The Cameo Show
The Cameo Show is a podcast about sharing our life experiences and learning from each other. Through solo stories and inspiring conversations with a wide variety of guests, we explore the secrets and strategies for feeling confident, empowered and equipped to live the life we want to lead. Tune in to learn how to find joy and fulfillment in your life and to gain valuable insights from the amazing stories and lessons of our guests.
The Cameo Show
Holiday Hangover? Detoxing From Holiday Stress and Easing into 2025!
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Ideally, we all hit the ground running on day 1 of the new year! But, what if you aren't ready? You're not alone!
This episode dives into the aftermath of the holiday season, exploring the stress and exhaustion many feel as they transition into the new year. We emphasize self-compassion, setting realistic goals, and understanding the importance of mindset as we navigate through post-holiday life.
• Discussing the holiday overload experience
• Sharing statistics on holiday stress
• Exploring societal pressures surrounding celebrations
• Giving yourself grace in adjusting routines
• Importance of gradual habit formation
• Emphasizing the significance of mindset for new beginnings
• Encouragement for unique personal journeys as the year unfolds
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Post-Holiday Reflection and Recovery
Speaker 1Hello and welcome to the Cameo Show. I'm your host, Cameo, and we are joined today by my husband and co-host, Mr Greg Braun.
Speaker 2Yes, Mr Fun Guy.
Speaker 1Yeah, he's really on my last nerve today, if I'm being honest.
Speaker 2That's how we're kicking off the new year.
Speaker 1That is exactly how we're kicking off the new year More real, more raw, more honest, more authentic. You asked for it.
Speaker 2Yep, yep. You asked for it, you asked for it.
Speaker 1So I'm bringing it and. I'm just honest. You're making me crazy.
Speaker 2Yeah, well, you know, what really moves me and really makes my day is the earth.
Speaker 1I have no idea what in the hell that was. Would you like to explain yourself?
Speaker 2It's a dad joke that I just butchered, but let's keep moving on here.
Speaker 1Dear Lord, help us. Maybe you're joining us for the first time. Maybe someone forwarded you this episode. Maybe you've been with us for a long time. Either way, we are extremely excited to have you with us.
Speaker 2Thanks for being here.
Speaker 1Yeah, really genuinely. I might be feeling a little fired up and feisty today, but, seriously, all of that energy is directed at him.
Speaker 2Are you just hungry? I'm probably hungry you haven't eaten anything all day. Oh, there we go.
Speaker 1And now I'm extra mad that you know me that well.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 1I'm just hungry, but I am so mad I'm cracking my finger.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's been a life hack for me to realize when you're really mad at me or when you're just hungry. So we can fix this.
Speaker 1We can just eat some food. I'm hungry, but I think it's the former that I'm actually really mad at you. Maybe it's both.
Speaker 2Well, and rightfully so, because we're coming out of the most stressful, intense, sugar-fueled time of the year.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's like a holiday hangover around here. It's like I'm not sure if I can get up and start moving forward or if I need to lay on the couch longer. And I know that I'm not alone. I know that there are so many people who feel in limbo from basically like trick or treat all the way through the first couple of weeks of the new year totally overwhelmed, overindulged, underslept, pressure, expectations.
Speaker 1All these things pile on us. We don't process any of them because we're so worried about making sure we don't miss anything that then you hit the new year and you're like okay, I'm supposed to be ready with all of these resolutions and goals and I'm going to make this the best year ever. And then you're still like but shit, I am like emotionally exhausted and I need a couple weeks, like I still need a minute. And that's how I feel right now. I feel ready and eager to move forward and I don't mean to sound like a Scrooge, but like I'm over it. Like most people, I love the Christmas lights and the cookies and the festivities and all the fun, but I'm like I just crave routine.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1It's not Bah Humbug or like negative Nancy coming into the new year. I'm excited, I just excited. I just I just need a minute.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1I saw this stat that said that 62% of people feel stressed and frustrated during the holiday season. So I know I'm not alone and if you're listening and you feel that way, you're not alone. And I don't know if you're one of those 62 percenters, greg, but, like, 62 percent is an astounding statistic and I just don't know why we keep putting ourselves through it every year.
Speaker 2I feel like it gets more and more intense to each season. Each season it's like that. We're like the pressure to buy and consume and like it's just more and more and more. You know and this year I was very aware of it I saw a reel where, like the story of Coca-Cola advertising marketing team kind of came up with with Santa Claus and like how it was like really kind of created, you know, commercially created, which we all know. I mean it's, it's really intense. I mean it's out of control, the pressure. We went to Target before Christmas and everybody in the store had the same like zombie look on their face, like I don't know what to get, and everything is like $50 plus, you know, every toy, or you know.
Speaker 1It's overwhelming yeah.
Speaker 2And it's just oh.
Speaker 1It's not like we don't know it's coming. It's the same time of year, the same day of every year and somehow still just like two weeks before I find myself going. Oh shit, I better get started.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1And then feeling guilt and shame that I'm like the worst gift giver on the planet.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1And again, another Scrooge moment. I don't want to do it anymore. I want to give gifts because I feel connected to people and because I feel like this is something that would really make someone happy, that I love or I thought of them in this moment I don't throughout the year, yeah, like I don't want to do it all at the end of the year, because I've been conditioned to believe that that's what I'm supposed to do yeah I've got to do all that, I've got to buy all these gifts for all these people and it's like why?
Speaker 1Well, right, and like some of them it makes sense and some of them it doesn't, and often it just becomes, in our case, no offense to our family, we love you, but like it's just a money exchange and like then there's like guilt that comes along with like, oh, that wasn't very meaningful, but I'd feel terrible if I didn't send anything and I just I hate it.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1That's not what this episode is about. This episode is not supposed to be bringing you so much heat and negative energy to start your year, so we're going to switch gears. But it's just kind of a little bit of event session coming out of the holidays, because that's what this episode is about. About is kind of why it's so hard to get back into the normal swing of things yeah we just described it all in our vent session.
Speaker 1It's this building pressure yeah that just as soon as the new year happens, the top pops off and it's just an explosion of like jiffy pop everywhere what the hell just happened yeah. And that's exactly where I am.
Speaker 2Giving yourself the grace through this period of time, because it is traumatic and it is heavy and it's a lot.
Speaker 1Isn't that horrible that you're like it's traumatic and we're talking about Christmas, but it's true.
Speaker 2Yeah, but it's a lot.
Speaker 2It's a lot and everyone's going through it in different levels. And so giving yourself the grace and the compassion and love that you deserve, like if you want to start the year and you want to eat healthier, if you want to work out, if you want to, you know, start that new business that you've always dreamed of or start a new hobby. It's going to take time to build that repetition and muscle memory around this new habit. So be good to yourself. If you're eating, if you're going to eat clean in 2025, you know, if you fall off the wagon one time and you just can't handle it, you eat a big bowl of ice cream. Just look at it.
Speaker 2Every day is a new day, a new start, and as long as you're winning the week, I think that's the goal and like, have give yourself a couple of cheap meals. Or, if you miss the gym a couple of days, like, give yourself the space to build that habit. And really the whole month of January is just kind of getting the habit set again and, coming into the new year, having your garage clean and your go through your clothes and get rid of clothes you don't need. Like really kind of clean your area and your life and reorganize your desk and you know so you're fresh into the new year. I think that's important too.
Speaker 1Yeah, I think ideally we would do that at the end of the year, right, so that we can hit the ground running on day one, january 1st.
Speaker 1Here we are, let's do this. But the reality is is there's so much going on in those last couple of weeks, and that's not just like you know, with food and sugar and overindulging in things that you wouldn't normally have or being off of your activity routine. That's also emotionally like you're engaging in relationships and planning and traveling to see family that you don't normally. Maybe you know, or you know taking time off work or having deadlines at the end of the year that you have to meet that are highly stressful, you know, I think about people who are like having the holiday season for the first time without a parent or without a loved one, or these are really again traumatic periods of time that we don't process and there's not a lot of space to like plan and prepare to hit the ground running at the beginning of the year. And so then there's this whole new level of stress and pressure of like being ready. That is just like we're doing it to ourselves.
Speaker 1And so I think there's another stat that says that usually it takes people about two weeks into the new year to get into or back into their routine, to be able to start actually moving forward and feel somewhat normal again, and I feel that I mean.
Speaker 1I feel like that's realistic, because after today, after the first of the year, there's still a few days that lag because the kids aren't back in school. If you have kids at home, you're still kind of like what do I do? I'm not sure what you know? How do I get back to work in a normal routine? You're kind of still giving yourself those outs and the excuses of like, well, it's still the holidays, I still have sugar laying on the counter, or I'll do it after next week when things get just it's a lot and we do it to ourselves. So you're right, be good to yourself. I need to calm down.
Speaker 1Maybe I need a sedative or something you just need to eat. Maybe I need some food, no, but but another thing is money.
Speaker 2I mean you just you go all year and you have your budget and you live your life and everything, and then all of a sudden, these last couple months of the year, you're you're spending more money than you usually would, with the travel and with the extra food and it's exhausting.
Speaker 2And presents, for you know, and you're just like, oh my, so getting your financial health back together? Overall, it's best to bite the bullet and get everything reset in January, but give yourself some grace to know that you might fall off the horse a few times, because it's not an easy thing to do all the right things right out of the gate.
Developing Habits for Success
Speaker 1if you've been, you know, dealing with the holidays yeah, you're the holiday hangover holiday hangover well, and I think that we're all in agreeance that it's a nice fresh start. I think everyone enjoys the idea of at least the idea of resolutions or new routines or new goals or habits, and we're big on that, and that's for another episode with regard to goals, and you know we have some things to speak to on that. But, like when it becomes a hindrance because you expect that it's all going to happen, all of a sudden, you're just setting yourself up for failure because you're overwhelmed and you can't begin anywhere because it's like paralyzing, it's too much pressure. Yeah, so I'm, I'm all for the reset and I think there are several ways that you can do that. One is be patient with yourself too.
Speaker 1It's like for me anyway, I work better if I kind of slowly ease back into things. Like I'm a very all or nothing person, don't get me wrong. But when it comes to like getting back into my normal routine or starting to analyze or reflect on, like, where last year went and how I want this new year to go, I've got to like take small steps. Or even if I don't try to do it all at once and get overwhelmed, I just still get overwhelmed. If it's like feels like too too much, like if I want to just start eating clean, it makes more sense to me to start slowly and be like I just need to focus on like something more specific. Like I am going to try to make sure I drink the right amount of water, because I definitely haven't been doing that over the holiday season. So I'm going to try to make sure I drink the right amount of water, because I definitely haven't been doing that over the holiday season, so I'm going to start there.
Speaker 2And you even have a Stanley.
Speaker 1Yes, I have a Stanley that was passed down to me from my beautiful teenage daughter. I have been resistant to a Stanley. For some reason I get a chip on my shoulder about things like Stanleys and Lululemon. I'm just being honest and raw, but like I accepted this pass down of a stanley and it's changed your life it has. It's not necessarily the stanley, but it's the straw it's the straw.
Speaker 1I drink a lot more water when I drink out of a straw, but also like I just go fill it up way more often because it's just it's there, like I don't put other drinks in it because I don't want to have to clean it so I can put water in it. I don't know, it's a whole thing. I digress, but the Stanley has helped.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1But it gives me momentum to say okay, I'm going to start small today and just make sure that I focus on one thing that's going to move the needle.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Makes me feel good, and then I have momentum to move on to the next thing and start implementing things in that way Because, just like everybody else, if you set these big goals and then you fall off one day, then everything's ruined for the rest of the year. And I just think that's bullshit. Like why do we do that to ourselves?
Speaker 2I quit smoking, and I quit smoking a lot of times before I quit smoking.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2So you know I can speak to that. It's not easy to quit something like smoking or sugar or bad habits or being lazy Aaser lazy, you know like it takes work and focus and effort and you can't do it all at the same time.
Speaker 1But yes, I think it's about developing habits, and habits don't just become something that you do until you practice, and I don't. There are stats out there that would support a million different ideas. I read one the other day that said it takes 200 days to develop a habit. Maybe it was 200 hours, but then I've heard well, it takes 21 days to develop a habit. It doesn't matter, because each person is going to be individual in what works for them and what doesn't. To be individual and what works for them and what doesn't.
Speaker 1And I think before you're able to decide if a habit is like ingrained in you, you have to practice and you have to fail and you have to jump back in and you have to decide what's important to you to make it be a habit.
Speaker 1Anyway. Like you can tell me to eat clean, but if I don't know why I'm doing it and it means nothing to me, I'm not able to tie it to something meaningful to me, then it won't matter. It won't become a habit because I don't care enough. But I want to eat clean because my why is that I want to live as long as possible and be as healthy as possible while I'm alive and I want to be able to do the activities that I want to be able to do and I want to be able to be a good example for my kids. Like those are strong whys for me, that aid in developing that habit or getting back into that habit that when I fall off I can reconnect to. But just saying I want to make this a habit and it being a baseless thing is not really a good driver towards success.
Speaker 2What's the book about habit? Is it the habit loop?
Speaker 1There's a lot of books about habits and ways to set yourself up for success in developing good habits.
Speaker 2Oh, the ultimate book is, yeah, the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. That is like in the top five all-time change-your-life books.
Speaker 1Personal development books and it's not really about understanding what a habit is or how to develop it. It's about understanding that these seven habits are tied to people who are have high levels of success.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1And if you can start implementing those and making them a priority and tie them to you and why it's meaningful to you, it will change your life.
Speaker 2Yeah, while we're talking about habits and things, like that I thought that that's a good, that's a great recommendation, yeah.
Speaker 1Steven Covey. Yeah, there are plenty of books that will tell you how to make a habit, how long it takes to form a habit, what good habits are and bad habits are. Habits are just things that we do over and over and over and over and over again. Some of them are good and some of them are bad, but it just depends on what the end result that you're after is to actually categorize them as good or bad. So keeping that in mind is also important, so that you don't like get into a negative headspace about whether or not you're accomplishing what you want to accomplish. Or why can't I get into this habit routine? Well, maybe it's not right for you. Maybe just because somebody on social media talked about how it worked for them, or your sister-in-law said this works for me. This will help you develop that habit.
Speaker 2Maybe it isn't the right habit for you to have. We're all so different and complex.
Speaker 1So reassessing kind of your priorities, especially at this time of year, while you're in that hangover period, reflecting in a way that's like okay, what do I want to bring with me going forward and what do I want to leave, like, okay, what do I want to bring with me going forward?
Speaker 2and what do I want to leave?
Speaker 1and what do I want to? Leave as I process through this muck of whatever I've just been through during the holiday season yeah, here we are yeah, is coming into 2025 light yeah, light. Well, I'm not coming into 2020, 20.
Speaker 22020, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 25 light.
Speaker 1I'm coming in hot and heavy and coming in hot and hungry. I need to eat and I need to take a nap. I need to get my shit together and I'm ready to, and I'm ready to.
Speaker 2And I'm ready to Also mindset this is so important Like the mindset that you had in 2024 got you the results that you received in 2024. So think about your year and think about what the new results that you want to achieve and where your mindset is going to have to be, because that's the thing that's going to have to change.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's kind of like I have all these ideas Once I process through all of this and I'm ready. Who's going to have to show up to make that happen? Yeah, you know who is going to have to show up to put those habits in play. It's going to have to be the person that says this is important to me, not the person who says, well, right now it's not. I feel like laying on the couch Sometimes, different programming yeah, sometimes you have to like do the opposite of what you want in order to stay connected to what you desire.
Speaker 1Yeah, and that's difficult, but all things to think about. For sure, if you're like me and you're like what in the hell is happening? Hot and heavy.
Speaker 2And I'm wore out from watching you hot and heavy through the whole holiday season and I'm just like, wow, I don't know how she does that. There's like 20 sticks with plates and you just haven't dropped one.
Speaker 1Didn't drop one the whole time and I'm just like I just swept them up before anybody saw that they had fallen and broken.
Speaker 2But we even had. Our dryer was broken. We didn't have a new dryer for a whole month during the holiday season and there was. I don't even know if we've talked about this.
Speaker 1No OK.
Speaker 2Just a true test of where you're at on your composure and keeping your shit together.
Speaker 2Maybe where I was wouldn't say I'm showing up there but literally a whole month went by and the club, the laundry is kind of your baby in our family. So you just literally there were clothes kind of draped everywhere to dry, but you didn't complain or or bitch about it or make you know. Not one negative thing came out of your mouth the whole month that we didn't have a dryer and I ordered the wrong dryer. That's why it took so long, because I had to have the dryer come back and get it and bring the right one. So that was totally my bad, totally my fault. You didn't make me feel bad about that.
Speaker 1You were madder about it than I was.
Speaker 2I was disappointed in myself.
Speaker 1But no wonder I'm exhausted.
Speaker 2But yeah, so in the midst of normal holiday stuff, then you also all our family's laundry was, you know, draped all over the tables and the counter, I mean, and like a dryer really does make clothes soft, you know.
Speaker 1So we were living in some crunchy ass clothes for a while.
Speaker 2The stiffest clothes in the like you know.
Speaker 1Yeah, it was awful.
Speaker 2But so I mean you, you've been through the rigors you know, and it's been a tough holiday season and it's you know.
Speaker 1Well, and that's just our story. No-transcript, new year's goals or resolutions until February. It ain't nobody's business. So, if you're exhausted, get caught up, process through, give yourself the time, the space, the grace to recalibrate, reset and be ready to take on 2025. It'll be here for you. Just don't wait till like October. You know what I'm saying, but it'll be here a couple of weeks later and you don't have to carry around guilt and shame for not being like on it right now.
Speaker 2This is your journey, that's right. It's not your co-worker's journey, or?
Speaker 1your parents or your siblings or even your dog, even though our dog might think it is his journey and we're just a part of it, but we're going to get through it. We're going to have an awesome year. Actually, I feel so much lighter. Thank you for letting me rage a little bit. Welcome to 2025. Thank you for joining Greg and I on the Cameo Show. We really are excited and happy, enthusiastic people. I am exhausted and if you're not exhausted from listening to this episode, we do hope that you will join us again for the next one. We've got a big year in store and we're really pumped to have you so thanks for listening until next time.
