Some Quick Holiday Fit Tips!

The holidays are rapidly approaching!!! With Halloween behind us, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas are all along the way!!! Yes, we are entering that fun, festive time of year filled with many great traditions, and of course many involving lots of our favorite holiday foods!!!
While we all love the holiday season, it can get kind of stressful… between traveling, lots of time with the family, parties, shopping…it is definitely easy to get overwhelmed!!! And, the holidays can also generate stress as so much of our time is spent centered around food!!!
That being said, I would like to leave you with a few tips to help ease your bodies and minds this holiday season:

1. The holidays only come once a year, so treasure this time with your family, friends and loved ones because they are greater than any gift you will receive.
2. Remember “everything in moderation” not “deprivation.” Allow yourself to enjoy some of the delicious foods you love, especially those that are only served during the holiday season. Go ahead and have that slice of pumpkin pie and some of your mother’s sweet potato casserole because these treats are less likely to be around the rest of the year. So indulge every now and then this season because you only live once, and being perfect all the time is not only unbalanced but it is unhealthy and unfulfilling.
3. Never go to a party starving. Listen to your body and honor your hunger by having a snack every couple of hours on protein filled choices like almonds, yogurt, or apples with natural peanut butter to keep your energy up and your blood sugar steady. You will also be much less likely to binge at the buffet table and lose all control if you take care of your body and give it the fuel it needs throughout the day.
4. Commit to your weekly workouts as they will keep you healthy, ease your stress, and help you maintain your waistline this holiday season. If you can’t make it to the gym, take an extra long walk with the dog or do a body-weight circuit at home. Try Alternating strength exercises like push ups, squats, triceps dips, lunges, and planks with blasts of cardio -jumping jacks, mountain climbers and running in place for 20 to 30 minutes.
5. Don’t let “all or nothing” thinking allow your eating to spiral out of control. Even if you ate one too many slices of pie at the office holiday party, it does not mean that the whole season is ruined so you may as well overindulge…
   Remember nobody is perfect, and one or two extra pieces of pie will not lead to you gaining ten pounds. However, if you decide to throw all self control out of the window because of one or two nights of overindulging – well that can lead to guilty overeating and unwanted pounds that you and your body don’t deserve.

Hope these quick holiday fit tips help you enjoy this special time of year with ease, comfort and lots and lots of joy!!!