What You Can Do To Make Your Holidays More Meaningful

The Manifesto Of Strength

This Holiday Season should be the most meaningful and fulfilling time of year. We should feel warm, loved, and above all, be happy.But studies show year after year that isn't always the case. While millions of people enjoy the holidays, many more start feeling down in the dumps. Why? There are several good reasons.The Christmas season in the United States became commercialized about 150 years ago when large stores realized they could pull customers in with big Christmas specials. Buying and giving gifts became a huge part of Christmas.All the gift buying could be your favorite part of the season, but a growing number of us report we spend too much, go into more debt, and don't feel all that great about it afterward.By January 1, you may feel like lots of good things were SUPPOSED to happen to you, but never did. The result can be an unpleasant case of the winter blues.Through all the hubub, you can forget the season is REALLY supposed to be about loving and helping others. A clergy person and charities will probably remind you loving others is what the holidays are about, but somehow that all gets lost in the rush to give gifts and party.My message to you this Holiday Season is to take a little time out of your very busy schedule to help someone in need. You do more good than you'll know, and YOU will feel great about it.This could be as simple as giving a few cans of food to your local food bank so a hungry family can eat, or leaving still wearable cloths at a drop box, or inviting an elderly or single acquaintance to share dinner with your family.The impact on these individuals in need can be vast.

Not only will people be getting the nutrition, clothing, and shelter they so often desperately need, they'll feel like someone cares.And knowing someone cares about you could well be the most important thing we can posses. Going through life knowing you're down and out and, even worse, no one cares, is a devastating thing that pushes people even lower.The holidays can worsen the situation by making people who are living alone feel even more alone. When you wake up on Christmas morning remembering when you had a family happily gathering around the tree, but now you have no one -- well, that's one of the hardest things in the world.I, along with helpful volunteers, run a coffeehouse ministry on Long Island, NY. Each Thanksgiving everyone comes down to help prepare dinner for those who would be ALONE on this important day. People stream in to be part of the event. You can't imagine how many people struggle and would have been by themselves..They leave here like "family."As Christmas and New Years approach, do what you can to help someone. I guarantee your holidays will be more meaningful.

Health And Diet During Holidays

Holidays are a perfect time to enjoy and chill out with families and friends. Parties with wide variety of food on display tempt one and all to indulge in mouth watering delicacies. If you are the kind who swears by a fitness routine, you might tend to enjoy less of yummy foods and spend more time worrying about the increasing waistline. You can still stay healthy and fit by savoring all the delicacies. Little of planning, a dash of goal setting and dose of old fashioned discipline and control over your self will let you enjoy the holiday season without any worries. Let me list down few ways wherein you can follow your diet and stay in great shape too.

- Holidays are just an excuse to go off track from your fitness program. The mindset of people is that since we follow our fitness regime all week / month / year long, we can indulge in gorging over those cakes and ice creams. Aim to stay on track with your fitness program this and all other holidays. By skipping workouts, eating more, exercising less one tends to gain weight. It’s like going back where we started off from. Make a decision to stay in shape with all the food around you.

- Holidays are a hectic time. All premeditated schedules can go haywire. To stay on track, create a work out time table listing down all the parties, dinners and so on. Keep the time table at such a place where you are forced to look at it every day. This serves as a reminder to stick to your time table religiously.

Reverse Dieting 

- If you think you would like to lose 25 lbs during holidays despite enjoying parties, set a goal much before and start working towards it. Goal can also be to gain few kilos also.

- With so much lip smacking, gorgeous food all around, you will feel tempted to just give your fitness program. Keep one day aside where you can treat your self to all your cravings and give in to all your bingeing. Stick to your fitness program rest of the days. And don’t feel even one iota of guilt while satiating your self. Schedule your day to cheat on fitness routine when you have major event lined up.

- If you skip one day of exercise, don’t despair. Get on with it the next day. Nothing goes waste. One day of holiday in your fitness schedule should be a motivating factor for you to get back on your fitness regime.

- If you have planned a big dinner, you might tend to skip either morning or afternoon meal. Avoid changing your eating pattern. Treat the big dinner party at night just like regular dinner time and eat how much you would eat normally.

- Control food portion size in holidays. Eat your favourite foods in moderation. Overindulgence will show around your waistline.

- One always has choices, no matter where you are. Make the best possible choice based on the alternatives available in front of you. If it’s impossible, eat a small portion than a big one.

- Drink 8 – 10 glasses of water daily. Drink few glasses of water before dinner to control your appetite and not kill those hunger pangs. If you just drink and not eat a well balanced meal, you will bloat. Drink water throughout the day to maintain a steady state of hydration.