BEAT THE HOLIDAY STRESS AND WEIGHT-GAIN! - HEALTHY TIPS TO SURVIVE THE HOLIDAYS - Part II - At The Mall

Not only are there sales galore, but there are also numerous traps lurking about the mall that can ruin your holiday fitness plan. In today's post we'll highlight 3 easy ways to make your shopping experience work for you.

Holiday Shopping Tactics: We all have to do it at some point. Although the cyber world has made this holiday activity far easier than what it’s been in the past, some of us will still find ourselves having to brave the malls to do our shopping in person. Take this time and use this as an opportunity to work for you rather than against you

1.Don’t go shopping hungry! If you know that you’re going shopping, plan a light meal prior to going, or carry a snack with you like a healthy snack bar. When hungry, the smells at the food court become very enticing. Foods that you would not normally eat will call out your name.

2.Plan to eat. Instead of hitting the food court, plan to eat at one of the onsite restaurants. Due to their larger and more diverse menu items, many restaurants will offer you healthier food options than the fast food places in the food court. Plan to have lunch prior to shopping or dinner afterwards. This will also help to reduce holiday stress by giving you a chance to relax and decompress after dealing with all of the holiday hustle and bustle.

3.Park far! How long does it take to find a parking spot near the door? How frustrated do you get when you can’t find one, or you have found one, but someone else cuts I front of you and steals your spot before you can get in there? Rather than driving around for hours and getting frustrated while searching for that perfect parking spot closest to the entrance, park the car and walk. One way to do it is this, if Macy’s is on one end of the mall, park on the opposite end, this will encourage you to walk. 10,000 steps (2 miles) a day is required to maintain heart health, Take advantage of the walking distance and include these extra steps to and from the car in that daily allowance. In addition to the heart health, the other benefit here is that you will significantly limit the amount of stress that you will endure during holiday shopping season since you won’t be fighting with other shoppers for that ever elusive parking spot near the door.

Up next in our Holiday Fitness series... Commit to being fit! The benefit of scheduling time for YOU.

High Fashion Or Mixed Messages - If A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words, Then What Does This Photo Say?

While surfing the web looking for photos to post on my blog, I typed in “images of holiday workouts”. I expected to get images of people working out in the gym, or working out on vacation. I did see those, but one of the first images to pop up was the following. I cocked my head to the side and thought… “Hmmm… really??? Maybe this is just an editorial pic to sell couture workout attire ala the gold lame outfit and black heels.” So, I let my curiosity get the better of me and clicked on the link only to find that this photo was from HarpersBazaar.com to encourage working out during the holidays. Okay, kudos to HB for encouraging holiday fitness, that’s the right message. But did HB have to use this photo? Wrong message! Yes, I know some of you are thinking “but it’s Harper’s Bazaar, they’re a high fashion magazine and focus on everything couture” Yes, I know. I love high fashion as much as the next Fashionista, I even have the shoes shown in the photo, but I am also very realistic when it comes to body images and what we sell to the public. This photo in my view sends a pretty conflicting message when selling fitness. Now granted, because of Harpers Bazaar’s image and marketing strategies they would never opt to use a Fitness Model for a photo like this, but better options other than the use of a rail thin model sans muscle tone could have been considered. Within this same Harpers Bazaar holiday reel, previous photos encouraging stress relief and lower sodium intake contained photos of a bubble bath with candles and a photo of a salt shaker. In the same vein, HB could have also used a stylized photo of hand weights with a water bottle and towel to convey the same message about fitness. For those who may consider this to be a harmless photo, the reality is this. Many women and young girls see these photos and aspire to be that model. As a result, many of these same women and girls will also do harmful things to their bodies and psyche to get there. When placing images into the public’s eye, we should be mindful and responsible for what we deliver. As we know, the fashion world has been routinely criticized for the negative body images they promote by using extremely thin models for editorial shoots and fashion show runways. Dressing the same type of model in athletic fashions and placing her in a workout setting next to a caption promoting fitness workouts doesn’t do much for changing the mindset or the practice. What this now does is shift the paradigm to say that not only is this the standard of beauty, but it is also the standard of physical fitness and health.