Healthy Resolutions

Every year thousands of people resolve to eat better, exercise more, or lose weight. Yet, a month or two into the year, their resolutions seem to fade away. Below are some tips to help you maintain your healthy resolutions throughout the year.

• Baby Steps: You want your goals to be challenging, but not over-ambitious. Setting your goals too high can be overwhelming when you don't see immediate progress.
• Milestones: Set monthly milestones. Have short-term goals that you can celebrate along the way.
• Make it Real: Working towards an actual event with a deadline rather than an arbitrary goal can be helpful. For example, register to run a race, schedule a difficult hike, or plan to attend a fancy event where you want to fit into a specific outfit.
• Be Flexible: Life is constantly changing. Be willing to make changes to your goals and your plans also. If you aren't seeing the progress you'd like, don't just throw your goals out the window; instead, modify them as needed.

Quality Holiday Time

The holidays are often about traditions and spending time with family and friends. Many traditions involve parties and rich foods. But quality time can also be spent with friends and family doing a variety of physical activities.

For those that live in colder climates, there's a host of fun winter activities, such as skiing, snowboarding, sledding, or ice skating. For warmer climates, strolling through areas filled with Christmas lights, jogging, rollerblading, or rock climbing. For indoor enthusiasts, try the Wii interactive sports or dance games as a group activity.

Memory-making traditions can be entertaining and healthy!

Avoiding Holiday Pitfalls

The holidays are here, and so are all the parties and yummy foods. While we all want our holidays to be plentiful, the one thing most of us don't want more of is pounds! Below are some tips for maintaining weight during the holidays.

• Watch what you drink. Sodas, hot chocolate, eggnog, and alcohol are full of sugar and calories. Drink them sparingly and mainly stick with water as a beverage.
• You don't have to eliminate treats, but mind your portions. Take small amounts of the foods you'd like to try and don't go back for seconds.
• Avoid temptation. Don't leave snacks and treats out in the open. Put them away where you can't see them, so you'll be less tempted to snack every time you walk by the food.
• Don't linger by the food. At a party, don't hang out by the food table. Take your plate and move to another end of the room. After a dinner, put the food away or move away from the table so you won't be tempted to keep eating.

Proper Posture

If someone was to grade your posture, what grade would you receive? Having good posture during everyday situations is important. Poor posture can be the cause of a headaches, a stiff neck, sore back and shoulders, and tight legs, knees, and ankles. It can put strain on your joints and ligaments, and even lead to injury.

Think about your standing posture. For example, while you are waiting in line do you slump your shoulders? Lean on one leg? Arch your back? All these are common characteristics of poor posture.

To have proper posture while standing:

• Stand up straight and tall
• Lift your head from the crown, not the chin
• Place feet shoulder width apart
• Roll your shoulders down and back
• Distribute weight evenly across the balls and heels of your feet
• Tighten your abdominals and tuck in your gluteals

Overall Fitness

When working on your physical fitness, it is important to take into account ALL the components of fitness. Below are ways to improve in each area of fitness:

• Cardio: Perform activities in which you are constantly moving and you maintain an increased heart rate. Examples include walking, jogging, cycling, and swimming.
• Muscular Strength & Endurance: Work your muscles against resistance, such as weights, resistance bands, or gravity. Examples include bicep curls, push-ups, and squats.
• Flexibility: Stretch at the end of every workout!
• Body Composition: Eat a diet low in fats and sugars and exercise to increase muscle mass.