It’s that time of year where we start thinking about Thanksgiving and the rest of the holiday season leading up to the New Year! It’s hard to believe each year when we hit that time isn’t it?
This time of year is ALWAYS the time people STOP thinking about what they eat, their health and decide to “wait until next year” to get their nutrition, their body, their mind, all the things, in line. HOWEVER, I am here to tell you that you actually don’t need to eat poorly, feel terribly, and not deal with your health issues until New Year, AND you can STILL ENJOY the holiday season with AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS food. IN FACT, most people do not realize that in nutritional therapy we actually eat BETTER TASTING food than the processed type you are more than likely used to. We return to REAL traditional eating, with healthy fats, delicious meats and vegetables. If you think to yourself you are a meat and potatoes kind, I couldn’t “eat healthy” where you are wrong is that eating healthy eliminates meats and potatoes, in fact… WE EMBRACE THAT!
Why does this matter?
Digestion is KEY to immunity, and this time of year is when we move back inside and we start the cold and flu season. If it’s a pain for you and your family to be COVID tested to go to work, play or be active, then let’s avoid poor immunity this season and start now!
We get good digestion by some lifestyle changes, and also by changing the way we eat to eliminate processed and packaged foods, and we find the RIGHT foods for YOUR body and family to eliminate imbalances that you have. Yes, that might mean white flours and breads and pastas. BUT the great news is that most holiday foods don’t involve that! But if you are worried about your dessert, don’t fear there are amazing delicious alternatives that taste traditional that you can enjoy this holiday season. Not only that BUT those recipes tend to taste great, but be lower in sugar so that means that you can keep good control over your blood sugar as well. Problems with blood sugar regulation is next in line to digestive issues in my practice.
What can we do to enjoy the holidays, but work on these imbalances?
Holiday Tip 1: Don’t skip meals on a celebration day to gorge yourself at ONE meal time.
This is the WORST thing you can do. Eat normally. It’s very simple. Have your breakfast, if the meal is some weird time for you (which it always is isn’t it?), then eat a lighter lunch – perhaps a delicious salad with some meat and healthy fats. When you get to the celebration think about your plate, no need to gorge. Just eat normally. Look for a nice piece of meat, 50% of the plate in vegetables, and just a small scoop of those potatoes. If you are still full later when another meal time would come about, then you may be done for the day. If you are slightly hungry, enjoy a little more protein and vegetables and call it a day. Or enjoy that piece of pie you have been waiting for all year.
Holiday Tip 2: Make traditional meals without processed foods
You may be wondering – what is this processed food she keeps speaking of? Check that out here. Think packages, boxes, bags, not things from nature. How do we remedy that? Cook from nature. You might be wondering HOW because this might not be natural to you. Here you go then…
Local farm raised turkey if possible, otherwise organic is best from grocery!
Amazing Gravy – made loads of times with amazing success.
Green beans prosciutto – don’t like that use uncured bacon.
Cauliflower mashed – From Paleo Comfort Food
And if you want a potato alternative – I made this amazing cauliflower mashed that NOBODY (including my husband and son!) knew was cauliflower.
Stuffing – this is healthy and safe for gluten issues, wheat, grains, and blood sugar… imagine delicious and safe for ALL those people!
Desserts & Cookies – holiday and beyond – so many to choose from here.
As you can see there are LOADS of recipes to choose from to make the holiday season really amazingly delicious, safe for all dietary needs and healthy! No need to buy the canned (aka PROCESSED) foods in the grocery to make an amazing meal. Get from nature and make amazing food.
Tip 3: Have your glass then make a change
One of the other things that tends to happen is alcohol consumption during the holidays. Either it’s tradition, you like it, or it’s stressful so you partake to manage. In all the circumstances too much leads to a lot of things like overeating, eating poorly, getting sick from too much alcohol and beyond.
One of the biggest things I see as part of the digestive system issues in clients is a LACK OF DETOX capability. What that means is it’s really hard and often for some people almost impossible to detox alcoholic beverages. That means just a glass or two sends them on a digestive bad path, or overall feelings of illness. For some people with major detox pathway blockage it may take a week or more to move past a Christmas Eve filled with processed foods and alcohol (processed foods add to the load for detox in addition to just alcohol, and then think about all the products you use on your body – a lot of load).
This is one alternative that although not always in line with EVERY SINGLE ingredient that I would recommend, it’s far better than too much alcohol! I have tried these and I do like them myself. They are a nice alternative to water, especially when others are drinking a beverage and you feel like you would like to partake, but DO NOT want to feel like you drank alcohol. If you know you are working on detox, and you know you are working on drinking less, and you are trying hard to just feel good, try this out. Just mixing these with simple citrus (fresh squeezed) is great. You can also look for things like mixes to combine, HOWEVER, be careful with those as some can contain A LOT of sugar. You want to be sure to check ingredients of mixes (like a hot toddy mix is one of my fav but some have more sugar than others so watch out for that). You also want to be sure it’s real natural food ingredients that you can recognize by name in the mixer product, and has as little sugar as possible. Using phrases like keto and paleo will help you find safer mix alternatives.
If you want to get your imbalances in line for the holidays, and enjoy yourself still, I can HELP! I am offering a holiday special between now and 12/15/2021. If you are a NEW client, and set your first appointment date before 12/15/21 you get $200 off any 1:1 package. This discount cannot be applied to group classes, or with other offers and is for first time clients only. Don’t wait – take your health into your hands now, and still enjoy the holidays – even better – FEEL BETTER on New Year’s Eve!
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