Maintaining Weight and Wellness During the Holidays

Below is the press release going out this week to Bay Area news centers, many thanks to William Freed of Motv Marketing!

Get REAL! for the Holidays!

Get REAL! – Realistic Eating & Active Lifestyle™ Presents Three Quick Tips to Maintain Weight and Wellness During the Holidays

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – December 7, 2010 –  Getting through the holidays while maintaining a healthy weight poses a challenge for even the most fit of individuals.  For the rest of us, the eating and drinking associated with holiday get-togethers can mean packing on pounds that can add to lifelong weight gain.*  To avoid those extra holiday pounds, Get REAL! – Realistic Eating & Active Lifestyle™ presents three simple and memorable holiday tips for maintaining holiday health and wellness:

• Drink Water – lots of it!  A simple rule is one glass of water per cocktail or glass of beer/wine.  You’ll avoid lots of alcohol calories, fill up faster and be less tipsy at the end of the night.  Not to mention, feel better in the morning!

• Eat Realistically – holiday drinking and eating is about celebration, not about deprivation.  Focus on eating lightly throughout the day not starving yourself before a big dinner, and eating protein to maintain energy and stoke your metabolism.  When indulging, get really picky about your choices.  Don’t just settle for a commercial sheet cake; hold out for great aunt Sally’s fudge made with love especially for you!  Experiment with smaller portions of high-calorie treats like cheese, bread and cookies/sweets. Studies show that it’s really the first two bites of anything that you get the most taste enjoyment out of anyway so make them count!

• Be Active and Reduce Stress – take a walk at lunchtime, take the stairs, walk around town to visit with neighbors/friends if possible.  Most any activity will increase your metabolism, so go for it!  Get plenty of sleep and avoid spending lots of time in front of TVs and glowing computer screens.

While following these tips is no guarantee that you won’t gain any weight during the holidays, they are a good start and part of a reasonable, achievable way to maintaining health and wellness, and reducing stress.  This practical approach is integral to Get REAL!™ – a lifestyle program created by Clinical Nutritionist and Counselor Kia Sanford, MS/CN, an expert in working with individuals and groups around the country to help people find an individual path toward long term health.

Get REAL!™ holds participatory workshops, field study and hands-on cooking experiences around the country, that enable students to “put it all together” and take control as they embark on a healthy way of living for the long term.  In addition to Get Real! ™, Ms. Sanford offers private, one-on-one services in clinical nutrition and psychotherapy through Kailo Nutrition & Counseling. For more information about Get REAL! ™, please visit www.GetRealLifestyle.com.

* According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, average holiday weight gain is less than two pounds, but can add to lifelong weight gain because it is never lost.  See:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=10727591&dopt=AbstractPlus