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I hope this finds you running well as we move into the Winter! Here are 3 holiday tips to keep you healthy as we move into the holiday season…

1.) Load up on fruit & veggies – as we move closer to Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year, it’s very easy to increase our sugar intake with all the holiday treats available. Make it a point to stock up on healthy snacks and limit the amount of unhealthy snacks you have in the house. Instead, save the sugary treats for those special gatherings with family or friends. My wife and I love to cut up broccoli and cauliflower and load up a container full to have handy. We then use hummus or Annie’s Goddess dressing as a delicious dip. Apples and oranges are also great to have available since they’re packed with immunity-building Vitamin C. Apples are also a fantastic source of Quercetin, a flavinoid that helps guard against cold or flu bugs and also has been found to decrease inflammation. As a runner, lingering inflammation can be an injury waiting to happen. Refined sugar also creates more inflammation throughout the body.

2.) Vitamin D Supplement – depending on where you live, this can also be a time of year when the sun can be a little more elusive which means our bodies don’t make as much Vitamin D. For the runner, Vitamin D levels correspond with our immunity which is the body’s ability to fight off disease and illness. So during this season, a Vitamin D supplement can help boost immunity, especially as we endure more intense training. Based on research, it’s tough to beat Maximized Living’s Vitamin D3 Complex

3.) Don’t Forget Water! – As the weather gets cooler, it’s easier to back off on water since the body doesn’t alert us as quickly to our need. A nice formula to ensure you’re drinking enough is to change your body weight to ounces and cut that in half. For example, I weigh 150 lbs. Therefore, my minimum intake should be 75 ounces each day. This number will increase on days when we run. Water helps flush out waste and toxins. One way to know you’re drinking enough is notice a clear to light yellow color in your urine. Dark yellow is a sign you’re under-drinking.

Practice these 3 tips over the next couple months and you’ll give your body an extra layer of protection it needs despite the distractions that are inevitable this time of year.

On the Run,

CJ

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