Before the gifts, the food and the booze this holiday season, take a step back and remember why we celebrate the holidays. The holidays are about spending time relaxing with loved ones, not running around feeling crazed trying to get the latest greatest material objects. It’s about spending time in the kitchen sharing family traditions and recipes, decorating the home together, sitting by the fire with someone you love and watching Christmas movies, spreading love, laughter and joy with people you care about. It’s a time to reflect, show appreciation and to give to those less fortunate or alone.
PILING ON THE STRESS
It is so easy to get sucked into the whirlwind of holiday parties, home decorating and the searching high and low for the perfect gifts! All the while the alcohol, sugar and stress is piling up in our bodies, lowering our immunity and burning us out.
Every year it seems to be the same thing; the holidays roll in and roll out in the blink of an eye often leaving us with a disaster in their wake. We have a very lofty goal, “My New Year’s resolution is to take better care of myself!” but no real plan to make that happen. We plan to show up on January 1st miraculously knowing how to do it all better.
TACKLING THE SEASON
But, this isn’t the rollercoaster that we have to ride year after year. How about approaching the holidays with a better strategy, one that will protect and satisfy us? After all, aren’t the holidays about spending time with loved ones, building memories and giving? No one ever said that it was about OVER indulging and abusing our bodies. The holidays are a time to enjoy the company of the loved ones in your life, and to be thankful for what you have and, also, what you don’t have (i.e. that extra baggage, disease, etc).
HOLIDAY HACKS
Here are some of my favorite tips to help you stave off that Holiday burnout and to coast through the season experiencing more cheer and less fear!
- NEVER go to an event hungry
- Eat a meal filled with high fat and protein before the party AND before that cocktail
- Have a glass of water before and after each cocktail
- BEST cocktails: vodka, gin, tequila, whiskey (keep mixers to seltzer and ice)
- Steer away from the dietary landmines — refined carbs, sugar and gluten
- Pick at the antipasti and salads and crudite
- Offer to bring a dish so you can be sure there is something appropriate for you to eat
- Go in with a strategy…the bread, the dessert, or the cocktail? Not all 3
- Don’t be afraid to say NO
- Be sure to PRIORITIZE physical activity and maybe even add a little extra exercise if possible
- DON’T BEAT YOURSELF UP and start a cycle of “I’ll start my diet Monday or January 1”, get in enjoy and get out…no hard feelings!
- Sign up for my NEW YEAR NEW YOU detox so that you have the perfect strategy for cleansing your body and mind in 2017!
HANGOVER HELPER
- Take activated charcoal with 2 glasses of water before going to bed
- Take a B-complex because alcohol depletes B vitamins
- Take 2500 mg of Vitamin C 2x per day, it stimulates the liver to breakdown the alcohol
- Take 500 mg of Turmeric 3x per day as a natural anti-inflammatory
- Drink bone broth for electrolytes and minerals
- Take a 25 minute Epsom Salt bath for a quick dose of magnesium
- Push through that workout, it helps sweat out the toxins
PRACTICE GRATITUDE
Remember that just because it’s the holiday season does not mean that we have to GORGE. Let’s SLOW DOWN the eating and the running around, enjoy the mingling and create wonderful memories that will last a lifetime. And above all, show KINDNESS even when it’s not being shown to you. You never know what someone else’s experience might be and how difficult the holidays are for so many. Have a glorious holiday season and a Happy New Year and New YOU in 2017!