katie.jayne.king 
Yes I know. There is sooo much christmas nutrition advice out there at this time of year. I’m sorry to add to it. I know how most of it makes you feel…. guilty perhaps? Because some people just seem to do Christmas so ‘perrfectly.’ Confused? Because ‘expert’ advice conflicts (as always when it comes to nutrition). Overwhelmed? As any nutrition advice can feel…. Or just plain sick and tired of it all? I’m with you there!
That’s ok. This is advice with a bit of a twist. Its just…. good, basic, commonsense sort of advice… you know the kind I specialise in? And when I shared this advice with a client they said ‘yeah… that’s actually really good advice. I can follow that!’ So I thought I’d share it here too.
To provide some context, this client like many of my clients and many of us in general… is a little scared of Christmas. They’ve worked hard on their health this year, built some fabulous new habits and are feeling great… and they don’t want to undo it in the silly season. So what was my amazing advice?
Just don’t eat anything that makes you feel like crap.
That’s it folks. That’s as simple as it can be. So basically… if you know a certain food really sits badly with you… just don’t eat it! Choose something different. For example… why torture yourself and eat fresh white bread with yoru prawns when you know your body reacts really badly to gluten? Just stick with the prawns! Why torture yourself and have wine when it always leaves you with a huge headache? Just have some other beverage that you enjoy instead. It doesn’t even have to be alcoholic! You CAN say no.
This ‘statement’ also applies to ‘moderation.’ Let me expand it a little so its more clear….
Just don’t eat too much of anything if more than a little of it makes you feel like crap.
You may be one of the lucky ones (I am) where nothing really disagrees with you. I have a cast iron constitution and no foods really make me feel completely off. But…. too much of many things are not good. So over Christmas, I will definitely be enjoying things like Christmas shortbread, christmas cake, mince pies, a glass of wine or champagne here and there, Christmas ham, croissants… it sounds BAD right and like A LOT? Well the secret is… just to have a little of these things and certainly not all at once! For example, I’ve just baked shortbread and they are fairly small so 1 everyday for the next few days isn’t going to make me feel awful… it will be a lovely ‘its Christmas’ reminder to my tastebuds!
A few other little practical tips you may want to consider include:
- Don’t skip ‘proper meals’ this December. Make sure you still have a good breakfast, lunch and dinner. Don’t ‘skip’ these because you will be ‘hangry’ and then you’ll want a meal sized portion of whatever Christmas treats are in the lunchroom that day… make sense? If you have the proper meal you won’t have much room left for the ‘treaty stuff’ so sticking with the statemet above will be easy.
- Stay hydrated. I mean drink a LOT of water. Always. At least 2L guys. Get it in ya!
- Eat ‘positively’. When you do indulge in a controlled manner as suggested above… enjoy it. You don’t need to feel guilty. You don’t need to talk about it and declare how much exercise you will need to do to work it off. You don’t need to explain yourself or make excuses. You can just… eat it. Savour it. And move on 🙂
Merry December. It really is JUST around the corner now!