Tips to Help you Stay Healthier During this Time of Year

Happy holidays! If you’ve worked hard all year, you deserve to take time to enjoy yourself with loved ones this holiday season. These 5 tips will help increase your energy so you’re able to enjoy each moment of the holiday season:

1. If you fall off, quickly get back up on the wagon.

If you overindulge on those tempting foods and festive drinks one day, don’t beat yourself up, it happens. Just focus on eating a full 8 servings of veggies and fruits the next day. Do this by going back to your veggie and fruit based breakfast shake and by eating a large, homemade salad at lunch, followed by a vegetable filled stir fry for dinner.

2. Eat healthy snacks regularly.

Always arming yourself with a little baggie of veggies and fruits in your coat pocket or purse will help keep you energized, curb your hunger and give you enough will power to say no to those homemade cookies and snack mix your co-worker brought into the office this morning.

3. Enjoy the parties in moderation.

The biggest tip I can give you here is to eat a FULL meal before heading out the door to a party. Not many people like the appetizer table as much as me, and this is the best way I’ve found to cut back on piling up on apps at a party. Once you are ready to have a snack, select the smallest plate available and go up to the app table only once. After that, throw out your plate and focus on the socializing aspect of the party. People usually congregate in the kitchen at a party, so take it upon yourself to steer your social interactions into another room, away from the food table – ‘out of site out of mind’ helps.

4. Watch those liquid calories.

The calories we consume through alcohol add up quickly, and they unfortunately often go undetected because they don’t satisfy our appetites in any way. If you like eggnog or those other rich tasting, sweet holiday drinks, only have one glass and treat it like a dessert. Try drinking a glass of water between each alcoholic drink to cut consumption down.

5. Get off the couch.

Yes, holiday movies can be quite entertaining, but given the extra number of calories most of us consume in late December, it’s especially important to stay moving! Play with the little ones in your family, walk your dog around an extra block or two, or try hitting a Costco or the mall – you’ll probably have to park at least a half a kilometre away during this time of year, so this is a good way to get an extra little walk in.

The bottom line is, if you’ve worked hard this past year, now is the time to enjoy yourself – just do it within reason by following some of the tips above. Now go…enjoy more life!