5 tips for surviving, and thriving, this Christmas
This year, with so much worry, stress and disappointment around our plans to see family and friends over Christmas, our food traditions and rituals may hold even more importance and food will no doubt bring a lot of much-needed comfort for many of us. Some of us sadly now spending Christmas alone, perhaps for the first time in our lives.
If you also struggle with your relationship with food and can feel anxious and guilty due to all of the tempting festive treats on offer, please do remember that “a bit of what you fancy does you good” and…
It’s the frequency of our actions over time - weeks, months and years that have an impact on our health not one, two or a few days of over-indulgence.
Here are my Top 5 Tips for keeping self-care at the top of your ‘to do’ list and achieving balance this Christmas.
These can all seem pretty obvious but from talking to my clients, family and friends in recent years, they are often the first things that people forget to do during the usually busy festive season when there are a lot of distractions and excitement.
Now that we’re looking at a much quieter Christmas alone, perhaps feeling deflated, concerned for our loved ones and anxious, these things couldn’t be more important, hence I’m still writing this on Sunday 20th December 2020.
Stay Hydrated
Drink plenty of water - aim for 6-8 glasses a day. Start the day by making up a jug with fresh lemon, lime or orange slices. You can add most chopped fruit (except bananas) and herbs like rosemary with raspberries and mint with pineapple both work beautifully. Sparkling water and fresh lime is always popular in our house.
Move Daily
Your body looks after you in so many ways, enabling you to enjoy all the wonderful festive food and drinks, pay it back by investing 15 minutes of daily exercise.
Prioritising movement, ideally getting outside for fresh air and closer to nature will all support your gut health and immunity and help to boost your mood too.
And just to be clear, we DO NOT have to ‘earn’ our food or over-exercise to ‘burn off’ our food at Christmas time, or any time other time.
Manage Stress with Mindfulness
Whether you only have 10 minutes for yoga, 5 minutes for meditation or 3 minutes for breathing techniques, listen to your body and be kind to yourself.
One of the most effective but commonly overlooked, stress management tools is something we involuntarily do every day: breathing…
Try the 4-7-8 breathing technique: breath in through the nose for 4 seconds, hold for 7 seconds and out through the mouth for 8 seconds. Repeat as often as needed.
Avoid the Blood Sugar Rollercoaster
You can see here how our blood sugar is affected if we graze on biscuits, sweets and cakes throughout the day, but also very clearly how following a more balanced, healthy diet benefits our blood sugars hugely and keep us in the more stable Optimal Blood Sugar Zone (OBSZ). Staying in the OBSZ means we’ll feel less hungry and have more sustained energy levels, not to mention reducing irritability, poor sleep, brain fog, anxiety and weight gain associated with a high-sugar diet and increased blood sugar levels over time, which can result in more serious conditions such as insulin resistance, diabetes and coronary heart disease.
This is why my smoothie guidelines recommend filling half your blender with leafy greens or oats and adding milled flaxseed or chia seeds, for example. I also recommend that ideally any snack includes protein with healthy fats and pairing your fruit or vegetables with wholegrain crackers, cheese, nuts, seeds, avocado, olives, houmous, or bean based dips and spreads which are easy to whip up at home, will all help to keep your blood sugar and energy levels stable.
Better Than Nothing Mindset
Christmas is undoubtedly one of those times of the year when we can very easily fall into ‘all or nothing’ thinking around our self-care and end up doing nothing due to our extra long ‘to do’ lists, drinking more alcohol and sleep deprivation. I came across this analogy a few years ago now and it still makes a lot of sense…
Saying
“Oh, I’ve already ruined my good eating today. I’ll just eat crap”
is like saying…
“Oh, I dropped my phone on the floor. I’ll just smash it until it breaks.”
Try to avoid this ‘all or nothing mindset’ over Christmas by making the small, positive healthy choices suggested here. Christmas is actually the perfect time to challenge yourself to take those small, positive steps and to do them every day.
The truly wonderful thing about this time of year is if you can prioritise the 5, 10 or 15 minutes of self-care each day over Christmas, your self-efficacy will increase (your belief in your ability to achieve something) and you’ll then feel more empowered and able to maintain these positive behaviours in the longer term.
When it comes to our health and self-care, “a bit of what you fancy does you good” and ‘something is always better than nothing’ so I do hope these suggestions help you to make small, positive healthy choices this Christmas, how ever you're spending it and whatever you’re facing in these tough times. Stay safe, well and enjoy the small things.
Join me on my next 8-Week Seasonal Reset starting w/c 11th January to put your health first and get your goals on track in 2021. Sign up now and receive my free Christmas Thriving Booklet with delicious Christmas ‘No-Waste’ recipes, goal and habit tracker, 2020 reflections and 2021 goal and mission statement planning pages to help you focus on the positive things you can control next year.