Holiday travel stress can feel overwhelming when compounded with all the other stresses that come with this time of year. That said, if you learn how to keep the strain from your journey under control, you’ll reduce the risk that it will take over your ability to keep up with your nutrition and fitness.

After all, the most stressed out you feel, the more likely you are to seek out comfort foods and to skip your workouts. If your holiday travel stress gets to you, it could do a lot more to you than make your trip and unpleasant one. It can set back your weight goals and slow down your fitness progress. Not only does that risk starting your new year in a harder place, but it can make you feel even more stressed.

You feel guilt from giving up on things you know you should be doing. You lose energy from failing to eat right and exercise, and you don’t gain any of the stress busting benefits of treating your body healthfully.

Don’t Let Holiday Travel Stress Stop You

Use these tips to get on top of holiday stress before it gets in your way.

Make Lists

Have a notebook or digital notepad set aside just for lists. This can include everything you need to bake, everything you need to get done, everything you need to pack, or even everything that is stressing you out. By keeping lists, you’ll automatically reduce your holiday travel stress.

Lists can work in a similar way to journaling in this way. Simply expressing yourself and acknowledging the specific stresses can ease them. That said, by creating lists, you also take the pressure off yourself to remember everything. At this busy time, you’re already keeping on top of a lot of things in your mind. You may as well let your lists do the work to be sure you don’t forget your toothbrush or passport and make sure you’ve bought gifts for everyone.

Start Early

Whatever can be done in advance, do it. Sure, you can’t do your traveling early, but you can start packing earlier. You can begin shopping at the start of the month instead of waiting until the last minute. You can contact the post office to hold your mail and the newspaper to hold your paper. Doing these little fussy tasks early will take the holiday travel stress off later on when everything starts coming together, and you need to face it all at once.

Avoid Peak Times

As much as you can, avoid travel, shopping and other activities at peak times. Sometimes, a matter of a few hours can make all the difference between a massive crowd and a quiet, tolerable experience.