With the holidays about to spill over I thought it was time to relate a few items that are important this time of year.  

I am not going to give one of the ra ra speeches about how to ovoid overeating and drinking or how to not offend you mother in-law.....again.  What I am going to do is talk about being active over the holidays and more importantly being charitable.  

Being in a country of extreme abundance it is not out of the realm that you or I may overeat on at least one meal this Christmas, fine. I am not asking that you outright refuse your second helping of your wife's homeade cheescake.  What I will suggest is that you look for ways to avoid the inevitable crash landing on the sofa post meal, barely staying concious enough to sustain a conversation with the family dog.  Look for ways you can get some physical activity in. Here are a few.

1. Take said dog for a walk
2. Play Wii with the grandkids
3. Family walk to the park and take a family photo somewhere else other than in front of the fireplace
4. For you more driven folk, try and get to the gym half the times you normally do 
5. Start a crazy family tradition that includes an outdoor scavenger hunt

Now I recognise this isnt the average blog post you would expect to see from a fitness company, but who are all those trainers fooling, I mean lets be real for a momemt, your not going to buckle down until the New Year.  So lets at least mitigate the inevitable extra indulgence with a dollop of 'activity'.

You are probably wondering at this point how and why is charity related to this topic.  Well that is a good question and with social media raging like a wildfire it is just about impossible to not know what anyone of your 'friends' are doing at any point in time.  With the story of our lives on display it makes is difficult to do things that otherwise should go un acclaimed.  I have always been heavy in the camp 'that training is like charity, it matters most when no one is around to see how much you give."  This is the time of year that a statement like should ring loud and true.  Go on the walk/ run, don't tweet the world about it, just get it done.  Drop all of you spare change in a red kettle, you dont need to 'check in' whilst doing so.  Go tabogganing with the neighbour kids and run back up the hill, dont tell us you did 'hill sprints', just do it.  Head down to the food bank (http://www.langleyfoodbank.com/) and ask what they need, head to the supermarket get it and drop it back off, we dont need a pic of you in front of some slightly more stocked shelves.  You get my point, charity is not a time for recognition, trust me the feeling you will have from helping out and the only person who knows is you and the Big Guy upstairs will be far more satisfiying than any gift recieved or extravagant meal that is consumed.  

So get out there, be active and give a little, just don't tell me about it!

Merry Christmas

Ryan