Make This Your Most Enjoyable Christmas Season Part 2

I am sure you are all feeling calm and serene after reading last week’s article and now you are ready to take on another small challenge to make this your best Christmas. 

Right? 

I received some wonderful feedback from several of you about the great things you are doing to take control of your calendar and mend some sticky relationships all to beat the “crazies” out of ruining your holiday. 

Great work! You will be better for it!

One of the most difficult plates we spin during the holidays is our complicated relationship with food and drink. I find my appetite in a constant tug-o-war not unlike the imaginary angel on one shoulder and devil on the other each trying to convince me to do their bidding. 

When it comes to appetites I have found in my studies that many foods can act like drugs on our system causing strong addictive desires. This is obvious when it comes to sugar and without great resolve sugar usually wins the day.  The more sugar we eat the more sugar we want. It takes about 4-7 days (a mere week) to break that chain and begin to gain the upper hand against the cravings. Here are a couple tricks that will help.

We have all heard it before. Drink eight, 8 ounce glasses of water daily. This advice is up for debate among health professionals, exercise scientists and even YouTube phenomena. 

According to Adam Conover of “Adam Ruins Everything” we only need to drink when we are thirsty. This may be an oversimplification.  Thirst is only one of the many ways our bodies tell us we need water. Everyone is a bio-individual and our fluid needs differ from each other and from day to day. 

Most of us have trouble trying to gulp down the daily recommendation, but we have no trouble drinking 2-3 cups of coffee, an afternoon tea, a beer after work or a glass a wine or bottle of soda with dinner. All of those beverages are diuretics that remove water from the body. 

Remember what you learned in biology class? 

Depending on your age the body is made of 60-80% water. The cells cannot function without adequate water.  Water improves oxygen delivery, transports nutrients, cushions joints and organs, removes toxins, regulates body temperature, and empowers the body’s natural healing process.

Ok. Overall it looks like water is pretty essential to a vibrant life. We are all about peace and serenity this month so here is a simple math formula and challenge to help figure out this water thing. 

Take your body weight in pounds. Divide by two. The number you get is the number in ounces (generally) that you should strive to drink each day. So for example a 150 pound person would divide by two and find they should try to drink 75 ounces of water each day. 

This is very general. If you are drinking many diuretics, are currently pregnant, work out a lot or live in a very hot climate you may need to drink more water to compensate for your situation. I fill up 2 large water bottles every morning that measure what I generally need for the day. This helps me keep track. It took my body a week or so to adjust to the proper amount. Some days I drink it all and want more and other days I just can’t get it all in. That’s fine. 

Each day’s requirements are not exact. Learn to listen to your body. 

The holiday trick behind this is that being properly hydrated will stave off many cravings and keep you in optimal health throughout the season!! 

So simple AND cheap!

So if WATER is the first trick FAT is the second. What!? Yup.

Did you know that Dr. Ancel Keys' “eat low-fat for heart health” theory has been debunked and we all really need to be eating MORE FAT?

Wait! Don’t switch tabs yet! The caveat is in eating the healthy fats like olive oil, avocado, nuts and seeds, butter, other animal fats and even coconut oil. Coconut oil was recently in the limelight as part of another media fiasco with the AHA but that was also debunked. Coconut oil has many health benefits. 

Healthy fats are the building blocks for cell membranes and hormone production. They protect the organs, help make and regulate energy, help properly use proteins, cause food to taste good and most importantly to this article increase satiety. That means when we eat enough of the right kinds of fats we feel full and satisfied and don’t want to go back for seconds or thirds or extra dessert! BONUS! We get to eat butter AND feel great! 

Don’t be afraid to fry up some bacon and eggs. Slather it on your toast or sauté your favorite veggies to perfection. Fat is a macro-nutrient that we must consume for our bodies to work properly. Now, don’t go overboard! Strive for fat to be about 30% of your daily calories. That’s about 2-3 tablespoons of butter at a meal depending on your calorie count. 

In the end fat does not make us fat. Sugar makes us fat. It’s in the science.

Ahhhhh… the season is getting better and better isn’t it? 

We are already calm and not overbooked. Now we can be hydrated and eating healthy fats feeling full and satisfied. 

Oh! And you will sleep so well because your body is happy to have some of what it needs to rest and repair at night. It will be busy while you are peacefully snoozing in your warm cozy bed. 

See you next week with the third and final part of the triad; the soul. 

Sweet dreams my friend.

Sue Huber has been busy making cookies and creating secret gift codes for her family of six. Beside the kitchen you can mostly likely find her shoveling snow, hauling wood or sitting in front of the wood stove writing, shopping or studying online to become a Nutritional Therapy Consultant where mind, body and soul give the most complete picture of health. 

Make This Your Most Enjoyable Christmas Season Yet! Part 1

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the Christmas season comes each year. I mean, we know it’s coming like clockwork. 

It’s on every calendar, but up here in the ADKs we love our autumn season. Most of the tourists have left (except for weekends- maybe). Our streets are quieter. The trails are a little more user friendly. The stores and shops are less frantic and crowded. Even our homes and families are back into the routine with school and work. We effortlessly float through the season enjoying the beauty and deepening sunshine – until Thanksgiving. 

Thanksgiving is our first major holiday with a significant school break. Then all of a sudden it’s over and we are staring Christmas in the face! Eyeball to eyeball with shopping, decorating, cooking, cleaning, relatives, travel, parties, wrapping, singing, concerts, and the list continues ad nauseum.

Big sigh… ugh… I already feel overwhelmed!

Years ago I received some great counsel about preparing for the holidays and all of the crazy that goes on. When it comes right down to it – “crazy” is not really the word you want to associate with Christmas, right? 

I would love for my Christmas season to be serene, beautiful, enjoyable, calm, and savored.

I learned the hard way that these mellow feelings about the season do not come by accident. They only come if I am purposeful in making them come.  I needed to prepare emotionally, physically and spiritually for the Christmas season and all that it entails. I needed to control it and not let the chaos control me. 

In the next weeks leading up to Christmas I am going to address three areas for positive change, (one for each part of the mind, body and soul triad) to encourage you in your endeavors to take the holiday by the horns (or the tree by the tinsel or the wrapping by the ribbons – you get my drift…) and make it the most enjoyable, healthy and meaningful Christmas season ever!

If you are like me, just the borage of preparatory thoughts and lists that come with Christmas can freeze me in an overwhelmed and panicked state. I expend much more emotional energy fretting over how everything will get done than actually doing it. 

So I recommend that on a day when you have time, sit down with your calendar and a blank piece of paper. First, make a list of all of the events you are expected to attend. 

Now stop. Do you really NEED to attend ALL of these events? I know you want to but if you start feeling the crazies comin’ on, it’s time for a break. Circle the events most important to you. Focus on those events. If you feel up to it, attend the others, but it’s no sweat if you decide to stay home and read a book or wrap presents. The best gift you can give yourself is time and space to breathe. Slow down and enjoy the moment you are in right now.

Now look at your list and put squares around the events that seem to cause you the most stress. If having your MIL (mother-in-law) over to your house causes you to break out in a nervous sweat looking for a place to hide, I highly recommend you start preparing mentally now for that visit. 

Or maybe you feel expected to make a large main dish, 4 veggies, 3 starches, 5 different Christmas cookies, have a spotless house, well trained dog and be happy about it all when your guests arrive. If you can’t change the circumstances then ask yourself what you are thinking about this stress item that is causing these adverse feelings. 

Where are these negative thoughts or overly high expectations coming from? 

How are they holding power over you and controlling you into the “crazies”? 

What is the root cause and what can you do about it prior to the event?

These are really hard questions to ask requiring you to do some difficult emotional work, but let me tell you it is sooooo worth it! Don’t shy away. Give it a try. You will thank yourself in the end and you are not alone. 

I just had to do this myself! My “stress person” is not coming to visit but has recently visited some of my past turf and I was surprised at my emotional reaction to the news. It was ugly. I needed to do some investigative work as to what was still going on in my heart concerning this person. The hard work paid off to peace on my end whether this person shows up in my future or not.

I don’t want my Christmas to be hijacked by my habit of over-committing to social events. I also don’t want my thoughts about people in my life or my habit of setting sky high expectations to cause negative feelings and actions ruining a beautiful holiday. I hope you feel the same. I really am preparing myself to be serene, joyful and calm this season – enjoying every minute. I hope you are now, too.

Watch for follow up articles in the next posts where we cover the body and soul portions of the triad.