Taking Care of Our Own: Have Yourself a Merry Little Fitness
You can stay healthy and fit during the holiday season
By Cathy Fitzgerald, Nutrition Coach, MFit Fitness Center, and Jessica Sobolewski, MFit Fitness Specialist
Holidays can be tough on the waistline with lots of tasty, not-so-healthy treats around and lots of opportunity for lounging about. But you don’t have to put nutrition and fitness on the back burner during the holidays. In fact, there are three basic ways you can give yourself—and your family—the gift of health and wellness anytime during the year:
1. Make healthy habits a part of every single day. Incorporate a few tips from the following lists into your daily routine.
 Activity
- Create new active traditions for the holiday season, like an ice skating or cross county skiing party, walking through neighborhoods to look at holiday lights and decorations, or walking the mall to window shop.
- Pressed for time? Work out at home with an exercise video.
- Work out first thing in the morning so you feel good and accomplished the rest of the day.
- Get guest passes for visiting friends and relatives so they can accompany you to the gym.
- Shovel instead of using the snow blower, or chop wood instead of using a chain saw.
- Give yourself a present—hire a personal trainer!
Healthy Eating
- Eat a fruit or vegetable during every meal, and add an additional serving of whole grains each day.
- Use smaller plates so you eat less and feel just as full. You will be satisfied with less wine or beer if you use a smaller glass, too!
- Sit to eat to cut down on grazing.
- Choose special foods you really want and skip treats you can get all the time.
- Snack on foods you’d normally eat with your meal to avoid feeling starved or deprived. Save something from your lunch to eat toward the end of your workday. This will help keep you full.
- Put the bag, box or serving bowl away after serving so you’re not tempted to take more.
Check out these health holiday recipes from MFit:
- Green Salad with Pomegranates and Pears
- Potato Gratin with Tomatoes and Red Peppers
- Double-Chocolate Cranberry Biscotti
- More MFit recipes!
2. Keep a record of everything you eat and your activity. Yes, that means the glass of wine or eggnog you enjoyed, the cookie dough you ate off the beaters, the holiday cookies that just jumped into your hand at the office. Also write down your physical activity. Keeping track will help keep you on track.
3. Enlist the support of a buddy. Having someone who praises your successes and motivates you when you need it is a major way to succeed when it comes to weight loss and getting healthy. |
