Her final piece of advice: Get out and give back. The best way to improve your mental state amid the stress of the holidays is to volunteer. And the busier you are helping out, the less busy you are eating the cookie batter.
A full transcript follows the video.
This podcast was recorded on Nov. 22, 2016.
Alison Soutwick: I do want to hear Sam's bottom-line, best piece of advice for everyone over the holidays, and it is...
Sam Whiteside: Shoo! That's a hard one, but if I had to choose one thing, it would definitely be to volunteer. Give back. Specifically during the holiday season, we not only are stressed out, but we're making possibly poor decisions. We're being pulled at all different angles and what I call "keeping your tank full"... Our tanks start to decrease. We start to feel frazzled. So for me, an easy way to keep my tank full or to refill that tank is to give back in some capacity.
An easy way to do that for me is to go onto a couple of different websites. One is HandsOn Network. It's definitely an easy way to find local volunteer opportunities wherever you are. If you going to PointsofLight.org/HandsOnNetwork, you will be able to find local volunteer opportunities pretty much in whatever zip code you live in. I have been using that network, probably, for about six or seven years.
On Thursday morning on Thanksgiving Day, I will be volunteering at New Hope Housing's Thanksgiving lunch, so I will be making dinner rolls the night before and a potato dish of some kind, and a healthy...
Robert Brokamp: A healthy one, of course.
Southwick: I've heard of one that has sweet potatoes and regular potatoes.
Whiteside: Yeah, where'd you get that from?
Brokamp: And asparagus-nog.
Southwick: Someone is making asparagus-nog. That's like the meanest thing you could make for someone.
Whiteside: That is horrible. That sounds gross. And so I will be serving that food to some of our chronically homeless here in Alexandria. So, yeah.
Brokamp: Good for you.
Southwick: Yeah!
Brokamp: That's great.
Southwick: I love that idea, because if you're volunteering, you're not eating, you're not overindulging, and you're also not spending money which we also like to do.
Whiteside: Save that money.
Brokamp: Could you imagine serving food to the homeless and then overindulging? Taking all their food? That would be horrible. Absolutely horrible.
Whiteside: That is not giving back well. That is not going to help you lose those 10 pounds.
Brokamp: I'm here for the free food.
Southwick: If you did donate asparagus-nog, you would get it all to yourself
