At this time of year, there’s always a lot of focus on ‘festive health hacks’, and the A to Z of keeping will power and motivation on the straight and narrow.
It’s a narrative as old as time, but one that nowadays, I take with a large pinch of salt!
Why?
Because I actually find that many of the so called ‘bad’ habits of the season, can have ripple effects which make other, more positive behaviours easier to complete.
For example, starting the day with a coffee and mince pie - my all-time favourite thing!
On paper, this is NOT good nutrition practice, but what I find, is that the satisfaction and uplift afforded by allowing myself this seasonal habit, actually makes me MORE likely to make sensible choices going forward.
I appreciate that this is not the same for everybody, and that in many cases, the sugar slope is an extremely slippery one to be messing with - especially first thing in the morning, when the tone is so often set for the entire day’s health and lifestyle decisions!
In this case... definitely don’t try this at home!
If, however, you ARE of the minority few for whom a cheeky mid-afternoon Quality Street fix, can be pure motivational gold, then this blog post is for you...and evidence indeed that Christmas ‘keystone habits’ DON’T necessarily need to be clean, green or mindful, in order to have a positive outcome for health this festive season.