Upgrade Your Holiday Menu
Upgrade Your Holiday Menu
7 Tips to Mind Your Health Through the Holidays
The average American gains 7-9lbs from Halloween through the New Year. As a nutritionist, my job is to help my clients build strategies to enjoy the holiday season and all the festive foods and gatherings it brings while also maintaining a balance in their lives and diet. I call this the art of Dipping and Not Diving. Below are seven strategies for you to employ to this new art.
1: Use natural sweeteners in baking. You can take any of your favorite recipes and upgrade them to make healthier, yet taste just as good. Substitute coconut sugar in place of brown sugar and xylitol cup-for-cup in place of white sugar in any recipe.
2: Use low-glycemic whole grain flours in cooking instead of white, refined flour. A combination of spelt and brown rice flour work wonderfully when you split them equally to replace a cup of white flour.
3: Plan your drinking. Parties abound and alcohol flows. Make it a point to cap your holiday drinks to 5 per week during the season and plan for this by skipping a drink when you don’t really want one or by having a full glass of water for every alcoholic drink you consume. Avoid the sugary, high calorie drinks and instead opt for red wine or clear liquor.
4: Boost your Greens. Without fail, eat two servings of leafy greens every single day. A serving is one cup cooked or two cups raw. It can be mixed salad greens or kale or collard greens. If you find your green leafies are falling to the wayside (then you are starting to dive instead of dip) then perk up with a green drink made fresh from your local juice or health food store.
5: Drink extra water. Water is our single best weight management tool and detoxifying tool. If you find you are overindulging, drink an extra liter of water in the morning or start your morning with hot water with lemon to flush your digestive and lymphatic system.
6: If you overindulge, drink either ginger tea or1 tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar in 4oz of water to increase your HCL production so that your body can digest and detoxify quicker.
7: If you eat too much sugar, processed foods or drink too much alcohol, take a high quality greens supplement that contains spirulina, wheat grass, barley grass and chlorella to help neutralize acid. Also take a food-based vitamin B complex, which nourishes the nervous system to replace some of what alcohol and sugar can leech.
Check out our 26 GREAT healthy dessert recipes!
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