By Tom Gilliam, Ph.D.

The holidays are here in full (fattening) force. And unfortunately for the health conscious, along with the tinsel and the tree comes the onslaught of temptation: the rich turkey gravy, the dressing, the sugar cookies, the eggnog, the pieâ??all those comfort foods that taste especially comforting during a recession-marred holiday. But as we mentally prepare ourselves to push away from the festively set table, itâ??s easy to forget we arenâ??t the only ones facing tempting treatsâ??our kids are too.

Thatâ??s right. Between parties at school and stockings stuffed with sugary surprises, our kids are just as susceptible to the guilty pleasures we allow ourselves during the holiday season. The bad news is that the â??special occasionâ? indulgences we allow during the holidays can quickly morph into harmful bad habits for our childrenâ??habits that will last long after the gifts have been unwrapped.

A lifetime of fitness always begins at home, and thatâ??s also true when the home is covered in tinsel and lights. Research shows over and over that the only way to combat childhood obesity is to make nutrition and exercise family priorities. And while itâ??s okay for them to indulge a little bit during the holidays, you should gently steer your kids away from the third buttery dinner roll and the double handful of chocolate candy.â?

Itâ??s no surprise that childhood obesity is a growing problem in the U.S. In fact, the New England Journal of Medicine recently reported that one in three kids is now overweight or obese. This reality has encouraged more and more companies to teach the â??family fitnessâ? principle to their employees, helping the â??get kids and families healthy togetherâ? trend gather momentum.

Kids live what they learn, and parents are their number one source of information. If they see you making unhealthy choices, they will naturally assume itâ??s okay for them too.

With busy holiday schedules and tightened budgets, it may seem impossible to come up with new and creative ways to help get your family on the fitness bandwagon. Not so. Making just a few simple changes to your familyâ??s daily routine can have a huge impact on everyoneâ??s overall fitness.

Here are some tried and true tips for getting your family in shapeâ??not only during the holidays but at any time of the year:

Find â??hiddenâ? exercise in your holiday housekeeping routine. It may seem like a no-brainer, but good old fashioned chores can be one of the best ways to keep in shape. And, luckily, there are many reasons to do chores this time of year. Be sure to involve your kids in any pre-holiday festivities clean-up or just the general tidying up of the house. Vacuuming, dusting, mopping, sweeping, and taking out the trash are all ways your kids can do their part for the family while helping to get in the physical activity they need each day. Crank up the volume on some good music during chore time to get everyone moving and the house will be clean in no time!

Brave the frosty air and enjoy winter workouts. On snowy days, get bundled up and get moving. Go sledding, build snow angels, and have a snowball fight with your kids. If youâ??re near a city, hit the sidewalks and enjoy the holiday window displays. Or if itâ??s too cold or rainy, visit an indoor sports facility like a batting cage or an indoor rock climbing center. It certainly beats sitting inside being a couch potato!

Alleviate winter break boredom with a spirited game of Duck, Duck, (Christmas) Goose. Know how restless your kids get when theyâ??re out of school for a few weeks? Add instant entertainmentâ??and sneak in some exerciseâ??by showing them the games you used to love to play when you were a kid. Teach them all about Red Rover; Mother, May I?; Duck, Duck, Goose; and Red Light, Green Lightâ??then spend an hour after dinner playing one of them. Itâ??s a great way to stay active and create some special childhood memories for your own children. Check out www.gameskidsplay.net for a complete listing of instructions plus other suggestions for new games to learn and try together!

Model good â??snackingâ? habits. As mentioned before, your kids learn their eating and exercising habits from you. If they see you make a healthy snack choice like an orange instead of reaching for yet another handful of holiday party mix, theyâ??ll go for the good stuff too. But donâ??t rely on pure willpower. Try to keep the house low on junk food. Help kids avoid temptation by keeping the house stocked with healthful and delicious snack foods like yogurt, fresh fruit, raisins, and natural peanut butter. Just because itâ??s the holidays doesnâ??t mean itâ??s okay to gorge on sugary and fat-filled foods.

On the other hand, donâ??t ban all holiday treats. When trying to get the family eating more healthfully, many parents make the mistake of throwing out all of the candy, cookies, juice drinks, and other foods that kids tend to love. That is the wrong approach. Donâ??t make any food totally off limits. As long as food is consumed in moderate amounts, itâ??s okay! Making something off limits can cause your child to binge on treats when they are available at school or at Grandmaâ??s. Besides, the holidays just wouldnâ??t be the holidays without the occasional Christmas cookie or Hanukkah doughnut.

Make exercise a daily habit. Whether itâ??s a 30-minute stroll after dinner each night or a weekly trip to the local walking trail, make exercising with your family a consistent routine in your day-to-day lives. Besides being good for you, it can help you alleviate some holiday stress and help your kids burn off some of their excited energy. When itâ??s a part of your regular schedule, like going to Grandmaâ??s on Sundays or having spaghetti for dinner on Thursday nights, your kids will expect it. And who knows? If you keep up the fitness routine, your kids might even look forward to the additional family time.

Set up a holiday fitness competition. Kids are naturally competitive. Use that quality to their advantage. Buy everyone a pedometer and tell the kids that whoever logs the most miles gets to open the first Christmas or Hanukkah present. Alternately, create a goal that the whole family can work on together. Set a number of miles for the week and chart each family memberâ??s progress at the end of the day. At the end of the week, if the family has achieved their collective goal, then celebrate with a movie night or a special (low-fat!) frozen yogurt treat.

Encourage kidsâ?? culinary curiosity. You should never stand in the way of your child trying something new, even if you suspect she wonâ??t like it. Always encourage their interest in trying new foods and you will be rewarded when they discover they do like broccoli and Brussels sprouts. You might also be surprised by what you can sneak by your kids. The holiday season is a great time for them to try out foods they donâ??t eat every day that are nutrition powerhousesâ??pumpkins, cranberries, and spicy teas, for example.

Let them help make the figgy pudding. Kids love to help in the kitchen, and by allowing them to be a part of the food prep process, you can seize a great learning opportunity. And theyâ??ll especially enjoy having a hand in preparing your Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa feast. Explain to them why you use certain foods and techniques to be healthier. Allowing your kids to help in the kitchen gives them a sense of ownership over the meal, and they will be more eager to gobble up a healthy dinner that they had a hand in cooking!

Sneak â??fitnessâ? gifts into their stockings. There are lots of great (and inexpensive) resources out there that can help you keep maintaining a healthy lifestyle on your kidsâ?? minds. For older kids a subscription to a fitness magazine might make a good stocking stuffer. You might also throw in a fitness DVDâ??beginnerâ??s martial arts and beginnerâ??s yoga or pilates are great options. For younger kids, my own series of brightly illustrated childrenâ??s books, featuring cartoon characters Heart â??Eâ? Heart and friends, is a huge hit and a great way to get them thinking about healthy living. And jump ropes, stretch bands, and dumbbells are appropriate gifts for kids of all ages and can be bought for under $10. While the recession has caused many families to cancel fitness club memberships, the good news is that many, many fitness items are reasonably priced. You donâ??t have to bust your budget to give your kids the best gift of allâ??the keys to a healthy life.

Remember, getting fit and healthy is not about going to extremes. Itâ??s about making small, gradual, incremental changes in your day-to-day life. And thatâ??s why the holidays are a good time to help your kids start the processâ??thereâ??s something valuable about practicing the art of moderation in a season known for the exact opposite.

You know the cliché about New Yorkâ??if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere? Well, the same is true of the holidays. If you show your kids they can exercise when itâ??s 20 degrees outside and they can stop with two sugar cookies instead of wolfing down six, think how much easier it will be to make healthful choices when itâ??s warm outside and thereâ??s no endless supply of treats to tempt them. Get them in the habit now and maintain it all year long; eventually theyâ??ll grow up to be what you want them to be: healthy and happy adults.

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About the Authors:

Thomas B. Gilliam, Ph.D., is the founder and president of T. Gilliam & Associates, coauthor of the book Move It. Lose It. Live Healthy.: The Simple Truth About Achieving & Maintaining a Healthy Body Weight, creator of the Move It. Lose It. Live Healthy.® wellness program, designed to teach workers how to achieve a healthy body weight, creator of www.moveitloseitlivehealthy.com, and founder and owner of Industrial Physical Capability Services, Inc. (IPCS).

Since 1982, Dr. Gilliam has designed and managed many corporate fitness centers ranging from 500 square feet to 34,000 square feet. He has established a variety of wellness programs to deal with such health issues as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, physical inactivity, stress, osteoporosis, low back pain, and many more.

In addition, Dr. Gilliam is a pioneer and acknowledged expert in the field of dynamic strength testing for industry based on the sports medicine model. Since 1982, he has provided isokinetic physical capability assessments for Fortune 1000 companies through his company Industrial Physical Capability Services, Inc. (IPCS) (www.ipcs-inc.com). Dr. Gilliamâ??s programs have dramatically reduced workersâ?? compensation costs and decreased injury incidence and severity rates for major industrial clients. In addition, Dr. Gilliam has been instrumental in identifying and presenting to industry the higher risk for injury and disease caused by obesity in the workplace.

Dr. Gilliam is the creator of the Heart â??Eâ? Heart program, which is a healthy lifestyle program for children and their families. He was the principal investigator in a National Institutes of Health research study investigating the impact of physical activity and nutritional habits on heart disease risk in young children. Conducted in the late 1970s, this research resulted in numerous scholarly publications and television and radio interviews throughout the world, including NBCâ??s Today Show and NBCâ??s Nightly News with its science editor, Robert Basel.

In 1973, Dr. Gilliam earned a doctorate degree in exercise physiology with a minor in graduate statistics and research design from Michigan State University. From 1974 to 1982, Dr. Gilliam was a tenured faculty member at the University of Michigan. Before resigning from his tenured faculty position, he was involved with numerous funded research projects (i.e., N.I.H., Kellogg Foundation, State of Michigan, and others) that resulted in twenty-nine refereed scholarly publications.

Jane C. Neill, R.D., L.D., is the 2004 recipient of the Nutritionist of the Year Award for the State of Alabama Public Health. She is an active member of the American Dietetic Association and currently employed by the Alabama Department of Public Health, where she works with the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) program as a WIC coordinator and a licensed dietitian. She has worked in the WIC program for over ten years, providing daily nutrition counseling for women, infants, and children.

While on the staff as a registered dietitian at the University of Michigan Health System in the late 1970s, Jane was instrumental in working with Dr. Gilliam as an investigator on the National Institutes of Health research study to investigate the impact of physical activity and nutritional habits on heart disease risk in children ages six to eight years.

Ms. Neill is a member of the team that developed and wrote the Heart â??Eâ? Heart program for children and their families.

She received her bachelorâ??s of science degree from the University of Alabama in 1977 in food, nutrition, and institutional management. Ms. Neill has been working as a registered dietitian for over twenty-seven years.

About the Book:

Move It. Lose It. Live Healthy.: The Simple Truth About Achieving & Maintaining a Healthy Body Weight (Move It. Lose It. Live Healthy., LLC, 2008, ISBN-13: 978-0-9762703-5-5, ISBN-10: 0-9762703-5-8, $19.95) is available in bookstores nationwide and through all major online booksellers.

For more information, visit www.moveitloseitlivehealthy.com.

Preparing for a job interview is just like when you’re going to your own ball: you have to look ready, well dresseds and groomed, and more than eager to begin the challenge.

However, the feeling of going through a very rigorous process of the construction recruitment department can sometimes be overwhelming that, in the end, you end up not fit for what could have been the ultimate job for you.

Here are 5 techniques on how to come prepared during your construction job interview:

1. Make sure that you know what you are applying for. There are plenty of construction industry jobs in Basel, for example, that are available, and you have to pick the ones that you think you are qualified for. For example, if you have been fixing pipes for a very long time, or you’ve earned your own home construction certificate or degree, you can be one of the plumbers. When your chosen position fits your experience and your education, you have better chances of getting hired for Basel jobs.

2. Study the company that you want to work with. You may have the experience and the education, but construction companies that offer jobs in Basel these days are more after for your contribution. You will never really know what you can possibly offer to them if you don’t study the company. You can read their vision and mission, as well as their products and services offered. You can then complement your knowledge and your expertise to what you’ve learned. Keep in mind that you can show your worthiness to them during your job interview.

3. Dress to kill. Regardless of the jobs, Basel construction companies still put more points on people who dress to impress. This isn’t done to show off. This is to show to them that you’re a respectable and professional person. Men can wear polo shirts and long pants, while women can don on long-sleeved blouses and black skirts. Don’t forget to look good during your job interview. People would want to work with those who are well groomed.

4. Bring the necessary papers with you. When you’re applying for any building jobs, Basel companies specializing in construction will be an easy entry if you can bring all your requirements with you. These may include your resume, cover letter, professional ID photos, transcripts of records, or certificates that will tell of your experience and your expertise. They may come in handy when the general manager suddenly forgets his own copy of your application letter, when you’re hired on the spot, or when you need to back up your claims.

5. Answer questions honestly. Honesty is and will always be the best policy. Rather than putting your best foot forward, make sure that you can be candid, upfront, and sincere with your answers. Keep in mind that builder jobs in Basel are no joke, and these companies are definitely looking for someone who can handle a number of people, manage projects effectively, and coordinate with the management. You might as well make sure that you’re more than prepared to conquer all the challenges of Basel jobs through your honest ans wers.