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5 Tips to Have a Fit and Healthy Holiday

HealthyHolidaySince FBG’s inception, we’ve been able to work with and connect with some amazing and talented people. One of those people? Nicole Nichols. Fitness expert and editor for SparkPeople, Nicole is the star of workout DVDs (we’ll be reviewing her new DVD soon, so be on the lookout for that!) and was recently named ACE’s first-ever Personal Trainers to Watch winner. After her recent honor, we caught up with her for her top tips to have a fit and healthy holiday this season!

Coach Nicole’s Best Healthy Holiday Tips

Tip #1: Move your feet before you eat. A little extra eating is common during the holidays, and there isn’t anything unhealthy about that. But before you bite, think about what you’ll do to make sure that food doesn’t become a permanent part of your anatomy.

Want to sample everything on the Thanksgiving table? Move your feet before you eat.

Planning to uncover your holiday spirit by baking cookies? Move your feet before you eat.

Heading back for a second slice of pie with whipped cream? Move your feet before you eat.

One of my favorite ways to do this is to sign up for a race such as a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day or a Jingle Bell/Hot Chocolate 5K in December. Enlist your friends and some family members, too, and start a new tradition of fitting in a little fitness before you feast.

Tip #2: Treat the holiday like any other day. This is by far the best tip I live by. I don’t let the holidays get the best of my healthy eating or exercise plans because I treat them like any other day of the year. So even though I host and cook for a dozen people every Thanksgiving, I still wake up early to work out, and make time for fitness the day before and the day after—not as an afterthought but as a habit. And when it comes time to enjoy a bounty of delicious foods, I fill my plate once (since that’s what I’d do during any other non-holiday meal), and choose the right portions of all my favorites.

When you treat a holiday like any other day, you set yourself up for success. You still get to enjoy the traditions and special foods, but you don’t have to feel guilty (or get a bellyache) for doing so. Plus when you make time for fitness, you’ll usually think twice before overeating later.

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