How to Stay Healthy in Holidays Season?

For those who are on a diet, Halloween can be the beginning of a multi-month nightmare with treats appearing everywhere during the holiday season. Not to mention that overeating seems to be an American holiday tradition. However, there are ways that you and and your family can stay healthy and avoid gaining weight during the holiday season.

• Holiday parties: Holiday parties seem to be centered around treats. Besides avoiding all social events!! here are some tips to keep friendships and a small waistline.
  
  >> Don't go to a party hungry
  
  >> If there's a buffet line, choose only the food that looks most appetizing to you (that way you don't feel forced to eat everything on your plate)
                             
  >> Watch portions and limit loading on sauces and dips, which are typically high in calories
                                    
  >> Exercise before the party.
  
  >> Don't stand by the food table
  
  >> Offer to bring a healthy dish.
• Instead of waiting to eat at big meal eat small little meals to help curb your appetite.
• Slow the pace when eating meals. "It takes at least 20 minutes for our brains to signal that we're actually full, which means a slow eater will consume less calories before feeling full than someone who races through their meal''
• Savor the first few bites. "When looking at brain chemicals signaling 'pleasure,' scientists have found that we receive less pleasure the more we eat of a food,So rather than feeling like you must eat a full serving of every desert at a holiday meal, take a bite or two and receive 90 percent of the pleasure at 10 percent of the calories."
• Find nutritious holiday foods: Some popular holiday food are actually nutritious too:                
  >> Chestnuts are actually one of the healthier nuts, that doesn't contain as much fat. It also contains fiber, vitamin C and folic acid, which reduces cardiovascular disease and helps the immune system.
  
  >> Turkey is a great source of protein. White meat is known to be the most nutritious part, but the dark meat contains the most iron. Keep turkey nutritious by avoiding the outer skin.
  
  >> A sweet potato "provides over 100 percent of our daily needs for beta-carotene,". It also has a high amount of vitamin C and E.
  
  >> Cranberries fight against cancer and heart disease. Adding it to sweet treats can reduce sugary content by 25 percent.
• Get enough sleep: You know how run down you feel when you don't get enough sleep, and during the holidays with all the social obligations, it can be even more difficult to get the right amount. That means your immune system isn't at it's best. Make more of an effort during the holidays to get an adequate amount of sleep - 7 hours of sleep per night - if you want to up your chances of remaining healthy during the holidays.
• Avoid shopping online: It's so much easier to shop online, but one problem is that you're sitting while you're doing it. When you're shopping in the stores, you move around and walk all over. You'll get a workout without even realizing it, especially if you're walking around a mall. If you live in a large city, such as New York City, forget about subways or cabs and get a really great workout while you do your shopping.
• drink alot of water and green tea.
• Play with the Kids:  During the holiday season, you're likely to be around more small children than usual. Take advantage of having the little ones around, and try to feed off of their holiday excitement. Instead of being burdened by the extra responsibilities of having tiny tots around, play with your nieces and nephews. You can chase the active toddlers around the house or take the older kids on a stroll around the neighborhood to check out holiday decorations. You'll be squeezing in a workout during the manic holiday season, and it's likely that the kids will put you in the holiday spirit.
• Workout Indoors: Working out can be difficult during the holidays for people who like to exercise outdoors. Taking a walk or going for a run might be next to impossible in freezing temperatures. Instead of being a couch potato while you're stuck indoors, come up with a workout you can do inside. Climb up and down the stairs in your house for a good cardio workout. Focus on weight training, Palates, yoga or invest in some fitness videos to stay trim during the holiday season. You could even put some of these items on your gift wish list.

Happy Holidays! :)

10 Homemade Gift Ideas

A gift is never measured by its price. A true gift is always measured by its meaning (and sometimes its usefulness too).
You don’t have to buy expensive gifts to show how much you value the other person. Simple ideas that convey true genuine feelings have more lasting and meaningful impact.
Check out these easy homemade gift ideas for Christmas, a birthday, or any occasion. Using these ideas, you can give everyone you know a homemade gift this year.

1. Photo album containing photos of memories you shared together.
2. “I appreciate you jar”  The idea simply is to fill a nice jar with slips of paper, each with a reason you appreciate (or love) someone.
3. Paint a picture, if you can.
4. The gift of tea: I love the idea of giving homemade Herbal Tea Blends as a gift. You can customize these tea blends to your hearts content. If you’re not sure where to start, here is a list of 10 different Herbal Tea Blends that would be very easy to put together in bags or jars for presents. Who wouldn’t want that as a gift?If herbal tea isn’t your thing, this Chai Tea Concentrate would also make an excellent gift.
5. Compilation of favorite music: This is more of an emotional gift and serves to bring up memories that have special meaning for both people involved. Make a CD with all those songs that feature on the list of favorites for the person you are giving the gift to.
6. Doll house: Searching for gift ideas for girls? What could be better than making dollhouses,provided you have the necessary woodworking skills.                            
7. Message board: Have a friend who goes crazy about organizing things? Well, then the best gift to give would be to make a message board that they can use.
8. Painted pots : This is a great idea for kids who want to give gifts. Provide them with pots, and colors and let them go crazy with different designs.

 
 
9. Recipe book: "A book is a gift you can open again and again"...If you are giving a gift to your daughter (or son), then a great gift to give can be a hand written book with all the food recipes of the dishes that they love.
10. Soft toys: Making teddy bears, rag dolls, or other plush toys for kids as gifts will make them very happy, How To Make Homemade Teddy Bear?

If your gift list is long and your budget is small,

Keep in mind that handmade items are not just beautiful but special too…

 

 

have a nice weekend! ^_^



Fashion Tips for 2012 Winter!

With fall and winter coming, perhaps your wardrobe needs a bit of updating? Well, here are a few fall and winter fashion trends that you may want to consider purchasing.

• The Hat Has Made A Huge Comeback For The Winter of 2012: I think it's so nice to see the hat make such a comeback this year!   

 

• The colors on the runway for the fall/winter season of 2012/2013 :

All the classic fall/winter colors such as brown, black, taupe, winter white,and many shades of gray, as well as dark rich blues seem to be prevalent in an abundance at New York's Fashion Week runways. Not to say that some designers didn't use brighter colors, because they did. However, it did appear the brighter colors were played down for the up coming fall season.. Evening wear was where the designers appeared to use some bolder, and very soft pastel colors. Such as, hues of gold, red, vivid blues, and deep jewel tones. In regards to evening wear, many designers used soft pastels in shades of soft blush pink, and silvery soft blues tones to create gowns that were fabulously feminine, and old Hollywood sexy... For all you gals that love the color black, don't worry the designers have taken care of you... The designers have used the color black in many fashion looks. However, for the Fall/Winter of 2012/2013 you will see your favorite color black mixed up with dark gray, stark white, as well as lots of shades of dark mid-night blue.

The Burberry Dreamy Rose Gold Winter Fall Collection 2012

Fashion Mistakes - biggest fashion oops... Plus some good solutions:
Let's face it , even the most stylish of us make some oh so big fashion mistakes. It's never to late to turn your fashion flops into fashion forward outfits. Listed just below are some good solutions to the year's wardrobe catastrophes ...         

• Oversized tunic top

To the smallest figure to plus-sized ladies, the oversized tunic top trend left a lot to the imagination... "Is she pregnant or just smuggling who knows what underneath all of that extra fabric?"

Need a Fix? Try an empire waist top, this style goes to accentuate your assets,plus are so comfortable. Another great solution - cinch in your tunics with a great belt . You will be pleasantly surprised, you will look shapely and still cover parts that you prefer to keep covered.

• Huge Leg Pants

There are a few blessed women who can pull this trend off with successes. The rest of us just tend to look shorter, heavier, and shapeless, in huge legged pants.

Want a fast fix: Love wide leg pants? You can still pull off the look of a wide-leg pant, try a better-fitting pair of pants that has a boot cut. Boot cut are a bit wider at the bottom, but tend to give a slimming look to most figures.

• Leggings

Leggings are fun to wear, and are shown with lots of different types of tops, but their tight design leaves little to the imagination... Leggings can actually exaggerate cellulite ripples, and other flaws. They frequently make ones behind appear wider than wide.

Want a fast fix? Leggings are lovely with shirts that are long enough to hide potential problem areas, tunics or long cardigans are a good choice to sport with a legging, both of which cover the backside.

• Big Scarves

Seriously, scarves that are twice the size of your body just won't do, NOT cute - not cute at all.

Try this instead: Want your neckline noticed? Add a wonderful piece of jewelry instead of a scruffy wrinkled scarf. The big scarf fad is so on its way out....

 

Have a Beautiful Day?! :)