Maruchy Lachance is president of Running Ninja!, a lifestyle brand for runners by runners. Running Ninja! offers a wide variety of apparel and gifts for runners to keep you happy and inspired while you’re on the run.
At least once a week I find myself suggesting to friends to exercise and/or change their diet in order to manage or control a current issue in their lives.
While at a party someone overheard me encouraging a recently divorced mother of two to take up running to fight off all the stress in her life. About an hour later I was approached by the bystander and complimented on my suggestion because instead of fueling her flame of misery or blowing sunshine in her face, I gave her a tangible tool that will help her alleviate some of the problems she is dealing with. This conversation got me thinking about all the other benefits that moderate exercise can do for us.
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Catherine Holecko is the Guide to Family Fitness at About.com and suggests Harry Connick Jr. for all your holiday karaoke needs and workout playlists.
I absolutely love the winter holidays and everything that goes along with them, but as my kids grow and life gets busier and more complicated, I’ve noticed my stress level rising each November. Since we have no family nearby, we travel for Thanksgiving every year, and Christmas every other year—which, I swear, has to be the top holiday stressor ever. So this year, I’m formalizing a plan to make the season merrier. It starts with thinking clearly about what matters to me and my husband and kids.
1. We need a tree. I need a live (well, cut) Christmas tree even if we are not going to be home for Christmas. Yes, it’s a pain to wrestle into the stand, to clean up after, to keep watered, and to dispose of. But nothing can take the place of the sight and scent of a real tree. My daughter has already asked me if we’ll have a tree this year even though we won’t be home on Christmas Day, so I know it’s something she cares a lot about too. Plus, choosing and decorating the tree is an important family activity, something we all insist on doing together, while singing carols like some kind of television commercial or cheesy sitcom.
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Christine Koh is the founder and editor of Boston Mamas, the designer behind Posh Peacock, and writes a personal blog at Pop Discourse. She
lives in the Boston area with her husband Jonathan and daughters Laurel (7 years) and Violet (8 months). She tweets about it all at @bostonmamas.
The holidays are, characteristically, a challenging time of year for many. Emotions often run high (e.g., due to missing loved ones or interfacing with family members with whom there is friction) and there are physical challenges as well — the abundance of sweet treats challenges even the most disciplined, and busy schedules and overwhelming to-do lists can shift self care to the back burner. In my opinion, it’s thus even more important to step back and reflect on your actions around this time of year. Here are eight things I recommend doing to enjoy a healthier holiday season – both mentally and physically.
1. Bring and/or serve alternative treats. One Christmas, my sister-in-law
brought healthier snacks as a hostess gift for my mother – items such as a prettily arranged dried fruit platter and yogurt covered pretzels instead of yet another tray of cookies or bowl of candy. And everyone gravitated towards these offerings because they provided a welcome respite to the super sweet treats! Consider healthy alternative treats as either a hostess gift or if you are looking to put out snacks at your own holiday gathering.
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Compassion meditation is a type of practice that can actually physically remodel the brain. The results of several studies confirm how practicing meditation can change your brain patterns to make you a nicer, happier person.
At the University of Madison Wisconsin, researchers tested the electrical activity of Buddhist monks during meditation compared with just sitting and doing nothing. The electrical brain waves of the meditators were off the charts, suggesting meditation has an impact on neurological occupation, versus just vegging out.
In another study at Emory University, a group of people meditated 30 minutes a day for two weeks. Results indicated key areas of the subjects’ brains had changed in addition to making them more generous. Researchers hooked up microphones and recorded the subjects at random times during the day and found they were saying nicer things to people.
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At age 40, Holly Mosier felt like she had hit a wall. “[It was] hard to come out of my bedroom at times. I was a wife, mother, stepmother, trial lawyer… trying to blend a family and maintain some semblance of peace, joy, health and vitality, and I was failing miserably,” says Holly. She sought solutions everywhere she could think of to find tools that she could work in to her life despite being a very busy professional and mother.
Despite searching in books, seminars, classes, medical studies, experts, and television shows, as she looked for practical, efficient solutions, and Holly never found the answers she was looking for, she was able to develop her own set of tools to create a “lifestyle that balances the needs of the mind, body, and spirit in a practical, efficient way.” After working these techniques into her own life and seeing the result, Holly put them together in her book Stress Less, Weigh Less. Holly has now expanded her techniques to create the following tips for handling holiday stress.
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