Don’t forget to keep up the healthy habits for Christmas!

As Christmas approaches, it’s easy to forgo the healthy habits we’ve spent all year drilling into our kids in the wake of the multitude of sweet things they are surrounded by for most of the festive season. But no-one wants to be the killjoy who puts a ban on chocolate Santas, do they?

So here are a few healthy habits for Christmas so we can keep the kids (and ourselves!) on the straight and narrow from now until January:

* Encourage a taste for seasonal fruit. As a child, I always found the traditional orange and nuts at the bottom of my Christmas stocking (as well as chocolate money, of course!) and it has set up a love of traditional festive foods. Make a point of keeping oranges, dates, nuts and seeds around, and try to swap some of the chocolate for fruit and nut-based recipes with a seasonal twist.

* Try to limit the amount of sugar taken in the form of drinks by offering water, milk or watered-down fruit juice instead of fizzy, sugary drinks.

* Keep confectionary given as presents in a basket to be spread out over the festive period and beyond, rather than being eaten all at once.

* Healthy habits for Christmas should also include avoiding the temptation to indulge at every meal – try to keep breakfast to the usual cereal and toast instead of pain au chocolate every morning, or limit lunch to savoury foods only, if you know you will be snacking on the Quality Street with the afternoon movie.

* Keep active – we can all indulge a little more than normal and not end up regretting it in January if we move a little more to balance it out – and there’s nothing better than getting out with the family to try out that new bike during the Christmas holidays!