Greatful Moments received this information from Fitness & Finance Radio, featuring Jeff Smith and Jennifer Scherer, about protecting your health and your wallet before the holiday season gets into full swing.
I don’t know about y’all, but around here the holidays don’t wait until Thanksgiving to start creeping in.
One minute you’re enjoying October, and the next thing you know, you’re looking at Christmas gift guides, making lists, thinking about Thanksgiving dinner, wondering what you’re going to buy everybody, and trying to figure out how you’re going to pay for it all.
And that’s exactly why I thought this information from Fitness & Finance Radio was worth sharing.
The holidays can be a wonderful time of year. I love the memories, the traditions, the family, the giving, and all the fun that comes with it. But let’s be honest: they can also get expensive, exhausting, and a little chaotic.
And you don’t have to wait until January to realize you’ve gone too far.
Jeff Smith and Jennifer Scherer are the married couple behind Fitness & Finance Radio. Jeff is a financial planning expert, personal trainer, master-level Pilates instructor and founder of The Retirement Smith. Jennifer is a registered dietitian, medical exercise specialist, certified personal trainer, master-level Pilates instructor and founder of Fredericksburg Fitness Studio.
Together, they bring financial planning and healthy-lifestyle advice together on their Fitness & Finance Radio podcast.
Your Wallet Can Feel the Holiday Creep Too
This is something I think about every year when I start working on holiday gift guides.
It’s easy to see one thing and think, Oh, that’s not that much.
Then you find something else.
And something else.
And before you know it, you’ve bought gifts, decorations, food, travel, stocking stuffers and everything else that seems to come along with Christmas.
That’s how the little purchases add up.
Fitness & Finance Radio recommends making a budget before the spending gets out of control. Know what you can actually afford, and don’t take money away from your emergency savings, retirement or necessities just so you can make Christmas bigger.
Don’t borrow from your future to make today look better.
I think that’s good advice any time of year, but especially during the holidays.
And Then There’s the Food
The other part of holiday creep is what happens to our routines.
There are parties. Family gatherings. Holiday meals. Cookies. Candy. Eating out. And all those little treats that seem to appear everywhere you go.
The answer isn’t to skip meals all day because you know you’re going to eat more at dinner.
It’s also not to decide that because you ate one big holiday meal, you’ve completely blown everything and might as well give up until January.
Enjoy the food you love. Eat your regular meals. Pay attention to when you’re hungry and when you’re full.
One celebration isn’t the problem.
It’s when one celebration turns into two months of abandoning every normal routine we had.
Keep Moving
This doesn’t mean you have to suddenly become a fitness fanatic because Christmas is coming.
Sometimes keeping moving simply means taking a walk, getting outside, doing a shorter workout or finding a way to stay active when your schedule gets crazy.
I think that’s important because the holidays have a way of filling up every empty space on the calendar.
And when we’re busy, exercise is often one of the first things we decide we don’t have time for.
But even a little movement is better than completely stopping.
Don’t Forget to Rest
This one may be my favorite piece of advice.
Rest.
The holidays can wear you out.
Shopping wears you out. Cooking wears you out. Running around wears you out. Trying to make everybody happy wears you out.
And when we’re exhausted, we don’t always make our best decisions.
Maybe we spend money we shouldn’t spend.
Maybe we eat because we’re tired instead of hungry.
Maybe we say yes to something when what we really need is to stay home.
It’s okay to say no.
It’s okay to pull back.
It’s okay to rest.
January Doesn’t Have to Be a Repair Job
The thing that really stuck with me from this information is the idea that planning is easier than repairing.
We don’t have to wait until January 1st to decide we’re going to fix everything.
We can make little choices now.
We can decide what we can afford before we start shopping.
We can keep moving even when life gets busy.
We can enjoy Thanksgiving dinner without deciding the entire month is ruined.
We can rest when we’re tired.
And we can remember that Christmas is supposed to be about more than how much stuff we can buy.
Fitness & Finance Radio calls this avoiding the “holiday creep.”
I call it being intentional.
Because I want to enjoy the holidays.
I want the memories.
I want the family time.
I want the good food.
I want the giving.
But I also want to wake up in January without wondering what in the world I did to myself—and my bank account—for the last two months.
So as we head into the holiday season, maybe this is a good time to stop and think about what you really want these next few months to look like.
Not perfect.
Just intentional.
Because small choices made now can make a pretty big difference later.
And I’d much rather spend January remembering the good times than trying to recover from the bad decisions.
Grateful, Thankful, and Blessed.
About Fitness & Finance Radio
Fitness & Finance Radio is a podcast created by married couple Jeff Smith and Jennifer Scherer. Smith is a financial planning expert and founder of The Retirement Smith, while Scherer is a registered dietitian, fitness expert and founder of Fredericksburg Fitness Studio.
The podcast brings together financial planning, nutrition and healthy-lifestyle advice, with conversations about topics ranging from saving money and losing weight on vacation to stress, preventative care and helping adult children financially.
The podcast is available for free on YouTube.
GreatfulMoments.com
Grateful. Thankful. Blessed.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
