Thanksgiving turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy and all the trimmings leads right into the holiday baking season with cookies, fruitcakes and  the temptation of eating the roof off the gingerbread house! And what about all that eggnog spiked with rum, bourbon or the liquor of choice!? It all adds up to calories and pounds and before you know it, your clothes no longer fit.

Then comes the stress factor; shopping for the right gifts, hanging the holiday decorations, and dreading the family getting together with crazy Aunt Mary and Uncle Fred who will undoubtedly talk about their latest ailments and medications for hours. How will you ever pay for all the latest gadgets your kids have to have!? The constant whirl of holiday giving can be taking a great toll on your overall well-being.

It doesn’t have to be that way this year.

Dr. Dalal Akoury, MD and the staff at AwareMed can help you through the holidays with reduced stress, healthy eating habits, and increased exercise all designed to make the holidays the happy time that they should be.

Exercise your stress away!

Dr. Akoury will combine a personalized exercise plan into your daily health and wellness plan, something that you can achieve, and designed just for you. Her personal touch and understanding of your specific conditions and body type will be integrated into everything she prescribes for you to do.

Though you may not think you have time for your regular workout, now is the most important time.  Carve out a half hour in your day to do something physical, whether it’s a brisk walk or your time at the gym, it’s all beneficial.

Learn how to do “mini-workouts” around the house. Bend a little, stretch a lot while cleaning or cooking, move a little faster while dusting. Take a break during the television commercials and get  out of the chair and move, and not to the kitchen for popcorn!

Devise new and innovative ways to shop. If close enough, walk to the stores, you can take a fast paced walk around the mall before you settle into the slower pace of shopping. Of course, we all know we don’t need the “up front” parking place, park your car further away from the door and walk the extra spaces.

Reduce your stress by relaxing!

The dedicated meditation room at AwareMed is the perfect place to relax; spirit, mind and body. A place of tranquility, calmness, and serenity, designed for you to find inner peace in a hectic world. If you don’t have time to come in to the facility, you can practice relaxation anywhere.

It’s as simple as breathing. Deep breathing is known to relax the muscles and clear the mind. Most of us, even when we think we are

Meditation is another way to cope with the stresses in your life magnified by the holiday rush. In as little as 10 minutes or less your mind is cleared and your body stress free. Find your favorite voice or music, go deep, rest your mind and body and enjoy the time alone with yourself. Clear the cobwebs and invite positive energy into the core of your soul.relaxed, are still harboring tension deep in our muscles. Learn to breathe into those tense muscles and feel the difference it makes. It takes very little time, and costs nothing!

Yoga not only bends and stretches your body into shape, it also increases your ability to concentrate and is another stress reducer. You don’t have to be supple like a willow tree to practice Yoga, there are classes in every community for every age group and body. Reach up and bend down, learn the poses, learn to breathe, and feel the oxygenated blood flowing through your body creating new sources of energy, the stress free kind!

Be mindful of what you eat!

Your personal diet plan created by Dr. Akoury utilizes all the information gathered about you to help you intelligently make the right choices of food. Combined with pharmaceutical grade supplements like garcinia cambogia with Dr Oz standards and life advice from BirthOrderPlus, you will learn the proper tools for optimal health and wellness.

We will all fall off the wagon during the holidays, who can resist, and we should be able to enjoy the occasional cookie and candy cane. To veer away from the urge to eat the whole tray of cookies instead of just one or two, we have to devise a plan. Plan to eat healthy meals with plenty of vegetables and fruits; foods that tend to keep your blood sugar stabilized, thus reducing unwanted mood swings and added stress on your body.

Figure out a way to cope with the temptations, such as reaching for nuts and dried fruits instead of the chocolate fudge. Use self-control whenever possible, you may have to play a few “head games” with yourself, but listen to the positive voices in your head and tell those negative little devils to take a hike!

If you go into the holidays with a plan to stay relaxed, eat healthy, and exercise as much as you can, you’ll find that your stress levels will be greatly reduced and there will be more quality time to spend on the important things…family, friends, and celebrating.

AwareMed is the right choice for investing in a complete program of health and wellness all year round. Shedule an appointment today, don’t wait for New Year’s resolutions, today is the best day to start on your journey towards complete and well rounded health care.

Dr. Dalal Akoury, MD  is fellowship trained and certified in anti-aging functional and regenerative medicine, as well as having more than twenty years of accumulated experience in emergency medicine, pediatrics, and a master’s degree in public health.  She  has also served fellowships in pediatric hematology/oncology and has preformed research in leukemia and the effects of smoking.

About developing her dream, AWAREmed and Wellness U, Dr. Akoury says, “My mission is to ignite the spark of health deep within everyone, and to allow this sparkle of wellness to shine through everyone’s eyes, becoming one with the universe, and aligning body, mind, and spirit.”

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