How to Stay Healthy this Holiday Season

written by Gerry Cernicky

The holidays are a great time for families to get together around the dinner table to share memories and enjoy each other's company. Only later, while slouching on the couch to decompress do the negative health consequences of our increased holiday food consumption begin nagging us. And during these moments of reflection we start to think about physical activity strategies to help us work off these extra food and drink calories. Well, it doesn't have to be this way. Instead of waiting for these guilty feelings why not plan ahead and help others along the way?

The first step is to make a plan and then stick to it. That sounds easy but it's going to take some navigation and guidance to proceed in the proper direction. Fortunately, help is on the way from today's ubiquitous electronic devices and apps that are both useful and fun to use. Physical educators can be a great source of advice for teaching colleagues, families, and students in helping them to engage in appropriate health promoting activities.  

To accomplish this task, it's wise to create a plan that involves others such as family members or friends who will act as coaches and motivators to help us stay on the right path. These ideas can be posted in a blog, or shared as reminders, fitness calendars and online information web site links. Potential topics of advice could include a combination of health, exercise, nutrition, first aid and injury prevention information. As a physical education teacher, I found it to be an effective strategy to make a calendar or bulletin board to help others track their activities and healthy food choices. During the school break for the holidays, health and P.E. teachers can be a viable asset for carrying over health-promoting information into the holidays. It could be homework or simply advice. Fortunately, today there are some excellent online resources you might like to personally check out and then consider sharing.

Here's a sampling:

• Fooducate - here you can scan food items and track health and calories. There is a rating of foods to help consumers and a search barcode for products.
• Map My Run - is a wonderful tracker for activities and to log results each day.
• Cardiograph - an app that will calculate your heart rate and store the results after each activity (also available for Android devices).
• PE GEEK - here you will find a vast array of apps and hundreds of ways to use technology.
• SPARK - physical education apps for teachers.
• KIDNETIC - move, eat and learn information for kids and family.

With your encouragement and a little investigation, members of your school and local community can find a whole host of enjoyable physical activity promoting activities outside the home and school. Remember to check out the various community programs that are operable throughout the entire year, regardless of the weather. For example, in Pittsburgh there's a nonprofit organization called Venture Outdoors that has many activities during the winter season and a great way to participate and elevate interest in an exercise program over the holidays.

Alternatively, trek on over to ACTIVE a fitness and well-being website where you can find different types of physical activity challenges and races in your geographical area with categories from beginners to elite. There's a help section with tips on running form and preparing for races as well as nutrition and fitness forums.

Holiday celebrations can of course extend beyond immediate families. Volunteering to help people in need in your local community is a holiday gift that can be a memorable experience when shared between families. Recently, on November 6, 2013, the American Heart Association sponsored a "National Eating Healthy Day" and gave the following valuable information to help all of us to make healthy choices:

• Eat fish twice a week.
• Limit sugar-sweetened beverages.
• Limit sodium to 1500 mg or less per day.
• Add more fruits and vegetables to your plate.

Another idea for volunteering is to visit a senior center and find out if any seniors need assistance shoveling driveways or sidewalks Perhaps your local healthcare facilities would appreciate help decorating the facility. And don't forget to think about the military, many of whom are far from home during the holidays. Your school could make cards for the service members to show gratitude for those serving our country. All of these ideas incorporate physical actiivity, whether it comes from shoveling, walking around a hospital, or moving your arms to make cards.

The holidays may be utilized to share information for the entire school year too, and many schools set up a summit or symposium to address healthy-foods. One of the topics being discussed is the controversy about school lunches and what really is being served. In my area, Pittsburgh, it is called " Let's Move Pittsburgh" and the food service programs address bag lunches, kids getting more exercise, and how to grow and cook healthy food. This program gives information to parents, but is especially informative for educators. The cafeteria food directors discuss healthy eating and tell the students and families what they will find in the cafeteria.

Today, organizations, such as sports stores, schools, hospitals and other community groups are cooperating to help promote the need for kids to become more active and even how to grow and cook food. Hopefully, the carry over from school will extend to homes, and when the holiday table is arranged the food choices will be a healthy reminders to families that they can enjoy meals that are nutritional appropriate.

If as a physical educator your're interested in finding out more about healthy recipes or appropriate food look no further than Eating Well and Cooking Light for healthy food recipes, cooking and information for diet and nutrition tips. Nourish Healthy Kids offers advice, recipes, options and an interactive tool for parents, teachers and kids. There are printables for teachers and games that teachabout nutrition and food groups. My Plate is another site that offers nutrition and health information for children over age five.

I wish you the very best for the holidays and encourage you to try something new to help your students and their families to stay healthy over the vacation.

(back to pelinks4u homepage)