Happy “Strong and Fit” Holidays!!

By Brenn Simonen, CFT, SFN, CLC, GST-TRX, NLP, EFT, Silver Sneakers

Hi there, Sullivan’s Gulch.

Let’s do what we can to make our neighborhood heart healthy, fit, and fabulous. Since moving to Portland, we’ve fallen in love with this area. We bought our home here because of the friendliness of the people we met on the streets, and now you and your smiles are our neighbors. This is the first of many Health and Fitness articles for your well being. I have been passionate about health and fitness for more than 14 years and several years of scholastic sports prior to that. I want to share simple steps that you can take to create a healthier, more balanced, more fit you. So let’s tackle HOLIDAY EATING and EXERCISE EXCUSES.

Okay. Some of you, I’m sure, just let out a heavy sigh, looked away, or even put this paper down intending to pick it up later. Let’s be real. Exercising regularly can be a trying task on any given day. But mix together your office parties, your happy hours and dinners with friends, your children’s parties at school, church, or clubs, then fold in your mother-in-law’s favorites, your neighbor’s fruitcake, your grandmother’s old-fashioned, butter-bathed foods, your sister’s gluten-free demands, and finally, sprinkle with the candy cane battles of her five children and a little chaos, and you have a recipe to drink a spiked eggnog and eat an apple pie all by yourself. Whew! What can you do to stay calm and fit? Keep Moving.

Whether you are traveling or entertaining your closest 20 relatives for the week, you can stay fit with these easy ideas.
Take at least 30 minutes each day for yourself. Yes, you can. I promise. Use it for quiet time or use it to exercise. I vote for both. Walking, jogging, running, biking, walking the dog, stretching, and yoga are all good ways to do both.
Invite your guests to join you because your loved ones need to stay healthy too, and because you’ll be setting a great example. You may not be sweating it out at the gym, but you will be getting results.

Get the kids, old and young, away from the tv and video games and outside for games or relay races. Tantrum or not, they’ll get used to it. Childhood obesity is at a record high, and it’s up to parents to start making a difference. San Francisco just passed a law that fast food restaurants cannot put toys in their kid’s meals unless they meet nutritional guidelines. Get the fries, and you don’t get the toy. I respect the truth behind this law, and I hope it spreads like wildfire nationwide.

Living in the Pacific Northwest can pose challenges, so taking up a good in-home exercise routine for those days is a great idea. Whether the information comes from your gym, a fitness DVD, personal trainer, book, friend, online, be sure you are acting within the physical exertion guidelines set forth by your doctor. And remember, it’s not about the special equipment, it’s about the time and effort you put into your health. Other than a stability ball that you can get for around $10-$15, some household items that replace equipment and can be enough to create a program at home are: Dumbbells: Various sizes of water bottles or Ziploc bags (doubled) filled with sand. Stretching stick: Broom/mop Handle. Gliders: Two Frisbees. Stair-stepper: Your stairs and any weighted item you are comfortable carrying up and down. Resistance machine: Strength band, with or without handles, usually under $5.

These are just a few ideas. Use your imagination, along with good judgment, to create your own safe options. There are many videos on You Tube that provide access to exercise programs. I teach a strength-band and AB class that my clients use at home, on the road, and even on a plane or train. When there is a will to succeed, there’s a way to get the job done.
I have put together many exercise programs based simply on what I have on hand. You can, too. A simple rule I learned many years ago is that “everything is exercise.” Every time you reach in the cabinet for an item, pass a dish across the table, put clothes in the washer and dryer, or lift your kids in and out of the car, contract your arm muscles and consider it exercise. What you do every minute of every day matters. Do you take the stairs or the elevator? When you step on an escalator, do your ride or do you walk? Studies show the goal for heart healthy daily activity is a minimum of 10,000 steps. Do you walk the dog to the curb or walk a few blocks? How many steps would you add by using the upstairs bathroom instead of the downstairs bathroom? We do this at our house. There are so many ways to create a positive change. Have fun with it.

Clients tell me that they feel dread and fear going into the holidays because of the abundance of food. Holidays are festive, fun, and full of joy. That doesn’t mean they have to be full of calories, fats, sugars, and overeating. It starts with your choices at the supermarket. My school-of-thumb is “If you don’t own it, you cannot eat it.” Try Canola Oil instead of butter, sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes, leave the creams and cheeses off the vegetables, drink hot cocoa instead of eggnog, and have the carbohydrates and starches—if you must—at breakfast or lunch. Keep dinner light with lean meats or fish and fresh vegetables and see what happens.

Email me at info@brennsblend.com for a list of simple steps to cook lighter, fresher, and healthier for you and your family as well as additional resources. Give me your fitness questions for Spring’s article by going onto http://blog.brennsblend.com. Let me know what’s on your mind. Happy Holidays!