Tips to a Healthier Holiday Season
Tips to a Healthier Holiday Season
Christmas is one of my favourite times of year! For me, it is about coming together with my family and friends and enjoying each others company, celebrating the year that just was and enjoying some delicious food!
But the holiday season can also seems to come along with higher sugar intake, a little more alcohol consumption and eating inflammatory foods a little more often then usual.
Today I want to share with you some easy tips that I have been using over the years to keep my hormones, gut and skin healthy over the holiday season.
Tip 1: Keep your sleep routine Hormones like, melatonin, cortisol, leptin, and ghrelin are all impacted by the regulation of our circadian rhythm (internal body clock). These hormones play a large role in blood sugar regulation, hunger and satiety and regulate the stress response. Imbalances in these hormones may appear as over eating, sugar cravings, energy fluctuations or heightened stress. Keeping a regular sleep routine takes the guess work out for the body so these hormones can stay balanced. Try waking up around the same time each morning and going to bed at the same time each evening. Ensure you are eating regular well balanced meals at times that you usually would each day.
Tip 2: Don’t forget your Essential Fatty Acids Our essential fatty acids (EFA’s) are ‘essential‘ to maintaining healthy hormone balance and reducing inflammation. These healthy fats are also important to keep good quality sebum (skins oil) and preventing nasty breakouts or deep cystic pimples. Our Omega-3 fatty acids are also very important anti-inflammatory agents and can help to prevent worsening of period pain! You can find your EFA’s in dietary sources like salmon, sardines, barramundi, flaxseeds, flaxseed oil, chia seeds, hemp seeds and dark leafy green vegetables. See if you can include these into the diet daily especially if your planning on increasing other inflammatory foods like sugar or grain fed meats.
Tip 3: Don’t ignore your Gut Health Let’s be real, our gut is the CEO of our body and unfortunately our CEO is very sensitive. If your gut isn’t having a good time then all the other systems in our body can be influenced by this. Dietary factors like increased sugar, inflammatory foods and alcohol can all impact the health of our gut. Other factors like stress, sleep and exercise also have a huge influence on maintaining the health of our gut. When it comes to gut health preparation is key. Consider a good quality probiotic or SB supplement to protect your gut from unwanted pathogens. You might also like to consider some gut healing nutrients like glutamine, zinc carnosine, quercetin or bromelain .
Tip 4: Make fibre your best friend It is estimated that 80% of Australians do not meet their recommended fibre intake daily. Fibre assists with regulation of bowel motions, binding to toxins are removing them from the body, reduces risk of chronic health conditions. Because fibre can regulate your blood sugar and improve your gut health and toxin removal it is essential to keeping your skin and hormones healthy over the holidays. Fibre rich foods include brown rice, sweet potato, cooked and cooled potatoes, quinoa, dark leafy green vegetables, nuts and seeds, wholegrains. If you aren’t getting these foods into your diet as regularly throughout the holidays considering a fibre supplement may be beneficial.
Tip 5: Don’t let stress take over While holidays are meant to be relaxing, we all know that sometimes they can cause a little more unwanted stress. If you know that the holiday season holds more stress for you don’t wait till its to late. Get started on a herbal stress formula and make sure your taking your stress reducing nutrients like vitamin C, B vitamins, magnesium or L-theanine. Identifying ways that you can reduce stress will also be beneficial e.g. letting go of perfectionism, trying mindfulness, keeping up with your exercise routine.