Easter is such a fun holiday for kids and adults, whether you celebrate it for religious purposes or just to have some fun in the middle of April. There are many traditions people celebrate on Easter, from preparing baskets for their kids and going on Easter egg hunts, to having a big holiday meal similar to Thanksgiving or Christmas.

While it is great to continue having these fun traditions, many of them tend to lean toward the unhealthier side. Luckily, it is possible to still have those fun hunts and enjoy dinner with your family and not have to do it in the unhealthy way. Here are some different tips and methods for having a healthy and enjoyable Easter holiday with your family.

Fill Up the Basket with Healthy Goodies

Talking about the Easter baskets is a good place to start when discussing having a healthier Easter, since this tends to be where a lot of people offer their children unhealthier options. It is also one of the more popular traditions for this holiday. If you want your kids to enjoy their baskets but without sugar-laden sweets, there are some super fun and easy options!

Why You Should Limit These Sugary Treats

First, let’s go over the nutritional content of some of the more popular candy options for Easter baskets. You may not include all of these, but it is good to have a summary of how much sugar, fat, and calories go into the top options. Just look at what is in your favorite candy!

Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs

These small chocolate and peanut butter-shaped eggs are 170 calories and 10 grams of fat for just one piece. They are pretty small, and a lot of kids have more than one in their basket. Plus, it is loaded with 24 different ingredients (many of which you probably can’t pronounce) and 16 grams of sugar.

Chocolate Bunny

The nutritional info might vary based on the type of bunny you get, especially when comparing solid versus hollow inside. However, the classic Dove chocolate bunny is a whopping 690 calories and 42 grams of fat for the entire one! It also contains 69 grams of sugar.

Peeps

Perhaps your kids aren’t really into chocolate, but they love Peeps. These cute marshmallow guys are pretty much just pure sugar. They don’t have any fat or saturated fat with a serving size of 5 Peeps, but there are 34 grams of sugar.

Cadbury Crème Eggs

The standard serving size of Cadbury Crème Eggs is 2 eggs, which makes sense since they often come in little boxes with 2 eggs inside. These might be your favorite thing to put in the Easter basket, but 2 eggs are 300 calories and 12 grams of fat. Surprisingly a lower amount of fat, but not when you consider 2 eggs have a total of 40 grams of sugar.

Brach’s Jelly Bird Eggs

Finally, you might serve your kids a little bag of Brach’s (or other brand) jelly beans shaped like eggs. This brand has 450 calories in 3 servings (often what one bag or what fits in a plastic Easter egg). There is no fat or saturated fat, but an insanely high 90 grams of sugar! These are nothing but sugar.

Healthier Easter Basket Options

Now that you have seen the high sugar treats you usually put in your kids’ Easter baskets, you can learn about some healthier options.

• Add More Non-Treat Items – First of all, don’t underestimate the power of non-treat gifts! You probably fill up the basket with mostly candy and maybe a small toy or two. Why not switch it around? Have just one small type of candy, then have little books, stickers, or small inexpensive items in the basket. It is still fun for them to open, but you don’t have to worry about hundreds of grams of sugar just in one Easter basket.
• Try Chocolate-Covered Fruit – If you want to give your kids chocolate, but in a healthier way, you can try making chocolate covered fruit. They are getting all the nutrition from the fruit you use and preventing them from having pure, solid chocolate at the same time. That little bit of chocolate covering banana slices or half of the strawberries really isn’t much as compared to that size of solid chocolate. Plus, you can use white chocolate and color it orange or green for a festive collection.
• Get Organic Fruit Snacks – Instead of giving them little bags of jelly beans, why not get fruit snacks as well? Many of these also have a lot of sugar, so try to find the natural or organic varieties that don’t contain a lot of sugar or extra preservatives.
• Choose Dark Chocolate – Another way to give your kids chocolate in their Easter basket but in a healthier way is choosing small pieces of dark chocolate. The content is less, plus dark chocolate is loaded with antioxidants. It is so much better for both kids and adults, but it is still yummy!
• Healthier Plastic Egg Contents – If you like to fill plastic eggs with candy and put it in the Easter baskets, another option is to fill it with healthier snacks. You can fit your organic fruit snacks inside, nuts, seeds, or even small pieces of fruit that won’t spoil. You can also put little stickers or small toys in the eggs.

Choose These Healthier Easter Dinner Options

After creating healthier Easter baskets for your kids, you probably want to move onto the Easter Dinner. This is similar to any other family dinner, where the main courses, appetizers, and desserts are often filled with fat, calories, carbs, and sugar. This might not be a great option for you if you are trying to be healthier overall or you are attempting to lose weight at this time.

These tips are going to help you start planning a healthier Easter dinner and eat the right portions with just a few tips and tricks.

Make Everything from Scratch

This is a really simple trick that will help you make healthier meals simply by having more control over the ingredients. This isn’t as much as cutting back on fat and calories only, but just having healthier food. The less processed, packaged, and frozen ingredients you use in your meals, the healthier it is going to be overall. This will help to reduce the sodium amount, get rid of all those nasty preservatives you don’t want your family to have, and help you control how much butter, cheese, and other fats go into the
dishes. Plus, it can be a fun family activity your kids are able to help with.

Here are some healthier options to try out:

• Use coconut oil or olive oil instead of butter
• Cut the amount of cheese needed by half
• Don’t use anything that is boxed or frozen
• Use only low-sodium and low-sugar ingredients

Be Careful with Your Breads and Sides

Another aspect of Easter dinner that tends to pack on the fat and calories is the side dishes and bread. IF you are a low-carb diet, keep in mind you can have a big family dinner without eating even a piece of bread or a starchy vegetable. Instead, have your fill of ham or turkey, deviled eggs, and vegetables. Just avoid vegetable sides with a cream-base, as this usually has more carbs. Skip the mashed potatoes and have a side salad or double veggies instead.

When you are preparing sides, follow the previous instructions by cutting back on butter, cheese, and other fattening ingredients. You can easily transform some of your favorite dishes to a healthier option by making garlic green beans instead of a cream-based green bean casserole and using sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes.

Focus on Better Portion Control

Finally, you will need to work on portion control. With family dinners like Easter, you can eat a little of everything (Within reason), but just watch how much you get. The thing you want to learn is what a proper portion is. For example, a 3-4 ounce piece of ham should fit into the palm of your hand. Try to have such a palm-sized portion of each dish, one deviled egg instead of two, and cut back on the butter on your roll, and you will be doing much better.

Another trick with portion control is to look at your plate as you add food to it. What you want to do is have a little bit of space between each food item, then stop when you can’t fit anymore without food touching. This keeps you from piling it up and having too much to eat.

Tips for Avoiding the Chocolate and Sweets

Your kids might not be the only ones who need to stay away from all the sweets this Easter. Maybe you struggle with not eating the same candy you add to their baskets, or you find that it is hard to not grab chocolate from the little dish on your counter every time you are in the kitchen. You are definitely not alone! The following tips are going to help you to control your sugar cravings and avoid all of these little temptations.

Choose More Natural Sweets

Don’t forget you can have sweets that aren’t filled with sugar or coated with chocolate. Fruit is one of the best natural sweeteners out there. It is going to fulfill all of those sugar cravings you get, plus it will provide a lot more nutritional content. Think about all the vitamins and minerals you get from fresh strawberries, juicy peaches, and fiber-rich bananas. You can always dip them in melted chocolate and freeze to have them as a dessert as well.

One fun thing you can do is start with strawberries and keep them whole. Melt some white chocolate, then quickly dye it an orange color with a few drops of orange food coloring. Remember to mix it well each time until you get the right shade of orange. Dip the entire strawberry in the chocolate, then place it on a sheet of wax paper on a pan. Leave the strawberry stem on as it will look like the stem of an orange carrot.

These only have a small amount of chocolate on them, just like when you prepared them for the kids. The entire family can enjoy these fun treats!

Avoid Having Them in the House

The number one way to avoid those temptations are to remove the temptation entirely. If you have just finished making the Easter baskets and have candy leftover, bring it to your church to give to kids there or give it to a neighbor who has kids. Do whatever you need to in order to get it out of your house! You are much less likely to pick it up at the store when you have a craving as you are to grab a piece when it is right there on your counter.

Eat Veggies Before Dessert

This helps when you have yummy desserts at home, or even just chocolate that you are saving for filling eggs for an Easter egg hunt. In this case, you can avoid the temptation by filling up on healthy foods. Perhaps you know there is a big carrot cake, but you want to avoid having a piece. If you are having a lot of cravings, first make a really healthy meal or snack with a salad or lots of veggies. These will really help to fill you up, plus some of them can even provide natural sweetness. Once you are full, you will probably
not have such bad cravings anymore. It’s a major win-win!

Make Sure You Get Plenty of Exercise

When Easter is coming up and you’re not sure you can avoid those sugar cravings or battle the temptation, that’s okay! It’s definitely okay to have a treat here and there and enjoy your big family dinner. Another option is to keep exercising regularly and burn as many calories as you can.

Exercising is going to burn the extra calories you are consuming, plus give you more energy. When you are consuming a high amount of sugar, it really saps your energy once the short-term sugar high wears off. Walking during your lunch break or enjoying weekend hikes with the kids can help a ton.

Here are some exercise options for the Easter holiday:

• Spend Easter Sunday going on a family hike instead of eating sweets all day.
• Take your dogs for an extra walk after your dinner is complete.
• Get the kids fitness accessories in their Easter basket and go on a family bike ride.
• Enjoy some living room dance time after the Easter egg hunt.

Spring is the time when you feel refreshed. As the temperature gets warmer, you spend more time outdoors and you find the energy you were missing during the cold, winter months. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t embrace the practices of Hygge. In fact, this is a wonderful way to embrace the pleasantness of spring and to practice self-care year-round.

If you haven’t heard about the craze yet, this article will briefly touch on what Hygge actually is and how it can be used in the Spring just as much as it can in the winter.

What is Hygge?

At its very heart, Hygge promotes coziness. So, essentially, anything you associate with being cozy fits into the Hygge lifestyle. Do you have a favorite pair of sweatpants? Then lucky for you, they’re part of Hygge.

Candles, fireplaces, blankets, enclosed spaces, warm temperatures, soft rugs, even softer couches and beds, essentially anything that brings you comfort is part of the Hygge way. Traditionally, the Danish use Hygge as a way to make it through their otherwise miserable winters.

In a country where winter can seem to last forever and be quite harsh, Hygge was developed as a way to cope through those bitter temperatures until spring arrived. People who visited there experienced the little nooks where Hygge was practiced and fell in love with the cozy atmosphere, and then brought it back to their own countries. Before you knew it, Hygge was spreading like wildfire.

Although the Danish have been utilizing Hygge for centuries, the concept has only reached American shores with great popularity since 2017. During that time, Instagram and Twitter blew up with photos and tips of how to make Hygge a part of your lifestyle.

Although the lifestyle of Hygge is typically utilized in the winter, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it can only be used in winter. In fact, Hygge is something that can be utilized all year round.

Hygge in Springtime

I see Hygge in the spring as creating a private, quiet space where you can retreat to enjoy the essence of the season. It can be located on a screened porch, deck, patio, under a tree, in the garden, or indoors in a room with lots of windows and natural light – wherever you can go to relax & recharge your soul while having the joys of spring all around.

The following will go over the reasons and tips for implementing Hygge into your space during the springtime.

1 -Relaxation 

When you’re feeling cozy and comfortable, you are at your ultimate ability to relax. A cozy atmosphere begets relaxation. While feeling relaxed in the winter is certainly important – especially with the stress of the holidays and other challenges of wintertime – you shouldn’t have to do away with this place of relaxation just because winter is over. It’s a lifestyle that you can experience every day of the year.

The greatest thing about Hygge is that it is customizable. You don’t necessarily need the traditional setting of blankets, fireplaces and warm temperatures pumping into your room in order to make your Hygge room authentic. You just need to make it cozy, comfortable and special. With those three factors covered, you’re successfully bringing in Hygge.

In springtime, you’re likely just as stressed as any other time of the year. You become more active with events, ballgames and other spring goings-on that may frazzle the nerves and zap your energy.  Whatever the reason behind your stress is, you need a place where you can just blow off some steam and indulge yourself in some “me time”.

Enter your Hygge room. After a long day at work, you can slip into the most comfortable clothes that you own and just relax on a soft sofa. This is your space to unwind and feel cozy inside in order to relax and rejuvenate. This is something that needs to be done in the spring season as well as any other time of the year.

2 – Entertainment Space

For many people, their coziness usually involves some element of entertainment. Whether you fit your Hygge room with a large TV, a series of bookshelves that are laden with books, or even your own small fishing pool (think about it), your Hygge room should be designed with the entertaining activities that help you relax and feel cozy.

This may be as simple as snuggling up on the sofa and watching cooking shows or reality TV. For others, you may want to have a cozy window seat that overlooks the backyard and have a bookshelf within easy reach. Whatever the activity is that brings you a great deal of love and relaxation, you should incorporate it into your Hygge room.

Once it’s there, you don’t have to keep it to yourself either. Your friends may enjoy what you’ve done with your Hygge room just as much as you do. They’re also in need of a cozy atmosphere just as badly.

Sure. inviting friends over to watch a game is the norm, but sometimes, you just need an adult playdate where all anyone does is snuggle up on sofas and relax together.

Your Hygge room can easily become your entertainment space for hosting cozy parties for your friends during the spring season. Everyone is stressed. Because human beings are social creatures, some of the ways that you can easily relax are just to relax with loved ones and friends.

For those who need to do something beforehand with their buddies, then you can break outside and enjoy the Spring season air.

However, by the end of the activity, you should always invite your friends back to your Hygge room for drinks, hot chocolate, comfy socks, or whatever it is that brings everyone a great deal of comfort. Once you invite your friends to your Hygge room, you’ll likely have a difficult time getting them to leave.

However experienced as you are in the ways of Hygge, you can help them make their very own Hygge room in their own home.

3 – Escape Spring Allergies

While you may have made it through the Winter season without falling ill, you’re likely going to still fall prey to Spring allergies. Unless you’re one of the superhumans who doesn’t become allergic to plant pollen or mold, then you’ll probably find yourself with the sniffles at some point during the season. This is a time that can be woeful and full of suffering.

Although the room itself may not cure your allergies, it can certainly make you feel better if the room is equipped in the way that Hygge represents. Your head is congested, your nose is running, you may suffer from headaches, nose aches, scratchy throats, and you may even find it more difficult to breathe. This is something that your Hygge room can help with.

For some people, whenever they’re suffering from allergies or a cold, they need a nice and warm room to make themselves feel better. Having a warm room can also help to increase your body temperature and do a better job of fighting off the molecules that seek to make you ill or feel like crud. These warm temperatures are easily something that you can incorporate into your Hygge room with a fireplace.

Stoke that fireplace to full life and bask in the warmth that can reach even deep into your bones. Even if you don’t particularly want to be warm in the Spring, you should certainly give it a few hours in order to help your body relax. Everyone knows that stress can exacerbate illness and allergies. With this knowledge, it’s easy to suggest that by relaxing, you can help your body to heal from the illness or allergies.

Most importantly, however, no matter how much you’re suffering, being in a comfortable and cozy room can make you feel at least marginally better. You can wear the most comfortable clothes that you own and just lay out on the couch surrounded by comfortable items and materials.

4 – Recuperating after Working Out

With the Spring season comes a need to increase your fitness. The winter holidays tend to pack on a lot of weight for many individuals. Spring is a time for transformation. people are motivated to hit the gym or run outside in order to return to their healthier and fit bodies. However, exercise takes its toll on even the healthiest athlete.

After a good workout, it’s important that you let your body relax and recuperate. Otherwise, you risk injuring yourself the next time that you work out. Considering that injuries can sometimes take weeks, if not months, to mend, you don’t want to have to sit out while you heal and miss out on some beautiful weather to exercise in.

To promote that relaxation and recuperation, a Hygge room can do no wrong. This is just another reason why you should continue to use your room as a Hygge room even after Winter is over. Once you’ve finished up at the gym or you’re done running outside, you can strip down into something far more comfortable and just rest and re-hydrate in your Hygge room.

You may also want to consider keeping the fireplace going in order to make the room warm. This is because warmer temperatures work excellently on tired and sore muscles. No doubt you’ve had a trainer or coach before suggest that you use a heat pack if your muscles are sore. This is because heat can help the body to relax. You can go without the heat pack by just immersing yourself in a warm and cozy room.

Nestle right up next to the fireplace and let the heat from the flames slowly relax your muscles right to the core. For those who don’t have space or money for a fireplace, then a space heater will work just as well. Though you may want to have at least two or three situated throughout the room for maximum-level of heat and comfort.

For quite a few owners of Hygge rooms, one of the pieces that they have is a small tub or hot tub situated in a corner of the room. While this may be more expensive than people are willing to spend, you can’t argue that it offers a whole new level of being cozy.

In regards to athletes, there is nothing better than being able to soak in a warm tub in order to relax their bodies. A hot tub may not seem appropriate for spring, but for someone who plans to do a lot of working out in the spring season, you’re going to want one of your own in your Hygge room.

5 – A Simple Get Away

With spring comes more activities – Spring Break, ballgames, a usual influx of work, and social engagements. You need a place to get away from it all – including your family. You should make your Hygge your own private nook. While others may use it from time-to-time, you should make everyone knows that when you’re inside it, you’re not to be disturbed except for emergencies.

This room can be your personal haven and escape. In fact, you can have your own little vacation spot right there within your own home. As spring turns to summer when the kids are out of school, you’re going to need that quiet space even more.

You cannot be expected to be your best self if you’re not taking care of yourself. A Hygge room can offer a place to indulge, rejuvenate, and make you both mentally and physically prepared to meet the demands that await you outside of the room.

Since vacations don’t usually occur until summer, in spring you may daydreaming about the beach and be looking forward to getting away from it all. As mentioned before, your Hygge room can be used as a vacation within your own home. To help yourself make it through the work week, take a small getaway into your Hygge room and just block the rest of the world out while you focus on relaxing and energizing yourself.