Yours truly gearing up for this morning's dive, Bonaire, Dutch Antilles

Some of my best material bubbles up into frame while bobbing  in relaxed suspension above the reef. This morning’s dive was no exception.

One after another,  parallels between  making it unscathed through holiday fitness challenges and safe diving zinged clearly into view.  You’ll see what I mean.

1) Check your equipment. Before heading out, the wise diver checks all gear connections. It’s your survival gear for cripes sake!  This means secure all hoses, check air level, scrutinize hoses for tangles, and make sure you’ve got your weights in your pockets and mask for your head so you can see where the heck you are going. 

In the same way, before heading into the holiday season, be sure that you have your kitchen well stocked with health-supporting foods, a pantry with enough quick slimming edibles so you don’t get caught off guard with the “nothing to eat” syndrome, which is a slippery slope into the holiday cookie tray. What you have is what you’ll eat, and don’t you forget it.  Think of it as edible equipment.

2) Acknowledge and be prepared for resistance. When I walk into the surf with scuba gear on, there are always a few iffy moments when it’s necessary to navigate the surf for timing safety. Wave surge is totally out of the diver’s control, yet to pretend it doesn’t exist or even worse get mad at it for being there is useless. Now, I’ve let a few expletives fly when tripped by a big splash and been reduced to flopping around in the flotsam until I could find my bearings. But for the most part, a healthy respect for the physical resistance that splashing waves present create a far more successful entry.

As with the surf, you can count on the waves of holiday memories and family or social situations gone by to fly up in your face again. To enter the holiday season without acknowledging the pressure (from within and without) to indulge is just wishful thinking. There is wisdom in remaining vigilant as to the vagaries of the season so that you are not caught off guard.  Then you can watch the waves of events, see them dissipate on the shore, and  proceed with equanimity.

3) Leave a trail of breadcrumbs. Since most of our diving is walk-in from the beach, once we are down beneath the waves, all beach landmarks showing where to return to are out view. We rely on finding underwater landmarks and our compasses for navigation. That means searching for an unusual coral head or configuration in about 30 feet of water, and turning and looking back to take a mental picture so that it can more easily be recognized upon return. Then, we add more. We watch for a couple of other landmarks along the way to serve as a trail of breadcrumbs to help lead us back to the landmark, from which we follow our compass readings back toward the beach.

Bobbing along with green sea turtles

For the holidays, clearly establish the tools of success that you know will deliver you from the season without excess pounds and sapped energy. Food plan. Workout routine. Time for yourself. Stress management. Support of like-minded aspiring to the same healthy holidays you are. the Then when you feel out of kilter (and you can pretty much count on it, at least once!) then follow your breadcrumbs back to healthy living and keeping your weight in check. How many vegetables a day? Feast foods how often? Workout routine?

There you have it. These success strategies are proven, simple, and solid tactics to bring you to the new year without excess pounds and a feeling like your energy plug has been pulled.  Now THAT is exciting and worth shooting for. The key to staying trim and energetic is to stay active and eat quality.  Keep your success tools sharpened and watch what happens.

Have you a success strategy for holiday fitness that will help someone else this season?  Tell about it in comments below.