Friday Fitness: Exercise - The New Holiday Tradition

For many of us, the holidays are a time to get together with friends and family. We laugh, tell stories, give presents, and of course eat. The average American says they think they gain around 5 pounds during the holiday season. Let us be the exception! The holidays do not have to mean weight gain—only if we allow them to. Why not add to the list of family traditions, some physical activity! Remember that it is not all or nothing. It is not the food we eat that we remember, it is the people we are with and the things that we do together that we remembered throughout the years. Below are a few ideas for activities that you can do and recruit the family to join in on—enjoy the holidays!

1. Incorporate the thermal walk after your big holiday meal. Remember one of the ideas behind the thermal walk is to carry the conversation away from the dinner table. Instead of sitting around and picking at food when you are no longer hungry, take the family out for a walk. Make this a new holiday tradition.


2. Get some physical activity and spread the holiday cheer by shoveling the snow on your driveway and neighbor’s too!


3. Make healthy treats such as a trail mix and walk these treats over to your neighbors.


4. Spend 30 minutes cleaning up the house of wrapping paper and toys.


5. Offer to wash and put away the dishes.


6. Find a local 5k or fun run/walk to participate in with the family.


7. Play a game of touch football in the backyard.


8. Go ice skating.

Here are some ideas for those lucky enough to have a white Christmas:

• Sledding


• Building a snowman


• Starting a snowball fight


• Making snow angles

Happy Holidays from H3!

 

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

Over the weekend, like many families, we spent a lot of time preparing our house for Christmas.  Icicle lights glow outside with a grazing reindeer, garland along the banisters, beautiful bows of red and gold and green… but most important of all, the Christmas tree!  In years past, we’ve had a small 3ft. tree because we were concerned that Hala (now almost 3 years old) would get to it, knock it over or worse, eat it.  We knew this year she would “get it” a little more – the whole Christmas story – so we decided to have a big tree.

Early last week Hala said to me, “Mama, I want Chris-cross tree,” to which I giggled and responded, “Okay Hunny, on Friday you can come with me and Daddy and help pick out a Christmas tree.”  She said, “I want BIG one.”  Perfect, I thought, this was going to really be a fun year to see her helping and getting excited about all the preparation.  So, Friday night we went out to get the tree.  She walked around the lot and picked one out nice and tall and round.  Daddy paid and Hala watched from behind my leg as the friendly couple trimmed it up.  We got it set up in front of the window in the living room, and explained that we had to let the branches rest overnight before we decorate it with pretty lights and ornaments. 

On Saturday, we set out to buy lights and hooks for the tree.  (I had purchased ornaments and ribbon last year during the after Christmas sales, so that’s really all we needed.)  Now, keep in mind this was only December 3^rd – can you believe that 3 stores were all sold out of white lights AND ornament hooks!?  We finally came across some LED lights at Lowe’s, along with some hooks at the grocery store.  I thought, okay, now we are set to make our tree simply beautiful!  But wait, Juan also requested tinsel for the tree – “Every tree just has to have tinsel,” he said.  As we search isle by isle, I notice it on the bottom shelf - “here you go, Babe”, I said, as I picked up a box (containing 1,000 strands) and tossed it in the cart.  “Wait!” said Juan, “That’s not enough!  The more the better!”  He proceeded to pick up TEN more boxes (again, 1,000 strands each), and tossed them into the cart.  I’m looking at him, mouth drawn open.  Now, you have to know Juan – he is extremely difficult to read.  Surely he’s joking, I thought.  At 67 cents a box, surely this is just some silly joke, just play along.  “Yeah, okay, that’s your deal,” I respond.

When we get home, Hala goes upstairs for a nap, and Mama and Daddy string the lights so the tree is ready when Hala gets up.  She helps Mama get all the ornaments on the tree.  Red ones and green ones and bronze… Hala’s favorite seemed to be the Little Einstein’s rocket that Grandma got her last year.  She very consciously hung each ornament on the tree – usually on one of the bottom branches and typically 3-4 ornaments per branch (gotta love kids!)  Dinner wrapped up the evening with the plan for Daddy and Hala to hang the tinsel the next day.  When the time came, I was upstairs stringing garland, and told Hala to go downstairs and help Daddy string the tinsel.  When I came downstairs I could not believe my eyes.  They used, not one, not two…. But TEN boxes of tinsel on the tree!  You can’t even see the tree!  It looks completely silver.  I was shocked.  He really, really did it.  I can’t believe he really used TEN boxes, 10,000 strands of tinsel, on our 7 foot tree. 

Now, I honestly do miss the beautiful tree underneath all that tinsel.  But… it’s more important to me to have the whole family involved with the preparation and feeling like they are making the holiday special.  I just smile to myself and to Juan each time he mentions how beautiful our tree now looks.  Tinsel or no tinsel, the holiday will still come, and we will still build lasting memories, like this and more.  I’m not sure what small stuff you may run across this year… just remember it’s just that, small stuff.  Happy Holidays!

[caption id="attachment_6901" align="alignleft" width="420" caption="About 5-6 ornaments made it to this one branch."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_6902" align="alignleft" width="420" caption="The tree-10,000 strands of tinsel and all!!"][/caption]

Get H3 Inspired: Jeni Hayes and Cheryl Haze, A Mother/Daughter Journey

Jeni Hayes (Daughter), Charleston, SC

As an NCAA athlete in college and group fitness instructor afterward, I have always been blessed with the motivation and ability to exercise often and make healthy food choices.  I managed to maintain my weight throughout college and pharmacy school, but residency was a different story.  Stress eating is no joke… although I was still going to the gym 7 – 8 times each week, the pounds started to creep on and suddenly my clothes didn’t fit as well as they used to.

After finishing my 2-year residency, I had a few weeks before starting my new job.  When my mom, Cheryl, and I decided to take a trip together, I started looking for places that had two of my favorite activities – fitness and good food.  One of the places my mom found was Hilton Head Health (H3), and as I read more about their program on the website, the more intrigued I became.  Honestly, I couldn’t think of any better vacation than taking group fitness classes and having someone else cook for you while in a beautiful location.  Since my mom has been struggling with her weight over the last few years, it seemed like the perfect place.  I had 3 goals for my trip to H3: Get my mom inspired to lose weight again, spend some quality time with her, and to get myself back on track.