The holidays are fast approaching. With family gatherings, dinners, and parties, it can get a little hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

By staying away from a few foods, sticking to other foods, and continuing to exercise can help you stay on track with your health this break. These are a few eating and exercising tips to help you keep fit during the holidays.

Eating
It will be hard to maintain a healthy diet with gingerbread, gravy, and pies all around, but try to reduce sugar intake.

Avoid piling up on empty calorie foods that are full of added sugars and low on any nutritional value. Having some of these foods is okay, but all is good in moderation.

Despite how much you want to, do not eat them every day, but occasionally at gatherings.

During the break, keep your consumption of alcohol to a minimal. Just because it is around you at holiday parties and New Year’s parties, you should reduce your intake as much as possible.

Pace yourself, drink in moderation, and alternate between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks in order to keep yourself hydrated. Just like with sugar, make sure you are giving yourself a day or two in-between to let your body reset itself.

With free time during the break, try cooking at home more. This will allow you to know exactly what is going into your food, and it will make reducing amounts of oil and sugar easier. Try cooking with vegetables that are grown organically.

Try to set the goal of eating at least one more meal per day that you have prepared yourself than usual.

Exercise
With the free time you have, make an effort to be at the gym for at least 30-60 minutes per day at least three days per week.

Balance workouts with an equal amount of time spent on cardio and strength training. Have a workout buddy; bring a friend who will motivate you. This will make going to the gym more of a fun activity than a chore.

Winter also brings outdoor winter activities. Go out and enjoy the weather all while keeping active. Try ice-skating, skiing, or snowboarding.

Go out with your friends and family, and take advantage of the activities that we can only enjoy this time of the year. You won’t even feel like you’re working out, but all these activities burn a lot of calories.

If you would prefer not to leave home, then one way of staying fit is to invest in a good equipment, and purchase an at home workout DVD.

Alternatively, a number of at-home workouts can be found online as videos or as circuits that you can perform at your own pace.