The holidays are over; time to get back to work. Don’t groan! Work is a good thing. It gives us purpose, establishes a routine, presents an opportunity to meet and interact with people and, of course, generates a paycheck. Work is good. On the other hand, it is sometimes easy to feel overwhelmed by work. Some people are so overloaded with time and scheduling conflicts that they have trouble coping. It might be time for a work-life balance check!

The holidays can be a difficult time for people who, for whatever reason, do not drink alcohol. Holiday parties, festive dinners and lunches, office celebrations – they all involve booze, including yummy specialty cocktails like rum and eggnog and peppermint mimosas. What’s a non-drinker to do?

Have you started Christmas shopping yet? Have you made a list, put up the decorations, driven to the mall, tried to park at the mall, ordered a turkey, mailed out Christmas cards…? Are you having fun yet? If the answer is “not really,” don’t feel guilty. You are experiencing something many people feel leading up to the Christmas season, including myself: holiday stress!

Ah, the holidays. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, plum pudding, shortbread cookies, pie … and that’s just the main feast. I also love the parties with yummy hors-d’oeuvres and cocktails, the office Christmas pot-luck and those endless lunches catching up with old friends during the holidays. But when it’s all over, my bathroom scale sometimes makes me do a double take, and my favourite clothes magically seem to have shrunk down a size.

Do you feel stressed around the holidays? Read below four reasons the holiday season is stressful and ways you can manage it.

Why is it that everywhere I look this month, I think of my father? He passed away several years ago, and I think of him often, but these days, his presence seems to be everywhere. Then it hit me: it’s the ‘stache! My father was bald – he had been since his twenties – and, I guess as a way of making up for it, he always had a moustache. This being Movember, so does every other man on the street! The ‘staches are everywhere! Movember is a mash-up of “mustache” and “November.” The goal is to raise awareness about men’s health, particularly prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health and suicide prevention. Movember is actually a charity that aims to help improve the quality of life of men suffering from these diseases and to promote prevention and healthy living. It’s something I wish my father had access to when he was younger; maybe it could have prevented his prostate cancer.

When discussing workplace injuries, the issues that come to mind might be an accident or a fall, but workers may not think about the ones that could affect their health in more invisible ways. In Canada, the number one cause of occupational death is exposure to asbestos.

July 24 is a day when you should pause and think about what you are doing to stay healthy, prevent illness, or cope with a condition. This year the focus is on feeling good 7/24 – seven days a week, 24 hours a day, so this week we will review some evidenced based things that you can do to feel good every day – Today’s Topic – The Benefits of Being Grateful.

According to the Conference Board of Canada, the majority of Canadians are only moderately active, or the equivalent of walking 30 minutes three times a week. The World Health Organizations (WHO) recommends that for good health adults age 18-64 should be moderately active for 150 minutes per week or vigorously active for at least 75 minutes per week or any equivalent combination. WHO also recommends that adults should do muscle-strengthening involving major muscle groups on two or more days a week.