The holidays are here yet again. For those of us trying to stick to our healthy regiment this can be a challenging time of the year. While just being in your normal routine it is easy to make your own recipes and follow your nutrition plan. However, when it is time to travel and have meals at other places it can get difficult. First of all, no one wants to be the picky one and not eat what everyone else is eating. It may also be hard because your choices of food may be very limited based on what they are serving.
Here are a few things that may help you get through these situations.
- Keep your digestion optimal by drinking water between meals, not during meals. This will help with cravings as well because many times we are not hungry but thirsty and confuse the two. Your stomach acid gets diluted if too many fluids come during meals so drink at least 30 minutes before or an hour after meals. Sipping during a meal is fine, it is gulping down glasses of anything that you want to avoid.
- As for what others may think of your restrictions or preferences, if you have to speak up, just remind them that you are doing it because your health depends on it and you have made that a priority in your life, to take very good care of yourself no matter what. Luckily there are more and more people paying attention to what they eat so you may not be the only one in the room who has restrictions and may inspire others to join you in speaking up about eating healthy.
- You can also try making sure you aren’t starving when you arrive so you are less likely to give in to temptation and nibble on cookies and chips.
- If it is a close family member’s house I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if you brought a dish or two not only for yourself but for others to try as well.
- Lastly, avoid the guilt trap. If you do decide to give in to temptation, do so with a good conscience. Don’t feel guilty about it for the rest of the night. Just know you will survive and there may be consequences the next day, but you will get through it. One way to help when knowingly eating what you shouldn’t is to take some activated charcoal tablets with your meal or alcoholic beverages. This will reduce the amount that is absorbed and leave you feeling better the next day than you would have without it. These can be found online, in some drugstores and we stock them at our office.
We hope you have a great holiday season. If you need further advise on healthy eating for anytime of the year feel free to contact our office.