10 Reasons Why December is a Deadly Month--and How Few Folks are Aware of It

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December is a festive month as well as a deadly month. And what makes it even deadlier is that most folks aren't aware of it. Here are reasons why December is a deadly month, and note how they are health and fitness related:

1. Christmas rush. Instead of slowing down because working people are about to take a long Christmas break, they actually get busier at the office than usual. Most office works, in fact, get more hectic because of the closing fiscal year. Without knowing it, people trapped in the Christmas rush suffer more from free radical damage due to over stress.

2. People get busier during Christmas "vacation." Christmas "vacation" is just a myth to most people who really get busier than usual even at home during this Season. There are lots of party invitations, so many parties to prepare foods and party programs for, so many Christmas decors to put up (and deciding the right arrangements and places for them), so many dance or song numbers to practice for--and to think that most people have to do all these in the office, church and later at home for their families. Imagine all that stress!

3. Christmas shopping. It's exhausting just to make your Christmas shopping list--what more do the shopping itself? Here in Manila, you can just imagine the horrendous traffic you have to put up with plus the incredible thick crowds of people in malls and tiangges you have to squeeze yourself into just to get a good buy. And sometimes, you need to do this more than once, even 10 times.

4. So many special foods to cook. December is when parties and festivities happen--all needing nothing but the best food menus. So people cook a lot of complicated recipes, almost daily. Before that, they need to do a lot of purchases at the grocery store and wet market. And going to these places you need to be stuck in traffic most of the time. All needless stress.

5. Lots of strains in the budget. Money in the purse and pocket seems never enough during Christmas. Even with all the 13th and 14th month salaries, bonuses and other Christmas pay perks, you just keep running out of cash every time. And it's a terrible strain to keep your budget coping up with your actual expenses--except perhaps if you're a multi-millionaire. It's a terrible headache and pressure.

6. Mostly fatty food and desserts. In December, you eat mostly fatty and spicy food and lots of desserts. And it's pointless to fight the temptation because it's everywhere. The usual justification is, it's only once a year that you get to eat super delicious foods like these. But you very well know that it's not true. You eat fatty food almost daily for one month, so it's not really just "once a year" but almost daily in this one single month of the year.

7. No time to exercise. With all that busyness, you have not time to exercise. So you store lots of fats for a month and it's doubtful if you can get them all burned up the following month. Or more aptly, can you survive all that eating for a month and still live the following month or year?

8. Less sleep. And again, with all that busyness and celebrations which mostly last till the wee hours of the night, you'd often get less healthy sleeps. Christmas Eve starts it all and it even goes on past New Year's. No, it really all starts a week before Christmas Eve. And when everything is finally over, you find the next morning that you need to start going to the office again. Lack of sleep can lead to various cardiovascular and immune problems.

9. Less water intake. Parties and celebrations tend to make us forget to drink pure water. We feel we'd miss a lot if all we drink is colorless water. So we make our drinks as colorful as possible with intoxicating beverages--and easily miss our 8 glasses of water each day. This can lead to high blood pressure, UTI or kidney troubles later, to name a few.

10. Busy with Christmas but not with Christ. The deadliest of all is to be so super busy celebrating Christ's supposed birthday without Christ himself. Even most churches fall victim to this. Fact is, "Christmas" is just an imagined day when Jesus was supposedly born, and it's all a worldly idea even the church has been duped into. The bible does say to observe or proclaim Christ's death as often as possible, but not his birth. Christmas is all the idea of commercialism, like it or not.

So, what should we do this December and at Christmas time to keep healthy and fit?

Keep everything simple. That's it. After all, it's supposed to be Jesus Christ's special day, not ours. To get a tip, look at how Jesus and his disciples celebrated the Pass Over Feast in simple ways.

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