It is WAY too easy to throw all your Health goals and inspiration out the window for the Holiday season. But we’ve all learned the hard way, that when you get too far off track from where you want to be, it’s a LOT harder to get back to where you worked hard to be in the first place.
Don’t panic, my friends.
There IS a way to indulge and relax, to increase the joy, the flavour sensations, to attend the potlucks and parties, AND not feel terrible by the end of it all. I promise. But not without some dedication and a little planning.
First things first: looking after your health does NOT need to fall to the wayside during the Holidays in any way. There are plenty of daily practices that will help you keep that immune system strong, support good detoxification pathways, and promote healthy digestion. NOTHING here is difficult or outside the realm of what it means to be on Holidays!
Daily Doables to Support Strong Health
Drink Enough Water: Absolutely number 1 here: drink plenty of water! Water hydrates cells, maintains balance of bodily fluids, energizes muscles, helps to prevent overeating, helps to flush out toxins, promotes skin health, helps maintain proper elimination, boosts immune system, increases energy and improves fatigue. Aim to consume a minimum of 1.5 litres every day, through the Holidays and always.
Drink a Super Smoothie: An incredibly easy way to ensure you are receiving enough good quality nutrition is with a daily power smoothie. Be sure that the smoothie base is made of real food: fruit, water/coconut water, spinach, banana, coconut yogourt, nut/seed butter, then add in some quality greens powder, maybe some spirulina to support cleansing and an alkaline environment, and include a good quality probiotic as well. A daily smoothie is such an important practice for maintaining strong health and meeting micronutrient requirements!
Eat Lots of Plants: No matter whether you are indulging in a bit more meat than usual during the Holidays or not, eating lots of plants must still be your focus. Plants are where the quality nutrients are, they are easily absorbable, they are high in water density, high in antioxidants, phytonutrients, and protective enzymes and micronutrients, and you can’t go wrong with a plant dominant diet! No matter where you are, a potluck, dinner party, on the ski hill, or out at a restaurant, ensure there are lots of plants on your plate!
Move Your Body: NEVER STOP MOVING!! Get outside and move every single day! Visit with a friend over a walk, cross-country ski, or snowshoe, take the kids sledding or to the ski hill, plan as many visits as possible around being outside and being active. Remember that it’s also ok to lounge around reading a good book or playing a board game, just be sure that there is daily movement of some kind and aerobic activity a few times per week to keep that heart pumping!
Include Sprouts, Crucifers, Seaweed, & Leafy Greens: Include these power foods in the diet wherever you can. I am always sure to have sprouts growing on the counter/window sill, a few different crucifers in the fridge, and I like to include some seaweed (kombu) in any soups, stew, broth, with rice, or other grains, as much as I can. Eating salad greens at least once per day is also a great practice. All of these foods are incredibly health supportive: cleansing, alkalizing, rich in enzymes, micronutrients, minerals, detoxifying, and high in fiber which makes them imperative for good digestion too.
Make High Quality Treats: Do your very very best to not purchase poor quality, processed and refined chocolates, candies, and junk foods during the Holidays. This garbage will get you feeling like garbage in a ho-ho-hurry!! Make your own delicious goodies, use quality ingredients like raw cacao powder, hemp hearts, high cacao chocolate, nuts, seeds, dates, and coconut. High quality treats not only taste incredible, but they can actually nourish the body, contain good quality, health promoting fats, phytonutrients, and are so nutrient-dense that it’s easy to only have 1 or 2 and stop there. Refined sugar goodies do not promote health in any way, they contain additive chemicals, refined flours, rancid oils, and non-food ingredients that promote inflammation, acidity, and do not provide any nutrients, thus the body will easily over-indulge and over-indulge some more.
Once you’ve got your everyday support system in place, it’s also key to have confidence navigating the party/potluck scene without going overboard!
Pro Party Tips
Set an Intention: Setting a party intention is a fantastic way to divulge in the social pleasure while also maintaining healthy boundaries! Take some time to figure out how you want approach the party: what time will you come home, how much will you drink, and what kinds of food will you stick to. Without an intention, we have a tendency to throw all caution to the wind, let loose, and go for it (which is ok sometimes for sure 😉), and then find ourselves feeling awful the next day and with an imbalance that promotes further imbalance. It’s a dangerous approach because once we let go too much, we find ourselves overindulging mindlessly, compromising our sleep, letting go of movement/exercise, and feeling tired and not well. Ask yourself what you want to get out of the party and prioritize that: joy, connection, community, laughter, love.
Be Careful with Alcohol: First of all, it is 100% OK to NOT DRINK at parties and/or gatherings: an organic cranberry juice + soda + lemon is a delicious mocktail and can suffice the feeling of needing something in your hand. Second: if drinking, try giving yourself a limit on how much you will drink, perhaps offer to be the driver so that you can only have one or none, or bring with you a bubbly, or what we call fizzies (carbonated beverage like Spartmouth), to have after you’ve had a drink - this is a great way to keep the consumption of alcohol to a minimum. Also, be sure to drink plenty of water if you are consuming alcohol to help dilute it in the bloodstream and aid with detoxification pathways.
Be Weary of Gluten & Dairy: If you find yourself feeling bloated or puffy throughout the holiday season, these are your 2 main culprits (other than sugar & alcohol). There is a tendency towards lots of cheese and breads, charcuterie spreads, creamy dips and sauces, pies, cakes, and other glutinous and dairy-filled goodies during the Holiday season. Gluten & Dairy are the TOP INFLAMMATORY food categories out there and if you find yourself feeling heavy, lethargic, or puffy and bloated after a little overindulgences, these are the big guns that you’ll need to watch out for. If you love these foods, I get it, just increase your awareness around their consumption, notice how you feel, and minimize them wherever you can.
Practice Mindfulness: OH SO IMPORTANT: stay in tune and present when eating and drinking throughout the Holiday season. Remember to check in with yourself, pay attention to your digestion and any symptoms that arise. Take some deep breaths before eating your meal, grounding yourself and connecting your mind and your gut so that they can have clearer communication. The thing that so often finds us in a cycle of overeating and feeling unwell, is eating mindlessly, without listening to the body, without hearing our satiation signals or adhering to our intolerances or discomforts. Take a moment before you eat to just connect, be present, and tune in: mind, body, heart.
Don’t Compromise Too Much Sleep: I am known to be the first to show up and the first to go home at most gatherings. The reason: I am not willing to compromise my quality of sleep or my ability to move my body and function well the next day. As we age, compromising sleep has a greater and more detrimental effect and loss of sleep is cumulative, so if you find yourself going to bed a few hours late several days in a row, you will feel the ill-effects for potentially a week or more to come. When we are running on a sleep deficit, we tend to make not-so-good decisions, we compromise our immune system and digestive function, and we may also crave refined carbohydrates and sugars, as the body tries desperately to find extra energy. Set an intention with what your latest bedtime will be for a party and stick to it, then the next few days, prioritize your regular bedtime routine to get back on track.
Don’t Sweat a Little Indulgence: For some, this is the most important PRO Party Tip: it is absolutely 100% OK to indulge sometimes. You can just take a deep breath and let that guilt go!! The issue is NEVER a little indulgence, the issue is when we get stuck in an indulgence hamster wheel and can’t get off. Allow indulgences sometimes and enjoy them. Ease into the pleasure, the satisfaction, and the relief that comes along with letting go a little - it’s actually GOOD for you, provided you are not working yourself up about it. Just keep it in check - a little, not too much 😉
I hope you’ve found a few nuggets of wisdom here to get you through the Holiday season feeling well & good & joy-filled!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS YOU LOVELY HUMAN YOU!! 🎄
I have new classes and openings in my practice coming forward in the New Year!! Reach out to me if you’d like to join in or work together!