How To Stay Healthy This Holiday Season

“Ho ho ho ho, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!” As this holiday season approaches, many of us are preparing for big celebrations and parties. Food, snacks, wine, beverages… there is no better time of the year to fill yourself to your heart’s desire!

However, if you are a health-conscious type of person, then this article will reveal some tips for staying healthy this holiday season (while everyone else around you gains 5 pounds!).



Below are 5 tips for keeping yourself healthy this holiday season:

1. Eat Snacks Moderately – Let’s face it, snacks are abundant during the holidays seasons (as if they aren’t already throughout the year). If you take a seat within an arm's reach of the snack table, you're going to have a tough time keeping yourself from unconsciously grabbing handfuls of party mix, candies, and the like and picking at them all day. By sitting on the other side of the room, getting to the snacks involves a conscious effort into getting up and walking over to get at the snacks.

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2. Exercise, Exercise, Exercise! – There is no better thing to do during this festive season than to exercise! If the weather permits it, go out and take a quick walk around the house or block. If your celebration is taking place in a colder climate, you'll be more inspired to quicken your pace and burn a few extra calories in the process. If the weather is bad, do 10-20 squats, stretches, or other brief exercise each time you go to the restroom. You only want to do just enough to elevate your heart rate, but not break out into a sweat. Chances are, no one will know what you're doing, and you won't have to feel self-conscious about trying to maintain your figure.

3. Eat More Healthy Foods - Take an extra scoop of vegetables and fruit when filling your plate, and by the time you finish, you won't have room for the other foods which are higher in calories and more likely to cause you to gain weight. Also, avoid those fatty and fried foods (they taste good, but you know they aren’t healthy!)

4. Drink A Lot Of Water Throughout The Day – Water helps your body stay fit. Drink a fair amount of water or other unsweetened beverage before each meal, as well as during and between them. The liquid in your stomach will help trick your mind into not feeling as hungry, which reduces the tendency to gorge yourself on potentially fattening foods.

5. Eat In Smaller Portions – Instead of eating platefuls of food, try eating smaller portions throughout the day. No doubt, everything at the table looks good, and it's all you can do to keep from filling your plate 2-3 times so that you can sample everything. An easy way to combat this urge is to simply take a smaller portion than you normally would of those dishes you're most interested in, especially belt-bursting desserts. Split a piece of pie or cake with your spouse, child, or another family member who may be watching his or her waistline.

Keeping healthy during this holiday season is simply making sure you follow healthy habits just like anytime of the year. However, don’t fret it if you end up gaining a few pounds during the holidays. After all, the holiday season is only one of the few times of the year where you can truly enjoy yourself!

How To Not Blow Your Budget This Christmas.

Every year thousands of families make a fresh decision to start living by a budget. They set up accounts on their home computer, begin to track everything they spend and set limits designed to help them save more and spend less.

Gwen Mathews is the Mother/Chief Accountant in one of these new budget conscious families. She and her husband Pete set up some ambitious financial plans with the goal of paying off their credit card debt. They split their family income up into categories and were doing just great. That is until the holiday season came along.

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As Gwen scanned the family Christmas list she realized that the ‘gift giving category’ her and Pete had agreed to early in the year wasn’t going to cut it.

Pete, Gwen and their three children sat down after dinner that night and laid out the situation. Christmas was a month away and the budget was clearly not going to buy the family the kind of presents that they were used to. They needed to make some decision together as a family. What did they want more? Expensive Christmas gifts or a shrunken credit card balance?

The secret to keeping a budget during the holidays is to:

A. Have a clear vision of your priorities. Remind yourself and your entire family of the reasons you had for getting on a budget in the first place.

B. Make a complete gift shopping list and then prioritize it according to your relationship with that person. Immediate family comes first, extended family, friends, co-workers, etc. Start at the bottom and cross off any names that absolutely don’t need to be there – then assign a portion of your budget to each of the remaining names.

C. Get creative with your gift giving. A day in the kitchen with the oven at 350 degrees will take care of a lot of people on your shopping list. A plate of home made Christmas cookies is a welcome and touching gift.

D. Give up keeping up with the neighbors. The surest path to a blown budget is to start comparing what you’re doing with what someone else is doing. Remember, they’ll likely be crying come January.

E. Don’t start shopping too early. Many a Mom has spent their entire holiday budget before Thanksgiving thinking she’s a smart cookie to get it all out of the way. Then the Christmas sales kick in and she’s kicking herself and thinking ‘Well I can spend just a little bit more can’t I?”.

F. Final rule: No impulse buying. If someone gives you an unexpected gift, it doesn’t mean you have to run out and buy them something – that’s what 'Thank You' is for.

By keeping their goals in mind and recruiting the support of their children, Pete and Gwen survived the holidays within their budget. As their gift to each other they wrote an extra payment to the credit card company. If they keep that up, they’ll be celebrating a debt free Christmas next year.

How To Indulge And Win The Battle Of The Bulge During The Holidays

If you are trying to lose weight, the holidays literally are the heaviest time of the year.

So how do you eat, drink and be merry while you’re counting every single calorie? By getting a buddy who will help you make the right choices bite by bite.

Scientific studies have shown that people who diet with partners are much more likely to lose weight and to keep it off. And there’s no more crucial time to have a buddy on your side than from Thanksgiving to New Year’s.

“During the holidays, you can use all the help you can get,” says Alan Gettis, a nutritionist and clinical psychologist in River Edge, N.J. “I urge my clients to get a full-time year-round a buddy, it could be a husband or a wife, a neighbor or a friend. I But don’t wait for the first feast to find a buddy, says Susan Holmberg, a nutritionist and behavioral therapist in Oradell, N.J. “Once you start overeating, you don’t want a “Buddy,” she says.

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Buddies give you moral support and help you identify bad eating habits and patterns because they have been there, too, she says. “You may want to have more than one buddy,” she says. “You can have one on the phone and one who exercises with you and goes to parties with you. You can make deals with your buddy where you both go to the party but only one of you goes through the buffet line or where you agree to split one meal.”

Buddies also are like therapists and coaches, who listen to you and keep you on the right path. “Your buddy should be a person you can share your feelings with and rely on in a pinch without fear that your feelings will be used as ammunition against you,” Gettis says.

Holmberg says that using a “Buddy” is particularly helpful to people who may be reluctant to change because those who sign on can choose a either real-life buddy, someone in their geographical area they can meet and exercise with, or select someone to work with solely online or via the phone. “Sometimes anonymity is good,” she says. “You are much more likely to try it if you don’t have to meet the person.”

Gettis points out that with a “Buddy”, “you can find someone with similar goals, and both of you can support each other.”

Buddies also take on active roles, getting you to stop a bad habit and replace it with a healthy one. Gettis likens the process to a marathon, where the runners are tempted to give up before the 26th mile because it is so difficult to stay the course. “The 18- to 19-mile mark is the crucial one,” he says. “During a marathon I was once in, I came upon two guys running – one was hurting, and the other was encouraging him to keep running. I followed them for two to three miles, and the one kept saying, ‘Leave me.’ The other kept saying, ‘I’m not going to.’ And I thought, ‘What great friends!’ Then I heard the one hurting say, ‘What’s your name?’”

Perhaps the most important role that buddies play is helping plan strategies and then making sure that you make them work. “They can teach you to take baby steps and to change your environment,” Holmberg says. “For instance, they may suggest that you keep sneakers in your trunk or put on your gym clothes as you leave the office so you don’t have an excuse not to exercise. They can call ahead to the party to check on the menu and give you a low-cal recipe to bring so there’s at least one thing that you can eat.”

Holmberg says that some of the changes are so simple that people overlook them. A buddy may, for instance, suggest that you get at the end of the buffet line so there is less food available or help the host wash dishes because if your hands are wet, you are less likely to nibble on the last remaining crumbs from the serving dishes. “If you are asked to bring dessert, your buddy may remind you not to make chocolate chip cookies because the last time you ate a dozen cookies before you brought them to the party and nibbled the chips while baking and suggest that instead you make something like a pie that can’t be nibbled because it is cut only when served.”

Buddies also can help you practice being assertive, not aggressive to make significant changes in your diet and your lifestyle. “By being assertive, you attack the task,” Gettis says. “By being aggressive, you attack the person. You need to stand your ground and in a firm but angry voice say: ‘I really would appreciate it if you would not bring home anything fattening. You may have had good intentions, but I’d feel better if you didn’t do it again.’”

So don’t wait until you’re boxed in by back-to-back parties and surrounded by wall-to-wall goodies to find a buddy. Make an early New Year’s resolution to do it now, long before the marathon feasts begin, Gettis says. “You have to be realistic, so don’t count on losing 10 to 12 pounds during the holidays. Don’t say you’ll lose 10 pounds during the holidays, and don’t gain 10 either. And get someone to be your buddy for all 12 months of the year. You have nothing to lose – but weight.”

Copyright Weight Loss Buddy Press 2005

How to Enjoy the Holidays With Your Relatives

Here are five simple things that will make the next holiday party enjoyable for everyone.

1) Leave Home Without It

Unless you visit like-minded people, leave your private cause at home. Cover the tattoo, remove the nose ring, take out the tongue stud. Similarly, avoid editorials, lectures, and sermons. Remember: it's a holiday party. No one comes to be offended.

2) Make Them Special

Let others talk. Be impressed (or at least interested) with what they say. Ask questions to encourage telling more. Find something to praise. Give your complete attention while listening. Appreciation is a gift that lasts a lifetime.

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3) Detach

Let others be themselves. Accept what people say, regardless how outrageous. Avoid correcting, criticizing, or complaining. Ignore bait that lures you into arguments. Avoid taking things personally. Just say, "Ah, how interesting," and move on.

4) Talk Friendly

Offer compliments. Be positive. Be gracious. Be mature. Find diplomatic ways to express your ideas. Avoid negative words, especially "not," because negative ideas trigger a defensive response. Be a source of solutions instead of complications.

5) Behave

Avoid trick questions ("What kind of idiot would do this?"). Avoid punitive stories that contain hidden insults. Avoid baiting people into arguments. Spend time with people who enjoy your ideas. Realize it is always a bad idea to start an argument.

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Holidays and screensavers make a great combination. Holidays are important because they change our mood. The most busy and depressed of us become happy and energetic during holidays. Watch the faces during Christmas, Halloween, thanksgiving and other holidays. You will find a distinct glow and smile. The hearts are full of love and giving. The anxieties and envies are forgotten for a day.

Holiday screensavers designed for specific holidays add to this mood by providing us the visuals. Please remember that most of us are visual persons. Words don't affect them much, but a visual does. A drawing of Santa makes more difference to visual people than a paragraph about Christmas. For such visual persons, Holidays screensavers are a great boon.

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Today, on a very good website, you get free holidays screensavers. Download as many as you wish. Holidays or no holidays, watch them any time and any day and you will feel a change in your mood. The holidays screensavers are normally made for holidays such as- 4th July, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Hanukkah, Happy Holidays, Memorial Day, New Year, Patriot Day, Rosh Hashanah, St. Patrick's Day, Thanksgiving, Valentines Day etc.

Download screensavers that are good looking, have bright colors, with low file weight, easy to install and uninstall, with music and good to look at. Download free holiday screensavers and enjoy a holiday everyday on your computer desktop.

Holiday Family Entertainment: Multimedia Slideshows

Holidays should be a time for families to get together and catch up on the past year. But, these days with so many distractions (Xbox, Blackberries and iPods) it’s a lot harder to promote positive family interaction. So when attention spans are short, headphones are on and cell phones are ringing it might leave you asking what happened to that Norman Rockwell family holiday? Unless you can compete with the latest technology and stimulate all the senses there’s not much chance of hearing about winning the state championships or the camping trip to Yellow Stone this summer.

The only answer is to bring technology and interaction into the holiday by proposing a multimedia presentation contest. It might sound extravagant and even impossible to you, but rest assured many school aged children and teenagers know how to build slideshows in PowerPoint or even produce a video on their computer. The best thing about having a family multimedia presentation is that it’s a great activity that all ages can enjoy together.

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To keep it fun and creative ask the participants to build a photo slideshow or video essay of what they what to share about their year. This can include scanned photos, digital photos, or even video clips put together in a computer presentation format that can be easily shared. Since production could be time consuming make sure you give everyone enough time to pull everything together. Also, if you have a large family having a competition between family members adds more fun and excitement to the gathering. If you don’t have a large family, having the kids put together one large presentation works well.

A good way to set up the competition is to have the children of each separate immediate family put together a presentation. This way you ensure that everyone gets their turn and it builds a little friendly competition. Scoring is easy; every presentation gets a score from one to ten on the following three categories: content, production and presentation skills. The one with the highest total score by adding up all three categories wins. If you want to up the stakes you could even handout family Oscars.

To make your family presentation more impactful try projecting the presentation on a large wall using a PC projector or hook it up to a large screen TV. These days family time is almost non-existent, a family multimedia presentation is a good way to change that and who knows if might even become a fun family tradition.