By Toni from RunningLovingLiving.com
The holiday season encompasses November, December and January, and throughout these months a lot of drinking, eating and celebrating occurs. My number one goal for the holiday season is to get through it without gaining weight. This year, I have taken it upon myself to start a new tradition in my family along with all the drinking, eating and celebrating…… we plan to run!
Racing during the holiday season is a great motivator to keep on track with training and healthy eating. With scheduled races throughout the holidays the excuses not to run or eat healthy become less likely to rear their ugly head. First off, I hate paying for a race then not putting my best foot forward or worse yet, not running it at all. Plus this year I have recruited my husband making the races a family tradition so I don’t want to let him down or vice versa.
Our new tradition started with a Virtual 5K Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving. We chose a virtual race because I was cooking Thanksgiving by myself and my time was tight. Unfortunately, Chris was sick and could not participate in the virtual run but I still got myself out there at 10 am!! I ran my virtual 5K in 28:28 and a tradition has begun which Chris will participate in next year. The accomplishment of getting out and running before eating a huge turkey dinner felt fantastic, plus the calorie burn helped to lessen the guilt associated with all the over indulgences from dinner….maybe we will make it a 10K next year!
Chris and I have 3 more races planned: a Hot Chocolate 5K, a Snowball 5 miler and a New Year’s Day 5K. I have lined these races up to keep us motivated and moving throughout the holiday season. With all the parties indulging is quite common throughout December so by racing we keep up on our training and feel a lot less guilty when we indulge. This is one holiday tradition I plan to repeat every year and pass on to my daughters when they get older so we can all participate as a family together. A healthy holiday tradition is born!!!
___________________________________________________
Guest Blog Series: Look for the following badge on your favorite health sites to see if they have been a featured guest blogger on DietsInReview.com. See other posts in the Guest Blog series.
If you would like to apply to be featured as a guest blogger, please contact us.