With Thanksgiving next week and then the rest of the fun, festive, and food-filled holiday season right after it, it's more important than ever to try to stay active.
For one thing, it will help squelch the stress that can accompany all the, um, "joys" of the holiday season (gift buying, gift wrapping, gift returning; relatives in town, relatives in your home, relatives who overstay their welcome and give unwelcome advice).
For another, it can help you ward off the seemingly inevitable scale creep-up that comes this time of year. One thing I've always wanted to do was to start a holiday tradition of preceding or following the Thanksgiving feast with a walk or run or another sporty activity. You can go out as a family and just walk around the neighborhood, or better yet, make it "official" by joining in one of the hundreds of "Turkey Trot" races around the country. These races are usually short-ish distances (5K or less) and, thus, accessible to people of all ages and fitness levels—and the important thing is, you get out there and have fun. (And get the T-shirt.)
To find a race near you, Active.com has a handy search tool. There happens to be one in my hometown!
Do you participate in Turkey Trots or any other Thanksgiving Day activity? A game of football? A rousing game of family freeze tag? What's your tradition?
Am running my first ever Turkey Trot 5K this year! It has been good motivation for me to keep on training and running as it gets colder (I’m a running newbie). I highly recommend running one as a goal to keep you moving. Also, burning 400+ calories first thing in the morning is probably the best possible way to start off Thanksgiving in my mind!