Remaining Healthy During the Holiday Season

As the holiday seasons are upon us, we wonder how we will balance the demands of parties, buying gifts, and traveling to see our families. I will be sharing the 10 tips sheet of "Remaining Healthy During the Holiday Season" with my patients this week. This tip sheet provides many things to think about during the hectic holiday season but these tips are also good think about during the rest of the year. I hope that you will find one or two to focus on as you enjoy being healthy during this holiday season.

"Remaining Healthy During the Holiday Season"

1. Be Realistic
Food is a big part of the holiday season so be practical about setting your weight goal. If your goal is to try to loose weight during this holiday season, it may be an uphill battle. So instead, set your goal to be to maintain your weight.

2. Don't Starve Yourself
Do not skip meals to indulge at a holiday party. Instead eat light meals every 4-5 hours. Eating a lot of fruits and vegetables will provide needed vitamins, minerals and fiber. Infact, if you eat a light meal before the party you are less likely to overindulge in fatty foods.

3. Limit Sugar and Processed Foods
These additives will decrease your immune system. If the body does not use the food it will store it as unwanted fat. For recipes that call for sugar you can think about reducing the amount of sugar or using apple sauce or plain yogurt to replace it.

4. Make Time for Exercise
Exercise is a nutrient that you body needs on a daily basis. If you walk for even 30 minutes/day this can give you up to 80% of the needed cardiovascular exerise. You could also park your car far away from the store, walk during your lunch hour or walk to deliver a message instead of emailing a co-worker for added exercise.

5. Rest for 6-8 hours/night
Your body does a large percentage of its repair during the night. It is best to have your bedroom be completely dark because if it is not, it can change up the hormone cycle of your body.

6. Limit Alcohol
The recommended limit is 1-2 for women and 2 drinks for men.

7. Drink More Water
Drink water that has been filtered. A carbon filtered with reverse osmosis is the best unit. There is two theories about the amount of water you should drink per day. The old standard is 8 glasses of water a day. Current reports show that you should take your body weight divided by 2= the # of ounces of water that you should be drinking. If you find this to be a much larger amount then what you currently drink start to transition slowly because you do not want to overload your kidneys. Also, if you drink caffeinated beverages, for eg., for every cup of coffee your drink add another cup of water.

8. Be A Social Butterfly
The holidays are all about enjoying the company of family and friends. If you talk more, you will find yourself eating less.

9. Deal With Your Emotions
Many people use food as comfort in order to handle their stresses.

10. How to Handle Your Stress
Schedule down time for yourself to sit back and relax, reflect, prayer, meditation, yoga, and GET NERVOUS SYTEM ADJUSTED BY A CHIROPRACTOR!!!

The nervous system accumulates the stress related to your exposure to toxins, thoughts, and trauma. The nervous system controls and coordinates all systems in your body. If you have interference to the nervous system, do you think that you are SICKER OR HEALTHIER? Right, you're sicker!!! This time of year can be very stressful and so keeping up with your chiropractic care to relieve this stress on the nervous system is critical to remaining healthy in order to enjoy the holiday with your loved ones!

May you enjoy a healthy holiday season!

Dr. Jennifer Anacker