This holiday season don’t forget to leave time for some healthy, new traditions. Here are some great ideas for gifts, spending time with family and friends, and tips for staying active.
1. Give gifts that promote healthy eating:
• Cooking tools
• Water bottle
• Cooking class
• Fruit basket (with good fruit!)
2. Choose gifts that encourage physical activity:
• State park entrance pass
• New shoes
• Gym membership
• Pedometer
• Yoga mat and DVD
• Safety light
• GPS watch
• iTunes gift card and a list of motivating exercise music
• Check out Judy's ideas for Active Gifts for Kids
3. Host a recipe exchange, instead of a cookie exchange and ask each person to bring a healthy side dish with 12 printed recipe cards (enough for all guests). Go home with 12 new ideas for healthy eating instead of 12 dozen cookies!
4. Shovel snow for a neighbor. For a 150-pound person every hour of snow shoveling can burn about 422 calories!
5. Plant an indoor window box full of herbs that can be used throughout the winter. Great to keep or to give as a gift.
6. Gather friends for a night of walking around to look at Christmas lights. End the night with a hot cocoa bar – make it with skim milk, lots of rich cocoa powder, and light on the sugar. This keeps the calories lower and makes room for toppings such as mini marshmallows, mint candy pieces, dark chocolate chips, or cinnamon.
7. Don’t get overwhelmed with eating during the holidays. Attend parties and focus on friends and family rather than the food. Indulge in small serving sizes and give up the guilt of worrying about it!
8. Keep up with your exercise routine as much as possible. This may mean getting up a little earlier in the morning, parking farther away and doing a lap around the mall before shopping, or visiting with a friend to keep committed. Most likely you will be eating a bit more and the added activity will help balance this.
9. Sleep! The holiday season can be stressful at times and the best way to combat stress is to let your body recover by sleeping. Sleep is good for stress prevention as well as stress treatment!
10. Be on the alert for too much alcohol. Holiday parties often include alcohol and sometimes too much of it. Pace yourself by drinking lots of water, eating sensibly, and spending most of your time talking rather than eating or drinking. And try hard to lay off the eggnog -- 1-cup packs on 225 calories!
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