The holidays are coming up... Do you have traditions that aren't food related? Traditions are really important to me, but so is supporting my husband in his weight loss and having a healthy family. So, any suggestions?
Suggestions? Me? ABSOLUTELY!
Before I jump into them, I must stress that these activities HAVE to be scheduled in to your busy week. Whether you spend the holidays with extended family or not, putting some active traditions on the calendar will make sure you don't get buried with all the cooking, shopping, and sports watching.
Another thing I adore about active traditions is that they typically are free or very low cost. With the holidays and all the money that is being sucked away during that time, this is quite a nice relief for the pocketbook.
Some things our family is doing or has done over the holidays:
Family Hikes
Over the years I've found several kid-friendly hikes back home. My kids look forward to doing them every holiday season when we return home to AZ. We always invite cousins to come and we have a little party on the mountain (it's really a hill, but don't tell them that :).
Grown-up Hikes
I've already gotten the emails from my sister arranging the time and date of the adult-level hike. These are quite more challenging and totally a blast to do with siblings. We leave the kiddos with a sitter during nap time then hit the mountain for a few hours. Heaven on earth.
Family Bike Rides
The day after Thanksgiving my sister and her family have invited us for years to join them on their family bike ride. If the kids can ride and hang with the crew, great. If not, we break out with the bike carriers and baby seats. They have an easy ride that takes us to some fun parts of town. The kids feel as accomplished as Lance Armstrong winning his seventh, I swear.
Grown-up Bike Rides
Last year the Doc and I joined my BIL and a few other hundred riders for an early morning 40-mile bike ride. It was challenging (for me, not for my BIL or the Doc) and we torched through a ton of calories. It was the perfect set up for Thanksgiving day: we could eat and sleep and not feel one ounce of guilt about it.
Turkey Trot
A few members of my extended family got together last year and put together their own Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. They were sick of the entry fees and long drives to the local Turkey Trot, so they made their own. Brilliant! They mapped out a 1 mile fun run, a 5K and a 10K route and opened it up to all of us. I plan on running in it this year and am looking forward to the finish line with my kids and family cheering me on.
Family Walk
In our family we are dealing with babies, nursing moms and kids of all ages. This year we've decided to check out a Riparian Preserve nearby my parents house for an interesting walk.
Dance-Off
This deserves an entire blog of its own, but I will try to explain briefly. I come from a clan of dancers and years ago -- I'm talking at least 20 -- my cousins started a "Dance-Off" in their living room. Basically you bring your music, best dance moves, and maybe a costume to the floor and slap them down for all to see. It has grown into something so big and crazy I cannot begin to do it justice (there are some very incriminating pictures out there of me from Dance-Offs of yesteryear, I'm sure :). We do this on a smaller level at home all the time. My kids beg to have family Dance-Offs and they are a huge hit every time.
Family Olympics
My mother and I are in the middle of planning our family's first annual Family Olympics for the evening before Thanksgiving. We have events for the kids, for the grown ups, and family events. When we pull it off, I will definitely share the details. In a nutshell, we are making it participation based and the kid events are open to all ages (if they can walk, they can participate). Everyone will get a medal from the Olympic Officials (Grandma and Grandpa). Every family is bringing a family cheer to perform. It should be a ton of fun and get us all moving before the turkey, stuffing, and pie hit us the next day.
Some more ideas:
Family kickball, basketball, football, soccer (you get the picture) game
Roller Skating
Ice Skating
Snow skiing
Snow shoeing
Sledding
Roller blading
Bowling
Musical Chairs
Limbo Contest
Hey Fit Mommas, what active traditions do you enjoy with your family over the holidays? Comment below and tell us WHAT WORKS!
Related Posts:
More "Fit Momma Question" Posts
Kid-Friendly Hikes
Hiking
Great Holiday!
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6 comments:
One of our kids favorite is hitting the local indoor pool, when we visit my in-laws. We go there for Christmas every year and spending a couple of hours there a day or two after the big day gives a chance to get out of the house, away from the hustle and bustle and let them be as active as they want without the worry of driving Grandma and Grandpa crazy. I'm sure anywhere you end up for the holidays (or even staying home) you could find an indoor pool/jumpzone/gym to just have a fun day burning those holiday sugar highs.
Swimming -- love it! My kids would love throwing on the goggles again. Thanks!
Since I was a kid, my family has a tradition of going skiing on Christmas day! We wake up and open our gifts from Santa, have a quick breakfast and then head up the slopes. When we get home that night, we open gifts from family and have dinner. It's an awesome tradition! One year, as kids we wanted to just stay home like "normal" kids and play with our gifts all day and we found out we were SO bored! We look forward to skiing every year, Santa is even on the mountain!
Awesome! Love the idea of a thanksgiving turkey trot or long bike ride!
great ideas! i want to start something with my extended family(since we travel there every year) but dont' know how to get it going. we have talked about it briefly but like you said we have to schedule it(and stick to it) or it will get overlooked. I am the only fitness-minded in the family so it is tough. This Friday i hope to start a tradition with my daughter(and maybe the hubby and son later) where we do a candlelight run through a small town nearby. It is at 10pm and is always the Friday before Thanksgiving. My running buddies say it is a lot of fun! we are looking forward to it!!
I totally thought I commented on this post already?! I'm so excited to see my question on here! Thanks for posting it! I can't wait to hear other readers great ideas too.
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