A recent study revealed the average American gains 500% more weight per week during the holidays (Thanksgiving to New Year’s) than during non-holiday weeks. Chances are your holiday parties will be filled with desserts, candies, heavy entrees, sugary drinks, alcohol instead of wild caught smoked salmon kale wraps :-).

With 6 weeks to the new year, now is the time to kick your health habits into high gear! You would be amazed at how fast your body can turn itself around when you begin to eat nutrient dense foods, remove physical and mental stressors from your spine and mind, add 6-12 min of physical fitness into your week and cultivate quality sleep. Below is a list of my top 10 holiday health habits for such a thing – feel free to adopt as many as you like (hopefully all!)

Prioritize Your Immune System
When the time change “falls back” so does your immune system. This is the time of year when the earth rotates away from the sun such that we not only get less light during the day and therefore produce less Vitamin D naturally. Your body uses Vitamin D on a daily basis and, like your car’s gas take, it will eventually run dry if you are not supplementing.

Initial signs of Vitamin D deficiency include fatigue and weakness, joint aches and pain and depression (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Prolonged deficiency lead to elevations in blood pressure, sugars and cholesterol/triglycerides. Chronic deficiency can perpetuate almost all known illnesses (heart disease, diabetes, cancer etc.)AskDrErnst.com

This is why I personally take a minimum of 10,000 IU (sometimes as much as 20,000 IU) daily during the holiday season. Here’s also some other VERY POWERFUL immune boosters that you have probably never heard of:
– Colostrum / IGG (immunoglobulin supplementation): Capra Colostrum or NuMedica ImmunoG – Fermented Mushroom Complex (Mercola) or Fermented Multi Mushroom (Ancient Apothecary)

or Genus Mushrooms (The Genius Brand)
– Umckaloabo (Pelargonium Sidoides) – which comes in a liquid dried toot tincture (HawaiiPharm)

Step Up Your Chiropractic


The holidays have been listed as the most stressful time of year – family, friends, unrealistic expectations, financial pressures and excessive commitments can take a toll on your body physically. Now is not the time to miss your chiropractic adjustments because of the holiday rigmarole. This is the time I INCREASE the number of times per week I get adjusted and I suggest you do the same, especially if you have missed a visit (or two) in the last few weeks. Please don’t “put them at the end” because – is there really an end to you having your health? Double up, triple up – your body will thank you this holiday with peace, ease, grace and flow.

Watch The Alcohol

Americans consume more alcohol on New Years Eve than any other day of the year (Ps. Christ- mas Day is 2nd and Saint Patrick’s Day is 3rd). Drinking too much not only makes you prone to poor eating decisions but research suggests that it can also adversely affect your immune system in the same way sugar does (If you didn’t already know.. alcohol is essentially sugar). If you must toast in the holidays – I suggest you try www.DryFarmWines.com which offers a “Keto ap- proved” low alcohol content red/white wine that is also lab tested to be free from herbicides, pesticide, hold and yeast. Put /AskDrErnst at the end of their .com and you get your fist bottle for a penny!

Define the Center of Your Holidays Around Family/Friends, Not Food!


Have you ever noticed most people talk more about what they are going to be EATING for Thanksgiving or Christmas than they talk about what they will be DOING for the holidays? You don’t have to over-indulge. In-fact, this year (nor next) maybe go “rogue” and skip the entire meal production all together and instead do something – volunteer with your church, rally up the kids in the neighborhood for touch football, take the family out to see holiday lights. Some of my best holiday memories are of my family doing something outside of my kitchen and dining table.

Increase Your Fitness


I’m not talking about 30 more min on the tread mill or another loop around the “circuit” in your gym. I’m asking you to do 6-12 min of interval fitness training a few times a week (who doesn’t have 6-12 min!). This form of exercise involves picking 1 exercise and going on/off for 30s or 60 seconds for the duration of 6-12 min. Jumping jacks one day, pushups the next, air squats the following. This type of exercise is easy (even grandma can do it) and its been shown to increase endorphins (the feel-good transmitters), HGH (human growth hormone – energy, muscle and bone building + anti-aging effects) as well as burn fat!

Implement any, or all of these, and your health will finish 2018 at a point where 2019 won’t require any resolutions.