Tips For Navigating Christmas

The Christmas period is always the trickiest to navigate when it comes to trying to keep your momentum going with all of your diet & lifestyle habits you’ve built throughout the course of the year. Given the year we’ve had, we also really need to enjoy this season and it’s no lie that food is for the soul and it creates a sense of connection with those around you. 
During Christmas, we absolutely should be able to indulge and enjoy a drink, all of the goods on the dessert table, and the lasagna. The difficulty with this period of time is the “all or nothing” mindset that’s created in terms of dietary adherence - we have an event on and then the rest of the week in between is just filled with leftover sausage rolls and desserts. 

 It’s about creating the balance that helps get you through this feeling so January doesn’t end up crawling around and we aren’t left with this feeling of “I’ve fallen off the bandwagon”. There is no bandwagon, and health is also about creating a sense of balance physically and mentally - so here are our tips to help you through.

80/20 approach (or maybe 70/30 during this time)

Practicing the 80/20 approach whereby 80% of the time you are eating within a way that makes you feel your best (such as avoiding the foods you know trigger your acne or foods that cause bloating) and 20% of the time you are allowing for flexibility, means your weekend Christmas events could pretty much take up that 20% of the time. If we think about the numbers, 20% of our intake in the week is equivalent to about 4 or more meals - that’s pretty much going out for dinner 4/7 nights in the week.

2. Find your non-negotiables and stick to them

For me personally, I know I feel so much better if I’ve started my day with my go-to smoothie and a walk or some form of movement. It keeps the bowels going, keeps my mood happy and sets up my energy/blood sugar for the day. Find what it is in your daily habits with your diet & movement that you love and know makes you feel good and make a non-negotiable deal with yourself. This could be as simple as making sure you’re getting enough water in, keeping your breakfast consistent, or avoiding dairy if it’s extremely problematic.  

3. Aim for a balanced plate for optimal blood sugar control:

When met with the spread of food at an event, structure your plate as you would if you were at home:

• ¼ - ½ plate of carbohydrates 

• ¼ - ½ plate of protein (chicken, turkey, beef, tofu, etc.)

• ½ plate of vegetables 

• A portion of fat (more than likely lots of food will be cooked in oil!)

You might like to implement some of these strategies to optimise your blood glucose levels:

Suggesting to a family member/friend after a meal to go for a quick walk around the block 

• Opting to eat your desserts after your meal rather than on an empty stomach

• Avoiding going to a party on an empty stomach - this just leads you heading to the dessert table first

• Structuring your plate so you eat your lasagna & pasta at the end of the meal and aiming for your meat/protein consumption first 

4. Bring your own main & dessert:

I’m such a big advocate for this. If you know you have specific dietary requirements and the desserts are going to be full of sugar and dairy, then bring something of your own that you know you will eat and others would enjoy too. This could include:

• Noshu - pre packet brownies, biscuits or cake

• Mt Elephant - banana bread (surely you could make it into a cake..)

• My favourite recipes include:
  - Project nourish - https://shahnasarpi.com/sweets
  - Nat Kringioudis -  Orange & Chia Seed Cake
  - Lola Berry - Chocolate Ganache Cake 

5. Organising meals in advance:

If you’re working through the Christmas period and it’s super busy for you, or if you know you might be too busy to cook yourself lunch - you might like to pre-order meals (particularly good for that weird week in between Christmas and new years) such as:

• Macros

• Soulara

• Nourish’d 

5. Alcohol & Hydration

It’s a given that you should be downing the water anyway even without all the Christmas goodies, but even more important when alcohol is in the picture. When selecting your beverage for the evening - try to avoid anything with added fruit juices and keep the cocktails to a minimum. You’ll thank me the next day, no one likes a sugar and alcohol hangover. Opting for vodka, tequila or gin will be the better options and mix them with soda, lime and tonic.

KEEP YOUR HYDRATION UP! For every alcoholic drink, have a glass of water.

7. Supplementation:

Although we can’t “out supplement” a bad diet, we can still support our bodies as best as we can throughout the silly season. 

• Bloating, constipation & diarrhoea: Slippery elm powder before meals in water, digestive enzymes with each meal and probiotics

• Optimising hydration & reducing inflammation: Electrolytes.

• Supporting detoxification pathways & liver function: NAC, Zinc, B Vitamins, Selenium, Vitamin C and milk-thistle

8. Keep moving

Even if it’s just a short 15-20 minute workout or any form of movement daily to keep your lymphatics flowing, bowels happy and your blood sugar under control. You’ll definitely thank yourself for it.