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A Merry Life

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Ultimate Healthy Holiday Survival Guide

November 17, 2010 by Mary

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for details.

healthy holiday survival guideThanksgiving is coming up next week. After that the rest of “the holidays” will follow. It’s a treacherous time to be following a healthy lifestyle, since the norm is to stuff yourself silly for the next two months and then commit to fully changing your ways come January 1.

There is nothing new I can write about surviving the holidays. It’s all been written already. But what I can do is create a resource for all of us by rounding up that information and putting it in one pretty place for us all to reference. (Really, it’s for everyone. Link to it. Share it. Help each other get through the season in a healthy way!!)

Welcome to the ultimate holiday survival guide roundup.

Healthier Holiday Eating

Eating during the holidays has a reputation for rich, indulgent foods… and over-abundance. The average Thanksgiving meal is over 3,000 calories and that’s just for one meal. Paying attention to how you eat on that day and beyond can help you survive the season without packing on the pounds.

  • Smart holiday party snacking: Holiday parties can be a food trap, but this guide shows you the best cocktail hour options for snacks at parties. Find more ways to party proof your diet and check out the 10 healthiest party foods.  If you still need more help preparing for parties, check out these diet friendly tips for party food.
  • Healthy Holiday Super Foods: Focus on eating the food that is good for you so you can worry less about the bites that aren’t quite so healthy.  Even better, check out holiday desserts that are good for you.
  • 9 Healthy Holiday-Eating Strategies: The best idea for surviving the holidays is to have a plan and stick with it. These 9 strategies will help you plan for any situation you might face during the holiday season. More strategies to cope with holiday eating.
  • Hanukkah Survival Guide: If you are celebrating the Festival of Lights check out this guide for tips on eating well and recipe adaptations.
  • Luscious Holiday Leftovers: Tips for using holiday leftovers and making the best of what you’ve got left to work with after the feasting is over.

Healthier Holiday Recipes

If you are in charge of the menus then you are in charge of whether or not the food is healthy. Even if the family screams for traditional fare you can sneak at least one healthy option in there and if you have a daring bunch you can try even more. Here’s a list of some great healthy holiday recipes.

  • Thanksgiving 2010 Recipes (Food Network… I couldn’t resist and it’s all healthy in moderation)
  • Healthy Thanksgiving Recipes, Menus, and Cooking Tips (Eating Well…awesome resource!)
  • The Great Thanksgiving Recipe Swap (Eat Live Run group project)
  • Healthy Thanksgiving Recipes (All Recipes)
  • Healthy Recipes for the Holidays (Fitness)
  • 12 Healthy, Low-Calorie Holiday Recipes (Fitness)
  • Low Carb Thanksgiving Recipes (Marks Daily Apple)
  • Low Fat Holiday and Seasonal Recipes (About.com)
  • Vegetarian Thanksgiving Recipes (The Veggie Table)
  • Vegetarian Thanksgiving Recipes (101 Cookbooks)
  • Fat Free Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes (Fat Free Vegan Kitchen)
  • Mostly Raw Vegan Thanksgiving Menu (Choosing Raw)
  • Raw Christmas Menu (Choosing Raw)
  • Healthier Thanksgiving Dessert Ideas (A Merry Life)

Healthier Exercise Holiday Habits 

It can be hard to find time to exercise during the holidays with all the extra obligations that inevitable pop up. Most of us allow gym time to be sacrificed first. But exercising during the holidays is important to keep you feeling your best and keeping stress at bay. Make sure that even if you can’t stick with your normal workout routine you still find ways to be active.

  • Staying Fit During The Holidays: Useful tips for staying fit and active during the holiday season. More tips for your holiday fitness program.
  • 7 Ways to Sneak in a Holiday Workout: Sometimes you have to sneakily make time during your day for a workout. Here’s a few tips on how to do it.
  • Burn Off Holiday Calories!: You don’t have to spend hours in the gym during the holidays. Here’s over 30 ways to burn calories without hitting the gym.
  • Winter Workout Tips: Cold got ya down? Keeping you inside? Winterize your workouts with these ideas.

Healthy Holidays Survival Tips

Add a cold or other ailment to the food, the stress, the planning and you’ve got a recipe for disaster during the holidays. Make sure you take care of your general wellness during the season.

  • Food Safety 101 for The Holiday Season: Remember that all the meals being prepared need to be prepared properly. Food safety is important – you don’t want to get sick or worse, make others ill. Here’s some really useful information from the USDA about Seasonal Food Safety and more from the FDA on Holiday Food Safety.
  • Cold and Flu Survival Guide: Be prepared and taking tips to prevent colds and the flu is the best solution. Read this handy guide for all the best information about surviving the cold season.
  • Stress, Depression and the Holidays: Helpful tips from the Mayo clinic to recognize and ward off potential stress and depression associated with the holidays.
  • Loneliness and The Holidays: Sometimes the holidays can be a lonely time. This additional stress can be hard to deal with in a season thought of mostly as full of joy and love, but these tips can help you lessen the stress of holiday loneliness.

Destressing During The Holidays

The worst part about the holidays is how stressful they can be. With many extra obligations, family time, and financial stress it’s easy to become overwhelmed and completely stressed out.

  • Easy Ways to Reduce Holiday Stress: Real Simple’s guide to making it through the holidays without combusting is full of great tips.
  • Top Ten Stress Relievers: Great ideas from Mayo Clinic on how to keep stress to a minimum. For more ideas, check out Seven Ways To De-stress Instantly.
  • How To De-stress At Your Desk Instantly: If your feeling stressed at work during the season (hello office parties and gift giving), destress with these options.
  • Fight Holiday Perfectionism: One of the worst causes of stress is holiday perfectionism, or the belief that you need to do everything and make sure it’s perfect. Recognize the signs and change them so you can relax and actually enjoy the holidays!

Holiday Gift Giving

Gift giving can be stressful if you worry too much about it. Here are some cute and mostly inexpensive ideas for fun holiday gifts.

  • Healthy Gift Ideas
  • Christmas Gift Ideas for Weight Loss
  • Choosing Raw Holiday Gift Guide
  • Reasons To Make or Give Handmade Gifts
  • Peppermint Walnut Crunch Blondies

Best Holiday Tips From Other Bloggers

Some helpful tips and tidbits about the holidays from some of my favorite healthy bloggers.

  • Healthy Tipping Point: Exercising Through The Holidays, Vegetarian Thanksgiving Recipes
  • Marks Daily Apple: Holiday Survival Guide Part I and Part II, Active Ways To Celebrate The Holidays
  • MizFit Online: Thanksgiving Survival Tips, Jewish MizFit Guide To Making It Through Christmas
  • Oh She Glows: How To Reduce Stress and Increase Well Being

Happy Holidays Everyone!

ps – This list will continue to be updated and grow as I find more awesome links. The internet is  a big place so obviously things were overlooked. If you have any favorite resources leave them in the comments!

Filed Under: Awesome Tips Tagged With: Christmas, healthy eating, healthy tips, holiday survival, holidays, thanksgiving


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Comments

  1. Christie {Honoring Health} says

    November 17, 2010 at 5:47 am

    I just launched a course called Abundant Self Care through the holidays yesterday:

    http://www.honormyhealth.com/2010/11/16/abundant-self-care-through-the-holidays/

    In the course, I will help the participants build extreme self care into their daily lives as well as caring for yourself when it comes to food and family.

  2. Karen says

    November 17, 2010 at 6:03 am

    Thanks for the links. I have been trying to find some great recipes to take to Thanksgiving that are healthy but also don’t seem like “diet” food:) So far I am planning on a quinoa dish and two versions of pumpkin bread: the full-fat and sugar version and the low-fat, whole wheat, non-sugar version.

  3. Sarah @ Fat Little Legs says

    November 17, 2010 at 7:31 am

    I just posted my favorite lighter holiday recipes on my blog yesterday. My absolute #1 favorite is the twice baked sweet potatoes:
    http://www.fatlittlelegs.com/2010/11/favorite-thanksgiving-recipes.html

    I’m doing a whole series on living healthy during the holidays this week, so lots of good tips from myself and other bloggers!

    Thanks for the awesome set of links… definitely bookmarking this for future reference.

  4. Toni says

    November 17, 2010 at 7:40 am

    Great post! I’m Canadian so Thanksgiving is long gone but I still have to contend with Christmas! Thanks for sharing!

  5. Sagan says

    November 17, 2010 at 10:39 am

    Love it! What an awesome roundup.

  6. Julie says

    November 17, 2010 at 10:55 am

    Thanks so much for putting this together!

  7. Carol says

    November 17, 2010 at 11:05 am

    What a great resource! Thanks for taking the time to put it together.

  8. Lisa says

    November 17, 2010 at 11:26 am

    Thanks for the food links! I’m saving this post.

  9. Meegan says

    November 17, 2010 at 11:41 am

    Too funny, I posted about my Holiday tactics today! This is a great list of resources. Thanks a million for putting them all together in one super place to visit. I’d love to know what you think of my possibly grinchy holiday strategies. lol
    http://www.redstar5.com/blog/?p=938

  10. Badgirl says

    November 17, 2010 at 12:12 pm

    “An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day”

    Great post, the links will come in very handy. Thank you.

  11. merri says

    November 17, 2010 at 6:15 pm

    Somehow, everyone online always gets invited to 80 million food type bbqs, parties, etc every holiday, except me. Makes me feel unpopular! Lol. Or, just that the parties I go to don’t involve food. Interesting. I am making thanksgiving though, so I may check out some of those recipe links you posted. Thanks!

  12. chris says

    November 18, 2010 at 1:52 am

    I was thinking of you today and wondering how you were settling in to kiwi land.
    How are you settling in? What’s it like there vs. america?
    I always wondered. Have a great week and stay away from any sort of pecan pie, those things are killer.

  13. Maggie @ Looking For My Feet says

    November 20, 2010 at 2:29 am

    Great links! A lot of them won’t be for me, but just as many are. I actually find it much easier here in NZ because it’s too damn hot over Christmas to do much actual cooking and I pretty much live on fruit and veg. Thanks for sharing this stuff!

  14. Sarah @ Low Stress Weight Loss says

    November 22, 2010 at 6:36 am

    Can’t wait to have time to explore some of this

    I am starting a No-Weight-Gain Pledge for the Holidays which I think will also help a lot of your readers :

    http://lowstressweightloss.com/blog/make-the-pledge-no-gain-holidays/2364

    My goal, of course, is to exceed the “no gain” and actually lose, but if all I do is meet the ‘no gain’ I’m still way ahead of the game….

    • Mary says

      November 22, 2010 at 1:38 pm

      Thanks for letting me/us know about the pledge! Maybe it will help someone! :)

Trackbacks

  1. Tweets that mention Ultimate Holiday Survival Guide Roundup -- Topsy.com says:
    November 17, 2010 at 5:42 am

    […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mary Thompson, Chris Langdon. Chris Langdon said: Ultimate Holiday Survival Guide Roundup http://bit.ly/aUpbWV […]

  2. Surviving The Holidays: Can You Make It Through 'Til January? | The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans says:
    November 19, 2010 at 6:03 am

    […] If you find yourself looking for more tips and tricks to survive the holidays, be sure to check out this HUGE guide from A Merry […]

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