Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite eating days of the year. Thanksgiving dinner is now only a couple of days away in Canada and the Turkeys and Hams have already been bought and are waiting to be eaten. This thanksgiving maybe you can be more careful about your eating and well being and I hope that looking at these tip will keep you feeling better the day after as you get to go on your post Thanksgiving day shopping spree.

1. Decide what you are going to eat each day in the morning before you start. Think about 3 meals and 3 snacks. No one says you can’t have a snack, then dinner a while later and then desert a while after that.

2. Get some exercise right after you get out of bed. This will help you focus on your fitness and make you aware of how your body feels that day.
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I have written a little bit in the past about how important it is to get a good nights sleep but I never really laid out a plan for the best way to get a good nights sleep so I thought that i would do that now.

First of all I believe that it is important to get enough sleep. I know that we all hear about, and sometimes even meet people that can get by just fine on four hours sleep. The people at the other end of the spectrum that need 11 hours sleep are never going to admit it becasue they will be looked at as being lazy no matter how unfair that is.

How much sleep do you need?

So to get a good nights sleep firstly it is important to analyze exactly how much sleep that you get on average during a week. I am not talking about how musch time that we spend in bed, or how we were tired one day but caught up the next, no really we need to just look from monday to Monday, see how musch sleep we tend to get and break it down from there. Most people have an alarm that wakes them up on Monday to Friday, and then maybe go to bed late Friday and Saturday which inevitably leads to sleeping in on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

To be fair in this regard I wake up by myself around 6:30 every morning and maybe 30 minutes or so later on the weekends as I have a job that allows me to start anytime I would like between 6:30 and 8:30, of course the kids would get me up if I slept in on the weekend and I do not want that.

What can hurt your sleep?

There are a multitude of sleep breaking habits that many of us have. First of all make sure that you are not consuming anything that will really hurt your sleep. Coffee is one of the big culprits for people that have sleep problems.  That mid-afternoon coffee may be a great pick me up after a bad night sleep but it is going to hurt tonights sleep. I have fallen into the same trap, if only I get my energy up now I can get a good night sleep tonight.

The next issue will be heavy food or spicy food late at night. Although both may seem like they are fin they will definitely affect your sleep. Alcohol is the same, some people think that having a night cap is a good way to get tired to sleep but really it will lead to sleeping shallow and not as deep as you need.

Exercise is a good thing to do to reregulate your system so that you can sleep well. Do not exercise too late at night but a late afternoon or early evening  workout will do wonders for making sure that you get a full nights sleep.

Preparing to sleep

Next thing to remember is the dreaded reading or watching TV in bed. Beds are for sleep. Only lie in bed when you are ready to fall asleep and do not go to bed until you are really tired and ready to sleep. One of the big problems that people have is to get into bed fully awake and lie there thinking about what happened today at work, what they have to grocery shop for and anything else that just pops into your head in the dark. One great tip on this that I got lately is to read on the couch in the living room later in the evening and then once you can not read a couple of pages without keeping your concentration then you know it is time to go to sleep.

Well if this helps great. The problem for some people though is that they get enough sleep they think but are still tired. There are a couple of issues that maybe t work if you do not feel rested in the morning. First thing to notice is that if you are sleeping but occasionally waking up then you may have some additional stress in your life that you need to deal with. Another problem that you may have is Sleep Apnea. Sleep Apnea is a real disorder that is characterized by bad bad breathing that forces you to wake or nearly wake thoughout the night. If you have a problem with either of these issues then it is a good idea to check with a doctor and get some further help.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite eating days of the year. Christmas dinner is now only a couple of days away and the Turkeys and Hams have already been bought and are waiting to be eaten. Every year I get up early on Christmas morning and eat and drink my way through the day and end up feeling boated and a little off by the end of the day.

I have thought about how best to get through the day and have the following tips. Remember that so much about Christmas is about lounging around and visiting with family and friends and this year if you plan to be moving a bit you may feel a lot better for it as you sit down to eat that big delicious meal. I have tried to put all of these ideas in order so that it is a bit easier to follow.

1. Decide what you are going to eat during the day is morning. Think about 3 meals and 3 snacks. No one says you can’t have a snack, then dinner a while later and then desert a while after that.

2. Get some exercise right after you get out of bed. Well we may have a little bit of a problem with this as the two little ones are going to want to eat presents right away and they will dictate the first hour or so. But after that if you can get the blood flowing is would be great. This will help you focus on your fitness and make you aware of how your body feels that day.

3. Drink lots of water throughout Christmas day starting in the morning. We all know how important it is to drink water and to stay hydrated. Also the Water will keep your body from feeling hungry throughout the day and let you feel a little fuller.

4. Eat a small breakfast to set up a slow eating day. Maybe some All Bran or something else filling would be good. I like to load up on the fruit if I know that I am going to have a busy day out and about as I know I will not get a chance to eat fruit later and it makes your breakfast a lot more interesting, colorful, and better.

5. Again you should have a fairly small lunch. but make sure that it is a complete meal and not a meal of candy and chocolate. This is where the morning planning will have helped as you may be out of the house and you do not want to resort to fast food.

6. Try to have some kind of snack a couple hours before dinner and then a walk. This is your first real chance to make a difference in your eating for the day that may normally be bad. Try making something interesting and out of season. I love fruit salad so you could always make a fruit salad and have it over low fat frozen yogurt. The great reason for this is that the Turkey and the rest of the food smell great I am always feeling so hungry all afternoon just smelling the food that the dinner itself is pure gluttony, this can be avoided by not starving yourself through the afternoon.

7. Eat everything at dinner but only small portions of each food. I am not sure about you but we have a large Christmas celebration with about 15 people and have ham, turkey, two kinds of potatoes, six vegetables and a couple of kinds of buns or bread. It is not the amount of food that matters but the trying of all of the foods at the table. Remember you can have leftovers for days in small servings as well.

8. Go for another walk if the weather is good. The worst thing to me is that after having a great Christmas dinner there is no energy outlet so you end up just sitting and almost falling asleep from the tryptophan in the turkey and then you don’t want to get up at all. Why not instead take a little walk around the neighborhood?

9. Dessert. If at all possible try to make a dessert yourself as then you can be sure how good or bad it is for you. My wife is always the designated dessert person for family get togethers as she makes stuff that is not quite as bad for you but always different and always really great tasting. One of the favorites these days is angel food cake with strawberries and Cool Whip

10. Try to keep things interesting for the evening. Having an interactive game to play or have the kids putting on a play is great. What you want to do after dinner and dessert is keep away from the regular habit of snacking even though you are full.

Christmas is a day that people always associate with a lot of food and what I have in mind is not to have you starve yourself on Christmas in the name of dieting but instead just make sure that you have a great day of moderation and eat some healthy snacks to keep yourself from eating too much heavy food and to feel a bit better about yourself the next day.