Stop Holiday Perfectionism: 10-Minute Walking Workout (w music) | 48

Feeling more like the Grinch than the star of a holiday movie lately? Use this 10-minute walking workout as permission to drop the pressure and back off from holiday perfectionism. 

Because being a perfectionist can suck. 

We’ll chat about how to trade you’re A+, overachieving, homemade everything holiday for a calmer B- holiday that helps you stay sane.

Let yourself buy the pie, use paper plates, and grab gift bags instead of wrapping… while getting our steps in. 

You can do this walk indoors, outdoors, on a treadmill, or just marching in place while you hide from guests in the kitchen. 

There’s a bell at the halfway point if you’re walking outside and want a turn-around cue, and there’s background music to keep you on beat.

I somehow also talk about “buttah,” doing way too many dishes, wrapping Pokemon figures, and being terrible at algebra. 

Tap Follow/Subscribe so next week’s walk is waiting for you.

Come say hi on Instagram: @yourwalkingpodcast

—

Helen M. Ryan, former fitness pro and  personal trainer. Chocolate lover, traveler, concert photographer, author of “21 Days to Change Your Body (and Your Life).” 

Transcript

0:00

We are going to start out at a warmup pace. You can do this, walk inside on almost any kind of equipment you have. Or just marching in place. Or you can walk outside with me and there'll be a bell at the halfway point in case you want to turn around. Let's find the beat. Nice and steady. Warm it up. So this walk is for you if you're feeling more like the Grinch just before his heart grew because there's glitter everywhere and you're tired and nothing feels like fun. Today we're going to try to shake it off because we're going to shake off our perfectionism hopefully, or at least dial it back just a bit. We try to make the food perfect and the gifts perfect, and the memories perfect, and by the end we're just perfectly exhausted. See what I did there? But really the memories are the most important thing. This is going to be our 10 minute, good enough walk. We're good enough, we're smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like us. We're going to lower the bar, make our season feel more human and less like a 10 out of 10 performance. Arms loose. Shoulders down. Find that beat and breathe. Deep breath in through your nose. And next, exhale through your mouth. A little bit faster. It's more like a shopping mall mosey, not a power walk yet. Unclench your jaw. Drop those shoulders, find that beat. Move to it, whatever you're doing. This walk is for everyone, every level. So I'm not really too fond of math, but today we're going to talk about the B- is the new A-, which I guess is not really math, but it reminded me of algebra. Which I sucked at. So an A+ holiday is like homemade everything, color coordinated, wrapping, and then somebody ends up crying in the bathroom, B- holiday is store-bought cookies, gift bags, mismatched plates, and then you're actually laughing and hanging out with your family. Because one thing I've noticed at least, and usually my get togethers around holidays or anytime there's a family event, is there's a lot of dishes and a lot of dishes. And because I have ADHD, I kind of like to hole myself away in the kitchen and do dishes, but sometimes not like two, three hours. That's a lot of dishes. And then by the time I get back into the room, I'm tired and then we eat dessert. And then guess what? There's more dishes. Yep. So you can use paper plates or maybe not fine China that can't go in the dishwasher. Deep breath in again through your nose and exhale your mouth. Find that pace. Let's do a little subtraction this holiday. What can you make easier? Let's think about that B minus. Make a little list in your head. Not a stressful list. We don't always have to strive for A+. Plus I was never an A+ student, but I'm a perfectionist in many other parts of my life. Let me tell you. Steady pace, still warming it up. Hands are relaxed. Deep breath in. And exhale. All right, we're going to pick it up. It's like we're cutting through a crowded store to escape those people. Strong, steady, but not frantic. Although sometimes I feel frantic when I'm in a store, when there's too many people. You feel that strength? You feel that pace? Here's your little permission slip. This is not going to make sense the first time I say it, but I'll explain it. If it stresses you out, you're allowed to buy it. You're like, what? Here's some examples. Hate baking? You can buy the pie. Hate wrapping? Gift bags and tissue paper. All done. Hate writing cards? Send one group text with a goofy photo, funny photo, even a gif. Stay with that pace. Nice and strong. Shake off any crankies. Going to push that perfectionism out of the way. Also reframing the way you think about things can help. Like you're the CEO of your holiday. You're not the unpaid intern. And as you know, smart CEOs delegate. I'm really bad at delegating, by the way. So just so you know. Outsourcing to the bakery? Great idea. Stay with that pace now. Notice if you're clenching your hands like you're gripping a whisk. Darn it. This is going to be the best cake you've ever had. Let your fingers loosen. You are walking, not frosting a cake, but it's okay to lick the frosting if you do. Nice and strong. Instead of trying to make every moment magical, let's aim for just one memory that feels good. One memory that feels fun. Pick one tradition you actually like and do that on purpose. The rest can be bonus if they happen. It's like, oh, what happened there? Okay. Well that's cool. And what was your favorite holiday memory? I don't know. Mine are favorite ones are aside from, you know, wrapping all these little Pokemon figures for my kids, was when the little things that went wrong, because later it's really funny to talk about. Not at the moment, not the time I'm crying in the store looking for butter as my ex-mother-in-law would say. But later, it makes for great conversation and fun stories, and those are the flawed moments that tend to stick with us the most. Stay with that pace. This is our little push. It's not long today, it's not hard today. Just to get you thinking abo ut options that you can do to reduce that perfectionism. I'm doing a little dance for you now. Good thing you can't see it. Stay with it strong and breathe. Feel a little push. Legs are strong. Just think about our B-. Think about what you can outsource or delegate. Sometimes we're surprised when we find out that people are actually willing to help us. We just have to ask. What? I know. Stay with it. We're almost there. Nice and strong legs. I don't want to shout at you though. We're not in a spin class, are we? And slow that pace down. Bring it into a little bit of a cool down now. You're going to come back, hopefully with some ideas of how you can make this holiday season easier and you don't have to just do it for the holidays. You can do it anytime you want when something's happening. If there's an event. See what you can be less perfectionistic about. Is that even a word? Perfectionistic? Slow it down even more. Think we're leaving the mall and finally getting some fresh air. Deep breath in through your nose. Fill up those lungs all the way, all the way, and exhale through your mouth. You took 10 minutes for yourself today. And you know, a calmer you is the best gift anybody is getting this year because then they're not getting the crabby Grinch, you thought it was going to say something else. When you get a second later, just glance at your holiday to-do list, either the mental one or on paper. Find one thing you're doing only because you feel like you should. And let's cross that off the list. Let's delete it and say, not this year. Or not this year, baby. That's your little rebellion and it's in a good way. If this walk helped you swap out perfect for good enough, tap the follow subscribe button depending on where you're listening. And of course, I don't know when you're listening to this, but I've got a lot of super exciting things coming up. Keep your breathing going. Slow it down a little more. You always want to stretch when you're done too. You can do it against the wall. I like stretching against the wall. Shoulders are down. Roll those shoulders backwards. Might as well because don't think we've done that yet today. Big, big, big rolls all the way around. And switch directions, roll forward. Big, big, big rolls. Shake out those hands. And I'll see you next time.