This is the time to relax and enjoy ourselves, which is important for our well-being, but unfortunately it is also during this period that we tend to throw our clean healthy eating habits to the curb and overindulge in unhealthy food.<\/p>\n
Registered dietitian, Sylvia Masango, said: \u201cIt is possible to strike a balance between allowing yourself the odd treat here and there and overindulging in everything that is being served.\u201d<\/p>\n
Masango gives the following tips on how to stay healthy during the festive season:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2022 Make sure you eat breakfast. Skipping breakfast can make you eat more poorly through the day.<\/p>\n \u2022 Maintain your current weight. This is not the best time to lose weight, not when you have all the delicious festive treats at your disposal.<\/p>\n \u2022 Keep exercising. Stick to your exercise routine to keep yourself feeling good.<\/p>\n \u2022 Never skip meals. Skipping lunch to compensate for a dinner full of calories is not a good idea.<\/p>\n \u2022 Do not eat everything on the buffet. Choose your favourite foods in smaller portions and skip those that you do not like to avoid overeating.<\/p>\n \u2022 Avoid sugary foods. Limit your intake of sugary foods as they increase sugar content in your body and make you crave more rich and sugary foods.<\/p>\n \u2022 Stock up on veggies and fruits. Any meal should include a large portion of vegetables and fruit.<\/p>\n \u2022 Practice healthy cooking. Try and make your favourite dishes healthier, for example, use margarine to saut\u00e9 veggies, or steam veggies and add in a bit of margarine.<\/p>\n \u2022 Limit your beverage intake. The non-alcoholic beverages that we drink during the day and with meals are often loaded with sugar and calories, and tend to make you want to eat more.<\/p>\n \u2022 Keep an eye on the alcohol. Control the amount of alcohol you drink over this season and try not to overindulge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is that time of the year when we host and visit our families and friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8164,"featured_media":106854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"hasGravity":false,"cxt_article_byline":"Lowvelder","cxt_disable_google_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[22431,22432,10010,12898,22430,10333],"class_list":["post-106853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news-headlines","tag-entertain-your-family-the-healthy-way","tag-health-tips-for-the-festive-season","tag-local-news","tag-middelburg-news","tag-stay-healthy-this-christmas","tag-trusted-news"],"category_labels":{"Category":"News","SubCategory":"Local news"},"tag_labels":["entertain your family the healthy way","health tips for the festive season","local news","middelburg news","stay healthy this christmas","trusted news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}