Want to stay happier and healthier this holiday season?
Here are nine Holiday Health Tips from health and wellness expert Debbie Rosas to help you to survive the holidays without the extra stress or the extra pounds.
A healthy holiday is all about integrating healthy choices into your holiday happenings. There’s no reason to miss out on a thing. Pigging out and laying around might seem like the best way to celebrate. But in reality they’re the worst. You shouldn’t have to recover from the holidays. This year, why not finish out the season feeling refreshed and restored instead.
- Keep up your fitness routine. Too many people use the holidays as an excuse to stop exercising when in reality, it’s when many of us need it most. So keep going to the gym or to Nia classes or out for that morning walk. The holidays are a reason to celebrate family, friends, and a healthy lifestyle.
- Use the New Year as an exercise motivator. It’s become way too convenient to say, “I’ll start exercising and eating right next year. Why start now?” Why? Because the sooner you start, the sooner you’ll feel your best – body, mind, and spirit. And there’s no better time to celebrate than when you’re feeling your best.
- Bring healthy snacks or dishes to parties. If there’s never anything healthy to eat at the holiday parties you attend, be the one to bring something healthy. A beautiful vegetable tray with hummus or a dazzling array of fruit or a delicious selection of sorbet will likely be a welcome addition to any event. Even if it might seem like it sometimes, you are definitely not the only one looking to ring in a healthier New Year.
- Drink one glass of water to every glass of wine, beer, or other alcohol. Holding a glass at a party is a habit that some of us find very hard to break. The good news is, you don’t have to break it. All you have to do is alternate what’s in that glass. So after every drink containing alcohol, have a glass of water before you have another alcoholic one. Trust me. You’ll thank me in the morning.
- Make exercise part of the holidays instead of something extra. Do a fun run or walk with the family like the Turkey Trot or the Jingle Bell Run or whatever your area offers. Hike out into a Christmas tree farm and cut down your own tree. Take the family sledding or skiing or snowboarding or even dog sledding. Or, if you’re in a warm weather climate, go surfing or stand up paddle boarding or kayaking. You can even make the gifts and the activities go together. Give equipment as gifts and then take the gang on an adventure to try out their new goodies.
- Exercise while you’re doing holiday activities. Take the stairs instead of the elevator at the mall and park in the farthest space from the door at the grocery store. Go up on your toes when you’re cooking and then bend your knees down to a squat and repeat. Do legs lifts while you’re on the phone. Whatever you do, just keep moving. No matter what else you’re doing, if your body can move, move it.
- Take time for yourself. If the house is full and the kitchen is crazy and everything’s a mess, it’s ok to take a few minutes for yourself to rest, breathe, meditate, or whatever you do to re-energize yourself. You’ll be a better partner, mom, friend, daughter, and so on when you have the chance to recharge and be the best you that you can be.
- Dance. Dance alone in the kitchen. Dance as a family in the living room. Dance as part of a game. Take the time out to take a Nia class or, better yet, bring your friends and family to a class as a special holiday gift. Nothing is quite like dancing when it comes to feeding the body, mind, and spirit. And it’s one thing of which you can’t possibly get too many servings.
- Eat when you’re hungry. It might seem obvious. But too many of us eat because it’s time or it’s there or we’re bored or unhappy. This can be particularly true during the holidays. So this season, listen to your body. When it’s hungry, feed it with the fuel it needs and when it’s not, give your body the love or time or movement that it’s actually craving instead.
The bottom line is this – Keep moving. If you feel like mindless eating, move! If stress is bringing you down, move! If the joy of the season is draining you instead of energizing you, move! In other words, trade the unhealthy for the healthy this season and start off the New Year right.
Visit nianow.com for more tips and tricks as well as holiday gift ideas
