How to help your nutrition survive the holidays

Happy holidays!!

Let me make something clear – the holidays are NOT a legitimate excuse to toss your good nutrition and solid food choices out the window and go balls-to-the-wall hard into a bowl of spinach and cheese dip, just “because it’s Christmas”. No. Unacceptable. You know better.

Now I am not saying that I am perfect myself! One of my all-time favourite parts of Christmas at my house is the literal pile of deep-fried chicken or turkey schnitzels and heaping bowl of potato salad my family makes from scratch to ensure that we have enough for Christmas brunch at our place every year. (Hey, Christmas is about FAMILY and FOOD… best when served together!)

But the thing is that we are not really expected to be perfect ALL the time (no one can be in something 100% of the time… it just isn’t realistic). But the key is MODERATION! Enjoy your less healthy food choices… eat that extra slice of cake… choose scalloped potatoes over the baked ones… for a week or two. But then get right back on those weight machines at the gym and start making a conscious effort to make cleaner, healthier food choices.

That’s what New Years Resolutions are all about anyway, right? Right!

However, because I am well aware that none of us are perfect and we can all probably use a little help to stay on track this time of year, I wanted to share with you a few of my favourite tips and tricks for staying healthier during the holidays.

Enjoy! And happy holidays!!

• Get lots of vegetables, protein and fibre into you first thing in the morning

  • This will also help you avoid the sugar crash later on in the mid-morning that a high-sugar, high-carbohydrate breakfast would typically cause

    • Lower carb, higher protein breakfasts help to keep your blood sugar levels steady, reducing the chance of unnecessary headaches, drowsiness and mid-morning hunger

  • Doing this will boost your body’s ability to burn fat, because protein digestion boosts muscle metabolism (increased muscle metabolism encourages your body to run leaner, meaning your body burns more calories and breaks down fat faster)

  • That means that an ideal breakfast would look like some vegetables of your choice (preferably raw, but lightly steamed is also good), with a protein source like one or two hard boiled eggs. Add some raw hemp seeds or sunflower seeds for even more protein and fibre, plus a serving of healthy fats

• Cut your sugar content in half

  • Little known fact: desserts still taste great when you cut the amount of sugar by a 1/4 to a 1/2 of what the recipe calls for

• Add some cinnamon

  • Another trick is to add a sprinkle of cinnamon to your cooking. It enhances the sweet flavor of foods, while improving sugar metabolism

• Go vegan with some of your dishes

  • Having vegan options on your holiday table ensures that the choices on the table won’t all be full of creams, cheeses and butters

  • It is also much harder to overeat plant-based foods because they’re so filling

• Alternate between alcohol-based drinks and plain water with lime

  • The natural vitamin A contained in the lime will actually help your liver to process the alcohol more efficiently!

  • Also, choosing red wine instead of white will give you a range of additional phytonutrients and flavonoids

• Try coconut-based eggnog

  • Swap out the heavy cream in your eggnog recipe and try using 1 part coconut cream and 1 part coconut milk instead

    • Coconut is full of medium chain triglycerides, a type of fat that’s more easily burned than others, so it is a healthier fat option

• Make your pumpkin pie with almond milk and ground flaxseed

  • Substitute an equal amount of almond milk for evaporated milk

  • Also, go vegan by using an egg replacer: for each egg called for, try mixing 1 tbsp. of ground flaxseed with 3 tbsp. of warm water, then let it sit for 15 minutes. This will act as both a binder and an egg substitute

• Choose an option with both fat and sugar for dessert, rather than one with only sugar

  • Seems counter-productive, but the fat actually helps to slow the rate of delivery of the sugars into the bloodstream (sugar spikes are what get us into trouble because the body naturally shuttles it out of the bloodstream and into the fat cells)

• Help your body to detox the day after a big holiday meal by sipping 1 to 3 cups of Bieler Broth (see recipe below)

  • Bieler broth is a delicious soup that contains adrenal-healing herbs and vegetables, such as parsley, that help your liver process the toxins from alcohol, as well as excess sugar so that it can be burned as fuel

  • The ingredients also aid in the production of bile salts, which help break down excess fats

  • Adding a handful of whole peppercorns adds different benefits as well. Peppercorns (Piper nigrum) come from a flowering vine in the family Piperacea. They are widely believed to the most commonly used culinary spice in the entire world, and have been used throughout history in herbal medicine and to preserve food

    • Click here to read more about seven healthy benefits of peppercorns
      

Try this recipe for a soup that is so healing to your body, that you can maybe make a couple of bad food decisions over the holidays and still survive…

Bieler Broth:

• 4 medium zucchini or yellow summer squash, sliced

• 1 lb. green beans, trimmed and cut in half

• 2 stalks celery, chopped

• 2 big bunches parsley, stems removed and roughly chopped

• 1 sprig each of rosemary, thyme and tarragon

• 1 quart spring water

• 1/2 to 1 tsp. whole peppercorns

• Sea salt (to taste)

1. Place water, vegetables and herbs in a pot and bring to a boil

2. Once it boils, cover and simmer on low for about 30 minutes

3. Remove herbs before serving and eat as is or puree in a blender

 

 

References: https://furthermore.equinox.com/articles/2014/12/pro-holiday-tips

Original recipe inspiration: https://furthermore.equinox.com/articles/2014/12/bieler-broth

 

 

 

How to survive the holidays, holistic nutritionist-style

I have noticed several life changes that I have been making since I went back to school for holistic nutrition a couple of years ago. One of them involves that way that I approach the holidays. Before, I would just do what everyone else was doing and go nuts on all of the food. Events like Christmas or New Years Eve are fantastic excuses to toss all caution to the wind and just pig out sometimes.

But the key word here is “sometimes”! It is all too easy to fall off of the wagon completely, and then all of your efforts to be healthier as this year wraps up could all end up being for naut.

There is hope though! Try using a few of these tips and tricks to help you to successfully survive the holidays… and manage to maintain your diet while being totally Christmas-y and festive!

• Don’t skip your workouts!
  • It may be the holidays, but that doesn’t mean that you can just take this time of year as an excuse to totally skip out on your fitness! This is especiallyrelevant because a pre-meal workout around the holidays can actually help you come dinner time
  • Try to get some high-intensity interval training or strength training beforehand. Training this way creates a better hormonal environment in your body, which means that you will be able to handle glucose a bit better. In the case of HIIT training, you’ll also have the ability to burn more calories long after the workout is done (now bear in mind that HIIT training is that type of workout that I had a few weeks ago… and it was TOUGH STUFF! Worth it though…)
• Always (always!) hydrate
  • Did you know that dehydration often gets confused for hunger? So obviously one of the tricks to keeping your holiday eating under control is to make sure that you’re always well hydrated before big meals
  • Drink a glass or two of water before you eat. That way, you will never confuse thirst for hunger, and you won’t overeat as a result
• …try not to go completely nuts on the holiday wine though!
  • Having a festive drink for the holidays with your family and friends is one thing, but going overboard is all too easy!
  • Try and limit yourself to just one or two drinks, and then sip some water for the rest of the the time you are at gatherings
• Don’t go to holiday events hungry
  • Get ready for a Captain Obvious moment: showing up to a holiday event feeling hungry lends itself to going overboard on the maybe-not-quite-so-healthy spread. If you go in hungry, you’re probably at a low blood sugar point where you want quick acting food, like refined carbs and sugar. That means that you’ll end up not only craving those things, but splurging a little too much on them too
  • To make sure that you avoid the overeating, try to eat a light meal of whole foods (think satiating things like protein, fiber and healthy fats) about two or three hours before your holiday shindig
• Try to slow down your eating time
  • Most people eat way too quickly at events, buffets, and holiday dinners, which doesn’t allow the natural signals that you are full to reach your brain. You may have had enough calories, but your brain doesn’t know it yet and so you continue to eat
  • To help avoid this, try chewing more slowly to give your brain a second to process signals that you’re full. Also, don’t be afraid to time yourself while you’re eating. You don’t want to take less than 15 to 20 minutes to finish a meal (if you do, you’re probably eating too quickly), so it’s totally fine to keep an eye on the clock while you eat to make sure you’re not rushing through your feast
• Eat protein and vegetables first
  • Did you know that there is a correct order of eating operations? It’s pretty easy though: just always remember to have protein and veggies before all the other things on your plate. This will keep things a little more balanced, plus the protein and the fiber from the vegetables will fill you up early on as opposed to fast-acting carbs and sugar on an empty stomach that will keep you hungry
  • Almost any holiday event will at least have a veggie and cheese platter, and likely cold cuts or meatballs, so go for these choices first before the sugary treats

But above all of the other tips that I could give you for the holidays, the number one most important one is to enjoy your time with your loved ones! Christmas comes but once a year, and it is a fantastic excuse to get everyone together.