Christmas season is full of fun, frivolity and cheer, it’s also full of parties, food and a little more alcohol than usual. Here are some tips and tricks to make sure you get through the season. First and foremost, make sure you enjoy this time with friends and family and celebrate accordingly.
1. Stay hydrated, ensure you’re drinking lots of water, especially if you are having a few alcoholic drinks and even more so if it's summer time for you.
2. Build your plate – half the plate veggies and/or, ¼ of your plate protein, 1/8-1/4 carbs.
3. Don’t skip meals to ‘save’ calories for later meals, this will often just end up with you feeling famished and then overeating when you do finally get to eat. The biggest predictor of binge/overeating is restriction! As with all things, moderation is key.
4. Small regular meals will help keep your blood sugars balanced and appetite in check. Do you know what happens when you’re hungry and blood sugars go on a wild roller coaster? You get hangry! No one like being hangry or being around someone hangry.
5. On the flip side of this is – if you have had a larger meal than normal at dinner or have indulged quite a lot. That’s totally FINE and NORMAL, it’s not a regular occurrence, it’s Christmas. If this does happen, make sure you don’t skip meals afterwards to compensate. Just eat as you normally would.
6. 5 slow deep breaths before eating. Whilst Christmas is fun it can also be very stressful for many reasons. One of the biggest things stress does is prevent us digesting food properly. A simple thing you can do to ground yourself, tone down the sympathetic nervous system (fight and flight) and activate the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest). We can use breath to regulate our nervous system and help improve digestion and manage stress.
7. Chew your food. Remember digestion starts in the mouth. If you don’t chew properly, you can often end up with reflux and heartburn and feeling bloated and have sluggish digestion.
8. Most importantly create memories and have fun.
:)
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