I love the holidays—beginning with October and ending through the New Year, but the holidays are a little more complicated for me due to the whole multiple sclerosis (ms) thing.
The decorations, festive feelings, desserts, and family togetherness are the reasons I love the holidays. There’s nothing better than having all of those big family dinners that come with the holidays, driving around to look at Christmas lights, playing the dreidel game, and cuddling up on the couch to watch a spooky movie with my loved ones.
All of those things are the best parts of the holidays. The worst parts of the holidays for me though are that it disrupts my daily routine, brings increased obligations, activities and stress, and causes me to uproot and get creative with some of my dietary restrictions. That’s because all of these things have a negative impact on my ms. When you are stressed out, your body is on high alert. When your body is on high alert, you are in a state of inflammation. That can bring on a ms flare, and trust me, no one wants that.
So, what can we do to try to alleviate and manage the stress of the holidays, so that we can enjoy the best parts of the holidays?
- Set a Schedule in Advance and Stick to It: My husband and I are both lawyers, and I am a co-chair of the Emerging Leaders Board of the National MS Society’s Southern California chapter. This means that the holidays are jam packed with holiday parties. Also, my husband is Jewish, and I am Catholic. So, we do double duty with Hannukah and Christmas. The way I manage everything and make time to attend all of the holiday parties and celebrate Hannukah and Christmas with my family is setting a schedule ahead of time. Additionally, I have set a rule for myself that I have one event per night on weekends and only commit to about two events during the work week, so that I don’t overdo it. Overextending myself causes stress and fatigue, which makes my ms worse. So, setting a schedule and sticking to it helps maintain my health and allow me to enjoy the fun parts of the holidays. This means that I do say no to some things during the holidays. I feel bad about it, but it is important to keep my health in as tip top shape as possible. As a plus, I think this also allows me to enjoy the events I attend because I am not overextended and am not double booking myself.
- Make a List and Check it Twice: I make a to do list on Sunday for the upcoming week every week, so this is not something I only do during the holidays. I note the different goals I have for tobewellpreserved.org, my house, social events, and everything in between on a weekly one page to do list sheet of paper. This is extremely helpful during the holidays, because the holidays require hosting dinners and parties, getting Hannukah and Christmas gifts for my family and White Elephant gifts for our various law firm and charity parties, and decorating my house for the holidays. Creating a to do list allows me to divvy up the tasks that need to be accomplished between different days and weeks, so I do not get overwhelmed and overworked. It also allows me to distribute some of the tasks to my husband. This means that my normal daily schedule gets to stay as normal as possible, while I still get to make time for what are my favorite parts of the holidays.
- Be Careful What You Eat: As most of you probably know or have gathered from my recipes, I am gluten free and I mainly only eat organic fruits and veggies, wild-caught fish, grass-fed and grass-finished meats, and organic, pasture raised chicken and eggs. Obviously, not everyone eats like that. So, attending holiday parties gets a little scary. My advice is to ask what is in different foods before you eat them, and don’t eat something that you don’t know what’s in it. It also doesn’t hurt to eat a little something at home before you go to an event to make sure you have had something to eat if there is nothing you can eat at the party—especially if there are drinks involved. Also, it’s okay if that means you need to also eat something at home later, and if you can eat what is at whatever holiday event or dinner you are at, try your best to not overeat.
- Try to Keep Your Exercise Routine as Normal as Possible: As you know from previous posts, exercise is one of, if not the most, important medication to keep your ms flares and symptoms at bay. It helps with stability, balance, endurance, flexibility, strength and overall ease of movement. It also is extremely important for your mental health. We all know by now that exercise gives you endorphins, endorphins make you happy, and happy people don’t kill their husbands. They just don’t. So, exercise is good all-around and so so so important. As a result, you must make time to exercise during the holidays. Treat your exercise time like important dates with yourself that you just cannot miss—like the Grinch does. You know, 6:30, exercises with me (instead of dinner) —I can’t cancel that again. It will make you feel better. Trust me!
- Set Aside Time to Rest at Home and Be Cozy: One of the best parts about the holidays is being at home watching festive movies with your loved ones and fur babies. It’s also a good time to enjoy the decorations you spent time to put up at your house. And the best part is that this is a really good stress free and relaxing activity that you can do at home. And it’s a double plus. You are being festive, while also getting much needed rest at home to keep your ms at bay.
- Don’t be Too Hard on Yourself: Lastly, you should just remember to not be too hard on yourself. If you can’t make it to an event, you overeat or eat something you shouldn’t have, or you need to push a holiday task to another day, don’t beat yourself up. Give yourself grace and be understanding with yourself. No one is perfect. We are all human after all, and you cannot always do it all. Some days are better than other days. So, if this happens, leave whatever happened in the past and move forward with grace and understanding.
I hope this list helps lessen your stress and helps you to take control over your schedule during the holidays. The holidays will be one less thing that tests your ms and causes you worry, which means you’ll be one step closer to being well preserved.
Always,
Taylor
