No matter how hard you try you’d have to be either a saint or a hermit to get through the Christmas period without succumbing to at least a few of it’s excesses: excess of any type of food, excess of sugar, excess of alcohol, excess of stress and too many late nights. If you are giving in to all of these then come January it’s near to certain that you will have compromised your immune system leaving you vulnerable to catching a cold or suffer from some other health issue.
A little forward planning can make a massive difference and allow you to have fun with your friends and family whilst still arriving at the New Year in a healthier, happier, slimmer state than you may otherwise have done.
Stress
I’m not sure which of the Christmas sins starts
first but I’m sure that stress must be up there, especially
if you have a large family. Choosing presents, deco
rating the house, tidying and preparing the house for relatives’ visits, having relatives around, the financial strain of the whole thing and every other item on this list is a stressor on the body.
You may think that you don’t have time for yourself in December but it is more important than ever that you take time to look after yourself. At least once a week do something that it is just for you and totally relaxing; such as going to a yoga class, having a massage or a long soak in a warm bath. At the end of every day spend at least 10 minutes in quiet contemplation, allowing the worries of the day to drift away or at least be “parked” for a while whilst you focus on something positive and relaxing.
Too much sugar
In most companies the sugar overload starts around the beginning of December with chocolates, mince pies and biscuits being brought in by all and sundry. I truly know that it is difficult to say no when these items are tempting you every way you turn. A few ideas to help include:
- Keep the offending items away from your work area.
- If someone comes round with a tin of chocolates take just one and then put it into your drawer out of sight. If tin comes round again then you can say “no thanks, I’ve still got the one from last time”. See how long you can make that chocolate last before you really want it or until your self control gives in. Even if you only manage to eat half of what you would have done you are on to a winner.
- Work out the number of calories in whatever is being offered and then relate that to the amount of exercise you would need to do to burn the calories. Whilst I’m not a fan of counting calories, seeing these figures certainly gives pause for thought as to whether some foods are really that nice to be worth it. For example, to burn the calories of a mince pie you would need to:
– Run for 20 to 30 minutes
– Swim for 25 minutes
– Lift weight for about 40 minutes
– Cycle for about 50 minutes
And that is on top of any exercise you normally do. Do you really want that mince pie?
- Deprivation at any time of year only makes you want something more and at this time of year that feeling can only be heightened so instead of abstaining swap for something healthier. Try making my Snowball recipe for a sweet but healthy treat. One word of caution, this recipe is healthy but not calorie free but it should leave you far more satisfied than less healthy alternatives. (Recipe at the end)
Too much alcohol
From Christmas outings to Christmas Day and then no respite until after New Year’s Day. I don’t want to be a party pooper and most of us like a drink, the secret here is to have a few but not too many.
- Make sure that you drink at least 2 glasses of water before you go out so that you are hydrated. At least this way you won’t be drinking when you arrive at your party because you are thirsty.
- Know your limits – the limit before you get drunk and the limit you are going to allow yourself that night. It’s all about having a good time, not drowning your sorrows, so pace those drinks, ordering a sparkling mineral water in between if you need to.
- Be cautious of the mixers which are just as damaging to health as the alcohol. They are loaded with sugar, aspartame or other artificial sweeteners so your soft drink is no better for your health than the alcohol. As above choose a sparkling mineral water whenever you can.
- Make sure that the nights that you don’t go out are totally alcohol free nights to give your liver a rest.
Late nights
Christmas outings, late night shopping, late nights at work to catch up with all the pre Christmas orders or jobs that need doing before the end of the year will leave you exhausted before you even reach Christmas Day. This is where taking care of yourself becomes really important and getting in the early nights whenever you can will benefit you hugely. Also worth considering is whether you need to say “yes” to every party or stay to the end of every one. Will anyone remember if you miss the last hour of the party and how much will you benefit from the extra hour in bed? It all depends on how many invites you get.
Over Eating
So here’s the big one! On 20 December 2012 Anna Louise Taylor from BBC Food claimed that the average person in the UK consumed around 6000 calories on Christmas Day.
A year later we had become even more gluttonous, or better research was carried out! According to Katy Winter in the Daily Mail 6 December 2013, and Miranda Prynne of The Telegraph 5 December 2013, reporting on research carried out by “Ideal Weight”, the average number of calories consumed on Christmas Day was 7000 calories and the average person gains 6 pounds between Christmas Eve and New Years Day.
The Daily Mail gave this example of where those calories might come from:
Total 7851
It’s not that hard to make a few adjustments to the Christmas Day fare above and still have a fantastic but healthier day.
How about:
- No alcohol until lunch time
- Make your own mince pies. A shop bought mince pie will be around 250 calories whilst a homemade one, even one made with butter will be around 180 calories for this recipe http://caloriecount.about.com/homemade-mince-pies-recipe-r650173 . You can save even more calories by making them without a pastry lid, bringing the calories down to around 150.
- Choose healthy snacks whenever you can for example a healthy festive satsuma instead of a mince pie or shortbread. In fact you’d need to eat 10 satsumas before you gained the same number of calories as a mince pie.
- Have a healthy starter such as home made soup, little gem canapés or prawn salad without a mayonnaise based sauce. Skip the stuffing and any shop bought sauces, go easy on the roast potatoes and gravy and you can easily get this down to 800 calories and have removed most of the sugar and hopefully all of the unhealthy items. Ask yourself if you really need seconds right now or if they can wait until you are feeling hungry this evening. In fact if you are the person making the meal then make sure that you plan carefully for the number of people at the table and make enough for them to eat well but not enough for there to be left over’s, especially of things that won’t keep until later.
- If you can’t live without Christmas pudding choose custard or brandy butter not both and one serving is plenty! For healthier alternative you could opt for my Snowballs – no custard required.
- Swap the evening cheese and biscuits for the extra slice of turkey you didn’t take earlier on, or an alternative light healthy supper.
These 6 steps alone will save you 3639 calories – most from sugar or alcohol! That still leaves over 4000 calories, around double that recommended for a normal day but you can recover from this so long as you make lean healthy choices on other days.
There is a lot more to health however than counting calories so here are a few tips that you can focus on DOING in order to improve your health over the festive season.
Drink lemon water every morning. The perfect home for bacteria and virus’ that cause illness is in an acidic body. Lemon is one of the most alkalising foods and just half a lemon squeezed into some warm water (kettle half boiled) will help to neutralise the excesses of the day before – all of which move the body further into acidity.
The day after a party or Christmas meal eat lightly and as healthily as possible to give your body a chance to detoxify and recover from the harm you have done the day before.
Get out into the fresh air and get as much exercise as you can. Research shows that winter flu is more likely to be caught by people being cooped up in stuffy environments then as a result of the weather, so wrap up warm and do whatever outdoor pursuit is your idea of fun. The more energetic the better but even a walk is good. One thing I love to do at Christmas time is take a walk around an area where lots of houses put up outdoor Christmas lights Some are absolutely amazing and comparing one against another to find your favourite is a great way to pass at least an hour without even noticing. A brisk walk home gets the heart pumping and the breath quickening to increase the oxygen intake.
In conclusion, the key to NOT being ill in January is to carefully plan your indulgences with proper rest and recuperation in-between. Get early nights whenever you can to catch up on the sleep and eat lightly the following day.
If you are interested in pursuing a healthy lifestyle next year here are a few ideas to help:
Sign up to my Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/TheEssenceOfHealth
If you are looking to lose weight next year, would like help with creating your ideal diet or reducing food cravings, I am starting a new weight loss club called Natural Weight at Beehive Healthcare in Chester where I will be combining the group weekly meeting with an individually designed plan that addresses your personal needs. If you are interested please contact me to register your interest sandra@TheEssenceOfHealth.co.uk or book a place direct with the Beehive 01244 915603
And now for the recipe for Snowballs – makes 8
½ cup ground almonds
¼ cup mixed vine fruit
¼ cup dried apricots
2 tablespoons ground seed mixture (sesame and hemp)
1 ½ tablespoons coconut oil
3-4 drops vanilla extract
Desiccated coconut
Put the almonds, vine fruit and apricots into the food processor and blend until crumbs. Add everything except the desiccated coconut and blend again until mixture starts to clump together.
Remove the mixture from the food processor and knead slightly if all of the ingredients are not fully combined. Now roll into a fat sausage. Cut into 8 pieces then take each piece and gently roll in your hands to form a ball.
Cover a clean plate with desiccated coconut, then roll each ball in the coconut. Place on a plate in the fridge for as long as you can wait.
