Fitness During The Holidays

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From Your Health Journal…..”This web site likes to share articles from other web sites to bring health news to you, and then draw traffic to the web sites to read the full article. The Star Tribune from Minnesota always has some great writers and articles, and I wanted to share a snip today about fitness during the holidays. Many of us, busy with buying gifts, work, shorter days, and family may find less time to exercise during the holiday months. I always tell people to go to the local mall and window walk for 30 minutes, but don’t buy anything until the 30 minutes expires. When home watching TV, every time a commercial comes on, exercise – whether performing pushups, jumping jacks, or jumping rope…..but get active. I highly recommend your visiting the Star Tribune web site to view the full article as well as some of their other great media clips.”

From the article…..

Turn the tables on your busy schedule: Five tips for adding exercise into this hectic time of year.

This is the season for parties, pageants, shopping, wrapping, cooking, baking, family visits — and, oh yeah, trying to carve out time in that whirlwind to work out.

“Exercise gets sacrificed when people decide they just can’t squeeze it into their hectic schedules,” said Mark Blegen, who heads the Department of Nutrition and Exercise Sciences at St. Catherine University in St. Paul.

“But you don’t have to choose between fitness and holiday activities,” he added. “It doesn’t have to be either/or.”

You can keep physically active by harnessing your creativity, he and other fitness experts say. There are shortcuts, ways to combine the busyness of the season with the satisfaction of staying in shape.

Some health clubs, such as Hell Bent Fitness in Minneapolis and several CrossFit centers, are trying to help out by offering afternoon and weekend kid-workout sessions while parents get in an hour of quality exercise.

“We just got it started as a holiday thing, but we’d like to continue it into next year,” said Hell Bent owner Jason Loesch.

After school on Thursdays, his wife, an elementary school teacher, takes kids 4 and older and gives them a snack, then exercise, then homework time.

But if you’re so jammed up that you can’t make it to the health club, there are plenty of other ways to keep moving those muscles, Loesch said.

Here are five ways to keep fit without sacrificing the season’s festivities.

1. Shop with gusto

That trip to the mall can do double duty when you make it a family outing for walking off calories. When you shop, choose the farthest parking spot you can find and hike to the mall entrance. This might actually be faster than driving around looking for a parking space that’s closer to the front door.

To read the full article…..Click here