle stress.
One of my favorites is ashwagandha, particularly KSM-66. I typically recommend 600 milligrams of KSM-66 per day when appropriate.
One trial had stressed adults take 600 milligrams per day of a concentrated full-spectrum ashwagandha root extract for 60 days and found that, on average, they experienced an impressive 28% reduction in cortisol, compared with an 8% reduction in the placebo group.
Codonopsis is another adaptogenic herb traditionally used to support energy and resilience during periods of physical and mental stress.
Remember, adaptogens aren't a substitute for sleep, exercise, prayer, or good nutrition. Think of them as additional support for an already healthy foundation.
6. Use Healing Leaves Before a Big Meal
Believe it or not, certain plant leaves can have a big impact on your ability to digest food and maintain healthy blood sugar levels.
Mulberry leaves, for example, naturally contain compounds such as 1-deoxynojirimycin (DNJ) that can slow the digestion of certain carbohydrates, help alleviate insulin resistance and inflammation, and promote mitochondrial function.
In one study, healthy adults consumed sucrose (a form of sugar) with either white mulberry leaf extract or a placebo. The mulberry extract reduced the glucose response after eating by 42% and lowered the insulin response by about 40%.
Other clinical trials have similarly found that mulberry leaf extracts, along with blackberry extract, can blunt post-meal glucose responses, meaning they may help prevent blood sugar from rising as sharply after eating.
Before a restaurant meal or holiday dinner, I like to drink about 8–12 ounces of tea made from leaves of fruit-bearing trees, such as mulberry or blackberry.
The studies above used mulberry extracts, so we can't assume a cup of tea will produce exactly the same effects. However, they support the idea that healing leaves can help promote metabolic health.
7. Don't Forget the Simplest Stress Relievers
Finally, remember that some of the best ways to handle holiday stress don't come in a bottle or specific food. They're behaviors like:
Going outside
Exercising
Praying
Journaling
Spending quality time with people you love
Practicing gratitude
Turning your phone off for a while to be present
Getting enough sleep
Give yourself the gift (pun intended) of consistency, nourishment, movement, rest, and support so you can handle the additional stress without allowing your health to unravel.
Enjoy yourself, but then wake up the next morning, thank God for another day, get outside in the sunshine, and get right back to the habits that make you feel your best.
References:
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM200003233421206
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc1602012
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2023/11/holiday-season-stress
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23439798/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33858439/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36364802/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32450572/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38740108/
