Ways To Stay Healthy This Holiday Season

Written By: Nutritionist Elizabeth Mersereau, CNC

In addition to all the great products we talked about in our September newsletter, there are so many things you can do to minimize holiday blues and keep you and your family healthly!

1) Wash your hands. Wash your hands immediately upon arriving home. This keeps the germs OUTSIDE and not inside your beautiful abode.

2) Don’t touch your face. Simple? Effective! We challenge you: take notice how many times you go to touch your face all day, and count it up. A big place this sneaks in is when driving. Don’t bring the germs
to where they want to go!

3) Eat a little before you go to holiday dinners and parties. If you’re overly hungry, no matter what, you will eat more. Try to go to events with a “curious stomach” – a stomach that’s been fed – but has a little bit more room for some “samples.” Enjoy small bites of new dishes that you haven’t tried before! This makes the evening a bit more fun because you don’t have pressure to eat anything you’d rather not, which can sometimes happen when you need. food. now. And you can more easily socialize with your loved ones without thinking about how hungry you are 🙂

4) Prep the kids. Kids do great when expectations are given to them, and you can also implement this strategy at holiday events! Instead of letting your kids choose whatever they want, explain to them that at this special event they will be able to sample 2-3 “treats.” Then help them pick them out and fill their plate. Once they enjoy their food, let them play with the other children.

5) It’s easy to get bogged down by the carb-rich foods during this time of year, but don’t forget the protein! You need protein to keep stable blood sugar levels and have steady energy throughout the day. If you skip or skimp on protein at breakfast, something most people commonly do, you do not set yourself up well for the rest of the day, and you will find your hunger levels fluctuate and you may even have an afternoon energy dip. We recommend getting in at least 20-30 grams of protein in at breakfast, and this is the rule no matter how big or small of a person you are, male or female!

6) Let go of your food rules. Enjoy the foods you choose to eat. Have a couple bites of Aunt Agatha’s chocolate pie, if you really want to, and give yourself permission to skip dishes that you truly don’t like.

7) DON’T FORGET TO SLEEP. It’s so easy to get caught up in the festivities an stay up a little late here and there, but before you know it, BAM, the sleep debt hits you. Avoid this by making sure that you get to bed during your normal time during the week.