Healthier holidays Healthier holidays ADVERTISING Office parties, family and church celebrations — from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day — most of us are surrounded by hard-to-resist food and find it more difficult to be physically active. Parties and busy schedules,
Healthier holidays
Office parties, family and church celebrations — from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day — most of us are surrounded by hard-to-resist food and find it more difficult to be physically active.
Parties and busy schedules, increased holiday traffic, shopping crowds, traffic and a packed calendar of holiday events for both kids and adults can make it hard to eat healthy and can lead to stress.
If these common holiday pitfalls seem all too familiar, why not make this holiday season a healthier one and take advantage of the healthy options in your community, or around the house?
Just as there are lots of great holiday traditions, there are lots of ways to start new, healthy traditions with your family, at work, or just for yourself. What holiday tradition or activity could use a healthy change? Start something new and make it an annual occurrence.
1. Bring a dish with fresh or steamed vegetables or a platter of sliced fruit. Eating 5 cups of fruits and vegetables every day is recommended. It’s good to offer the kids more fruits and vegetables for their health so they can carry on the habit as adults.
2. For those of you who have family members with diabetes, try to make a dish that is part of their diet, or even a sugar-free dessert using sweeteners. Those with diabetes have a hard time with so many dishes on tables they know are bad for them, but they eat so not to offend. Show them you care about their diet and health. It means so much.
3. See if some members of your family will go take a walk together after eating, to share food with neighbors and friends nearby. It helps your circulation to walk and it’s nice to check in and visit with your neighbors. If you can walk within two hours of a meal, you will burn off some of the sugars that will later covert to fat if not used up.
4. Park your car a little further out in the parking lot when shopping (this leaves more spaces for seniors). This gives you a little more exercise walking to the store or mall. Take any advantage of using stairs if at all possible to keep your leg muscles in shape. Walk the length of the mall twice at a nice pace to get your heart rate, up then do your shopping. You may be less anxious and spend less.
The saying is “lucky you live Hawaii.” For 2013, change it to “lucky you live longer Hawaii.”
Lenard Allen
Public health educator,
State Department of Health
All-mail vote
Finally, the state is waking up to the fact that there is a flaw in the balloting system.
The governor is now advocating an all-mail vote.
In August, there was a problem on this island with the ballots. The blame was put on the county clerk, in error. There were some mysterious sick calls from employees on that day. There were some firings of election personnel for alleged misconduct. Were they friends?
In the November elections, there were irregularities on Oahu. Apparently, there are not enough competent personnel to handle the election system. All of these flaws can be eliminated through the use of mail-in balloting.
Bob Dukat
Pahoa
