The Festive Season Survival Guide
- valentinariva4
- Nov 12, 2024
- 7 min read
Are you one of those people that loves Christmas but by the end of the festivities you feel like you've been hit by a ton of bricks?
Well here is a list of quick and easy tricks you can do to make sure that the toll on your body this year is gonna be just that little bit easier.
Stress:
Let's face it, it's the holidays. As wholesome as they may be, they're also going to be very very stressy. Here are some things you can do to help minimise it.
1- Sigh… but in a neuroscience-based way
To my knowledge, the fastest way to calm down in real time.
How to do a physiological sigh correctly:
Take 2 consecutive inhales through the nose one big inhale, followed by another inhale (with no exhale in between!), to maximally inflate your lungs.
Then exhale all your air and until you are lungs-empty, via your mouth.
This rapidly shifts you from a stressy state (sympathetic) towards your calm state (parasympathetic). Even just 1-3 physiological sighs can allow us to stay in or return to a calmer state. If you have a dog watch him before he goes to sleep, most of the time he would do this type of breathing to get in a relaxed state before a snooze.
Stanford University has published a clinical trial showing that cyclic physiological sighs, practised daily for 5 minutes, reduce overall stress, promote relaxation, improve sleep, lower resting heart rate and enhance mood.
Take a ‘wee break’ from the madness in the room and try this sigh whilst standing or sitting, if you need longer and want the full 5 minutes call it a poo break.
2-Leave a pint of water by your bedside table and drink it first thing in the morning
Dehydration is a form of stress for the body, and when you wake up you are dehydrated. So lets rectify that before you reach for that cup of coffee and try this magical combo:
1 pint of water
¼ teaspoon of natural unrefined salt (like Celtic or pink Himalayan)
1 squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice (can have more if you like it)
It is the cheapest way to drink electrolytes.
The natural salt is packed with minerals that help combat fatigue and muscle cramps, help your adrenals (so better metabolism, energy levels, blood pressure, heart rate and much more).
While the lemon or lime juice gives your immune system a boost with vitamin C. Plus, it aids in detox and digestion —talk about a win-win!
Drink this potion as soon as you wake up, and wait 15-20 minutes before eating. Perfect time for a quick shower and getting ready for the day! 🚿✨
TIPS:
🍋 If you love the lemon or lime flavour you add more to the water, the more the better really, just use a straw to protect your teeth.
🌙 Prep your water with salt the night before so it’s completely dissolved in the morning. Leave it on your bedside table so you can drink it before you open the door and people inundate you with dozens of requests.
🧂Start with a smaller amount of salt if ¼ teaspoon feels too strong!
💧 Use filtered water
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Toxins:
Everyone knows that during the festive periods there are more chances to celebrate and people are going to have more alcohol than usual. As much as you swear to yourself you are definitely going to do ‘dry January’ here is another couple of tips to help you with the extra toxin load in the meantime.
3- Take some toxin binders first thing in your morning water
Binders attach to toxic metals, chemicals, biotoxins, and more to shuttle them safely out of the digestive tract without the risk of reabsorption and recirculation. Which means you poop out those toxins from the alcohol without adding yet more things to process to the poor liver’s to do list. They also help prevent Herxheimer reactions (it’s your body’s very painful toddler tantrum when it has too many toxins around and can’t cope with them). There are many out there to choose from, I like Fulvic humic minerals like this one:
Add this to your morning water or drink it after you have consumed alcohol.
If you suffer from diarrhoea choose a powder or capsule form instead of the liquid one.
This is a short term fix, taking toxin binders does not mean that the negative effects of alcohol disappear, or that now you take them, you can drink as much as you want. This supplement supports your body in dealing with the extra toll if you decide to drink more in the festive period.
4- Just Jump!
While the kettle boils or while you take a minute yourself in the bedroom (AKA panic room) do 100 jumps on the spot, it takes less than 2 minutes.
The most underrated system in your body is your lymphatic system. Your body really has two circulatory systems: the blood system that delivers the ‘groceries’ to your cells and the lymphatic system that removes the ‘garbage’ ( toxins). Your lymphatic system doesn't have a heart to pump the fluid around, its upward movement depends on the motions of the muscle and joints, which means that when you sit for long periods of time, it often gets blocked. When this happens the toxins stay in the body. But the jumps can help with this. When you jump the muscle contracts, and you get the help of gravitational pressure too, helping avoid blockages, removing waste products from the cells and from the body.
If you have a mini trampoline at home or at the gym you can do your 100 jumps there for even better results.
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Meals:
We all know it. It's Christmas. There's going to be food, lots of it. It's a season made for indulging, for sitting at the table for hours with the ones that you love and just to have a good time. So let's have a look at what we can do to help our body with that.
5- Offer to be the one to bring the starter and make it a vegetable one. If you are eating out, order a veg starter
This trick works because veggies contain loads of fibres. These fibres attach themselves to the intestines walls and there they become a super mesh. This mesh protects the intestines walls, sugar needs to squeeze through this mesh to reach the bloodstream, this process takes much longer than if you had clear intestine walls. Therefore all the glucose in the meal that you eat after will go in your bloodstream slower and not all of it will go. Cue an avoided sugar spike and a steady energy for the rest of the day. Do it now, thank me later.
6- Take some digestive enzymes before the meal
You may have a lactose or gluten intolerance and tend to stay away from these foods but you know that during the holidays you will be eating them because you don't want to be ‘that’ guest. Or you might be the sort of person that usually stays away from rich and fatty foods because you know they don't agree with you but again you know you will be indulging during the holidays. If any of that sounds familiar then digestive enzymes can really help minimise the negative effects.
Digestive enzymes help a breakdown food nutrients that the body can absorb, these can help with bloating, gas, constipation and regularity.
There are many brands out there that sell them, I personally like this one from pure encapsulations:
I am not affiliated, I just like the brand and this one has Betaine HCL for extra help with protein and breakdown, easing constipation and detoxing the liver from excess estrogen.
7- Have a spoonful of vinegar in your big glass of water 30 min before you sit down for a meal
Some studies have shown that just one tablespoon of vinegar can reduce the glucose spike of a meal by up to 30%. And the insulin spike by up to 20%. With that, cravings are less, hunger is tamed, and more fat is burned.
A few caveats:
IMPORTANT: first time you try this make sure it is in the morning on an empty stomach. wait 15 min and see if there is any burning sensation in your stomach. If you do have a burning sensation DO NOT take vinegar again. The burning sensation is a sign that you either have an ulcer or an H pylori infection. If any other point down the line there is any burning sensation then stop taking vinegar and contact your healthcare provider.
NO balsamic vinegar and if you know you have a yeast infection or candida overgrowth don’t choose a vinegar which states “with the mother’ on the label.
Drink through a straw to protect teeth enamel.
If it is hard to drink, try holding your nose so you can't smell it, that minimises the taste. Also that would give plenty for your judgemental relative to talk about so he/she won’t focus on other parts of your life.
If vinegar really does not work for you and you can't stand the taste then do 1 glass of water with the juice of half a lemon drunk through straw.
8- After a big meal do any of the following ideas for at least 10 minutes:
go for a brisk walk
be the one to offer to take the kids to the playpark (you win brownie points, don’t have to do the kitchen and it is a break from the in-laws).
If you are stuck with doing the dishes, dance to your 3 favourite songs first or even better get the family involved in a dance off (if you like dancing and you suffer from ADHD or any conditions with low dopamine this specific one will help you get that little dopamine hit to muster the courage to tackle the kitchen).
Go up and down the stairs bringing up the presents and all the other thousands of things that have somehow made their way down.
Set a who is the fittest challenge, who can do slow squats the longest etc.
Or just come up with your own ideas: the rule is if your muscles are moving then it is working. For your muscles to contract they need energy, fats work but the quickest and easiest form of energy is glucose, So the muscle will get that glucose off your bloodstream and cue the fanfare band to celebrate a missed sugar spike and the dreaded sugar crash!
Also there are no excuses, you have up to 90 minutes after a meal to do this, so you still have time to do it after you have been cornered by ‘that’ guest that talked to you non stop.
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This article is a good example of how I work. Clients that work with me get advice on lifestyle and dietary changes, exercises to help deal with stress, nervous system regulation, vagal tone and lymphatic optimisation. They also get targeted supplements, information on biology and neuroscience (without all the jargon) to help understand their bodies much better. Once I work with someone one to one I'm able to give much more bespoke and targeted help for their specific issues. If you want to know more, browse the rest of this website or book a free discovery call.
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