Stay Healthy in Holiday Season
The holiday season is always filled with good foods, fun activities, and great memories with family and friends. While enjoying and relaxing in this season, it’s easy to get a little lax on the healthy eating and exercise that we typically maintain which lead to disease or weight gain.
Brighten the holidays by making your health and safety a priority. With a few tricks, it’s possible to keep you and your loved ones safe and healthy year-round, and ready to enjoy the holidays.
- Add more vegetables
We always have an insufficient intake of fruit and vegetables during the holiday season. Increasing the number of vegetable dishes on the dinner table and finding small twists to dress them up without making them unhealthy is a smart trick to ensure the intake of vegetables.
When in doubt, start your meal with a bowl of salad or a vegetable-based appetizer earlier in the afternoon. This will help you make sure get the vegetables you need instead of filling up with snacks or desserts.
- Find healthy alternative dishes on your favourite dishes
A small modification could allow you to enjoy your favourites dishes in a healthy way. For example, reduce the use of butter, oil, and processed food in your meal; Wholegrain instead of white rice or noodles; bake the meat instead of deep frying it. These simple tricks may keep your favourite on your plate without the excess calories.
Besides, canned, processed, and premade foods are full of excess salt and sugar that you can avoid by making the dishes yourself. Reduce your sodium intake by making your own cream of mushroom soup and reduce your sugar by making your own strawberry sauce.
- Stay Hydrated
Water accounts for 60% of our body’s total weight and we need to stay hydrated in order to maintain this ratio. Ensure you take a few moments throughout the day to drink plain or infused water. You can also set reminders to drink more water or record your daily water intake using an app or the alarm on your smartphone or smartwatch. If you are consuming alcohol, try alternating glasses of water between your cocktails.
- Watch your portion size
Overloading your plate is a norm during the holiday season, and this tends to gain weight more easily as compared with those able to control their portion size. Therefore, the best way to overcome this is to take your meal at a slower pace, listen to the “I’m full” signal, don't attend a party on an empty stomach as it makes you prone to overeating, or use smaller plates.
- Stay active
Sedentary activities such as sitting on the couch watching TV, are common holiday traditions for many families. Inactivity may contribute to weight gain, especially if accompanied by overeating. Doing some type of physical activity with your family may prove beneficial for weight control. Even something as simple as a family walk can get your mind off food and allow you to bond with your loved ones.
- Get enough sleep
Sleep deprivation, which is quite common during the holidays, may cause weight gain. This is because those who do not sleep enough tend to be hungrier, consume more calories, and exercise less.
Additionally, inadequate sleep has been linked to lower metabolism. This may be caused by alterations in your circadian rhythm — a biological clock that regulates many of your bodily functions
Lastly! Don't forget to take your ImmNuPlus or ImmNuPro everyday to balance your immunity to create a better healthy life in year 2023!
Eating well and staying healthy can be difficult over the holiday season, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. By maintaining your physical and mental health with some of the easy tips in this article, you’ll be able to start the new year off strong. And lastly, don’t forget to enjoy your Holidays!
