Keeping Healthy Habits in the Holidays

The holidays are a time we all tend to relax our healthy habits, but to avoid completely undoing all your hard work throughout the year, try these few easy tips to keep healthy habits going throughout the holiday season.  

1. Keep a Routine

Try to keep some kind of routine in place throughout the holiday period. That could be as simple as getting the kids up at the same time each morning, and making sure they have a healthy breakfast before kick starting their day. Then in the evening, follow your normal wind-down routine with the kids as often as possible. Whether that’s bath, teeth and books before bed or if you spend half an hour with them and talk about their day. Whatever your normal is, keep it going throughout the holidays

2. Encourage Daily Movement

Without the structure and regularity of school sport, it’s important to find a way to keep the kids moving every day throughout the holidays. The great thing about summer holidays is it’s easy to encourage more outside play. Take walks, ride bikes, swim, go hiking, jump on the trampoline – make it fun. And remember, if your children don’t see you being active, why would they feel the need to be active? Wherever possible, make it something fun the whole family can get involved with.

3. Make Healthy Food Choices

There’s no denying that as we get closer to Christmas and into the summer holidays, we are surrounded by temptation to indulge – and for kids, it can be even harder to resist. By providing them with a healthy breakfast first thing and keeping healthy snacks on hand, as well as plenty of water to keep hydrated, you’re setting them on the right path. But also remember that it is Christmas and if not now, when is the right time to have a treat? We all know the key to balance is moderation, so help educate your children through this tempting season to being to understand this concept.

4. Ensure Plenty of Sleep

The days are lighter for longer and social engagements pop up more frequently adding to a lot of later nights for everyone. This can play havoc on your children’s’ sleep patterns. But as we know, sleep is critically important for cognitive and physical growth and development. Establish reasonable bedtimes for the holidays, knowing that sometimes a little flexibility may be required.

As with all things parenting (and life) it can be easy to get caught up in what we should be doing but it shouldn’t be at the expense of our stress levels. Incorporate these tips any way that works for you, or if you have other ideas of ways to survive the holidays while keeping healthy habits in check, we’d love to hear about them! Reach out to us on email, Facebook or Instagram. Otherwise, we wish you safe and happy holidays.