Healthy Holidays

This is the time of year where you see a lot of articles about how to treat the holidays when it comes to your health. Once Halloween hits, a lot of people tend to treat the next 2 months as a time to enjoy treats, drinks and decrease their amount of activity as times start to get busier. However, there shouldn't be so much pressure to stay on track this time of year. You can still take care of yourself while still enjoying the holiday season and all the parties and gatherings that come with it. 

• Define Your Treat Days
• Plan to have treats on actual holidays. If you set yourself up to only have your treats on days like Christmas Eve and Christmas, you will be less likely to indulge in them on the random in-between days when there are treats in the break room at work.
• Define Your Treats
• Make a list of your favorite holiday treats and commit to eating just those.
• Remember that a treat is an occasional thing, so treat it that way to avoid overeating and continuing the treats in the days and weeks after the holiday. 
• Remember These are Hoil-DAYS not Holi-MONTHS 
• When people start indulging in treats frequently after the passing of Halloween and continuing until after Christmas, that adds up to 2 months of unhealthy behaviors. That is 1/6 of our year, which is too much time to be inactive and overeating if we are trying to be healthy.
• Move with a Smile
• When your schedule gets really busy and it is hard to find time to get to the gym, pick an activity that you enjoy doing and that you can do with your loved ones. Getting in some sort of movement with others and that makes you happy has a positive effect on mood and mindset throughout the holiday season.
• Guarantee Your Workouts
• Make your workout commitments small so that you don't have any excuses to not fit them into your schedule. Even if you do an abbreviated workout, it still has many health benefits, especially during the holiday season.