Happy Holidays!

The Walking Example Group is serving up an event to burn some of this year's extra calories. WE-GO offers the 25 Shopping Days of Christmas to encourage a daily walk in Cooperstown and a chance to win Holly Dollars to help with holiday shopping.

To participate in our Photo Scavenger Hunt, check our website at www.we-go.org for a daily photo of a different location in Cooperstown. Identify the place and take a walk!

Once there, find the yellow and black WE-GO can and enter your name in a daily drawing for a pack of twelve Holly Dollars, to use at our participating Cooperstown merchants. All entries will be placed in the Grand Prize drawing for the Coca-Cola Holiday Basket, brimming with great premiums from our friends at the Coca-Cola Bottlers of New York.

No Internet access? A clue will be provided to help you identify the location, and the daily photo will be posted at the Chamber of Commerce office on Chestnut and the Chamber kiosk in Pioneer Park, as well as on the WE-GO website. The daily clue is also available by calling the WE-GO office at 547-2893.

Thanksgiving marks the beginning of six weeks of celebrating some of our most treasured traditions. Pilgrims and pumpkin pie, Santa and Christmas cookies, Hanukkah latkes and sour cream, New Year's Eve champagne and hors d'ouerves.

With all that celebrating, comes another tradition. The average American will gain between 5-10 pounds in the next few weeks. That's not surprising; there's a lot of great food available and it's winter, a perfect combination for packing on pounds.

So, what to do to revel in the holidays and still fit into your New Year's Eve outfit?

Make healthier choices. Keep moving, doing whatever it is you like to do. Use your lunch break to take a walk and participate in the 25 Shopping Days of Christmas. At parties and dinners, don't eat just to be sociable. If you're not hungry, don't eat. If you are hungry, eat responsibly.

Lighten up on the fats and sugar. Have an occasional indulgence so you don't feel deprived, but don't use the false logic of "Oh, well, it's Thanksgiving," to polish off half a pie or lick the whipped cream bowl. In a nutshell, consume fewer calories and expend more of them.

This year, make celebrating your good health a part of your holidays.

Brenda Berstler is the founder of the Walking Example Group (WE-GO) a non-profit organization encouraging walking and walkable communities. Visit their website at www.we-go.org.