As we mentioned in December’s newsletter and last week’s blog, we will be doing a Healthy Holidays 30 Day Challenge this month. One of the purposes of this challenge is to engage you in a fun, healthy, and interactive experience that can help positively influence your dietary and physical activity habits. This blog will discuss why it is beneficial to pay attention to your health this month.
December is filled with holidays such as Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, and New Years Eve amongst others. Holidays usually result in a gathering of family and/or friends and customarily includes feasts or big meals. As such, it is a great time to try and include some healthy habits into the mix. They can help you to be more aware of what and how much you eat as well as how much you move. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to completely restrict yourself as that can lead to more harm than good (i.e. rebounds in weight, damage to your relationships with food and mindset about food, etc.). You can take this time to explore your relationship with food and see what can be a match for you out of the tips and ideas that we share this month. For any advanced advice, it is best to consult with your primary doctor or a specialist to see what works best for you.
Being the month that closes out the year, how you spend your December can play a significant part in setting new years goals. This time can be used to help you experience different ways you can make adjustments to your dietary habits and/or physical activity. After trying out these different challenges, you may find a few that suit your interests and might even incorporate them into your new year’s goals and lifestyle. After all, it takes some time to make actions habitual. They can also help you to expand your knowledge of the various ways you can make changes to your lifestyle.
One thing to note is that integrating these tips and ideas into your lifestyle doesn’t mean that you need to do them everyday. You can take time to get familiar with them and then, depending on what it is, slowly increase the frequency with which you complete these
different challenges. As we have mentioned in our Planning Your Ambitious New Year’s Resolutions blog, some ways you can stick to your resolutions include: becoming part of an accountability group, keeping a weekly journal and writing down all of your achievements and failures, and being realistic with your goals (i.e. not being too ambitious).
During this Healthy Holidays Challenge (December 2 – December 31), participants will be able to interact with one another while tracking their progress to encourage them to stay motivated while trying out and sharing tips and ideas! This challenge will be able to provide a variety of tips relating to different lifestyle aspects to encourage healthier choices and actions.
The most important part of this challenge is to have fun! Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself and safely step out of your comfort zone as you explore new things. Invite friends and family to join you so you can support one another with encouragement and different meal ideas. Have fun with the challenge and see what new ideas you may have never thought about before.
Feature Photo by Memed_Nurrohmad on Pixabay
ANNOUNCEMENT
Starting December 2nd, 2021, we will be having a Healthy Holidays 30 Day Challenge. You’ll receive ideas and tips that you can add to your diet and fitness routine during the holidays. You can go to our EventBrite link for more details: Healthy Holidays 30 Day Challenge. Registration closes on December 1st and we will be having our Kick-Off Webinar on December
1st from 7:00 pm – 7:45 pm EST on Zoom.
We look forward to your participation!
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Kay Loughrey, MPH, RDN, LDN
Transformational Speaker, Breakthrough Coach, Nutritionist-Dietitian
Blessing Bolomope, Student Intern
B.S. Nutrition & Food Science – Dietetics
University of Maryland, College Park | 2020