You’re probably expecting a list of low-calorie swaps for traditional holiday foods, or “fat-burner” workouts. That’s not what this post is about because that’s not what gut health during the holidays includes.
SKH Note: This post was written by Trinity, who is part of team A Gutsy Girl and the newest health coach.
Healthy Holiday
Staying healthy over the holidays means more than just diet and movement (which are important but not the end all be all).
It means getting enough sleep, taking time for self-care, using non-toxic products, staying hydrated, warding off SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder + the Standard American Diet), and eating mindfully. And most importantly, throughout the season, enjoy being in the moment and appreciating the health you do have.
It’s easy to make a low FODMAP holiday cookie or gluten-free Christmas dinner, but the real work comes with managing all of the other factors that play a role in your gut’s health.
If you’re going into this holiday season while also focused on gut-healing you might have one of two different expectations.
- One, you’re expecting to be miserable and miss out on a “normal” holiday season.
- Or two, you’ve decided to ignore your gut health for the month and deal with the bloating, extra time in the bathroom, and other consequences because you don’t want to miss anything this season!
Neither of these scenarios has to be you this year.
Today I want to share with you a holistic perspective on staying healthy this holiday season. While all of us are bioindividual with the factors that shape our gut health and overall health, these five are a few of the most common with the highest potential to improve your health this month.
Gut Health During the Holidays {5 Tips You Might Not Expect}
Click HERE to save these 5 tips for gut health during the holidays for later.
Eat Mindfully.
I began my gut healing journey with a long list of foods to avoid (You can read more about my journey HERE) and was so anxious for my first holiday season with dietary restrictions. Not only will anxiety ruin the meal or event, but it’s bad for digestion.
Making a plan of action for approaching Christmas parties or Christmas dinner helped put my food anxiety to rest. When making my plan, I thought of all the Christmas foods I loved and couldn’t imagine the holiday without. If there was a way to alter them to fit with my healing diet I did and prepared them differently.
For almost everything, there was an alternative. For the ones that had no alternative, I asked myself whether the physical discomfort of eating those was worth it.
As someone with celiac disease, asking myself this question immediately ruled out all foods with gluten in them. But dishes with a little bit of dairy that would only cause me a bit of discomfort were worth it, and I enjoyed a few of those in moderation!
Takeaway: Be mindful about what you choose to eat. Weigh out whether the physical discomfort is worth it or not, then don’t dwell on it! Make decisions about food in advance to reduce eating anxiety, then be confident in what you chose and push aside any feelings of guilt that may creep in.
Sleep.
No matter how many preparations you’re making for this season, sacrificing your sleep isn’t worth it.
Not only do you need sleep to function fully and feel your best, but less sleep means more cravings, more mood fluctuations, and less time for your gut to rest and digest every night. If you are indulging in foods that you find more difficult to digest, it’s even more important to rest after a meal and rest at night.
Repeat after me…I WILL take care of myself.
This may be a season of gifting and giving to others, but the hustle and bustle of the season only makes it even more important to fill your own cup.
Stress relief and calming your innate fight or flight response during this time of the year not only make this season much more enjoyable but also supports digestion. I highly suggest looking into natural medicine alternatives to help reduce stress, by shopping at Weed Seeds USA you’ll find some great products.
Taking care of yourself this month can come in the form of little things like daily meditation, journaling, walks, baths, or anything else that puts you at ease. It can also be bigger things you plan ahead of time knowing how stressful this month is.
One example is to book a massage on a day leading up to Christmas when you know you’ll need a release from last-minute preparations. Scheduling self-care into your day and your month is an active way to make it a priority and avoid running out of time for it.
Movement
First things first… Movement is not punishment for eating nor is it something you have to do to earn food.
Movement can be a really powerful tool for gut healing and is even more important this holiday season when we’re stuck inside more than ever.
It helps reduce stress, can help detoxify your body when you sweat, and going on a short walk before or after a meal can help stimulate digestion and lower blood-sugar spikes.
However, doing too intense of a workout can put stress on your body and be detrimental to digestion. Be gentle with your body this holiday season mentally and physically with movement. Use movement as a positive tool for boosting your mood, detoxifying your body, and aiding with digestion, not as a punishment for eating.
Environmental Toxins
Your body’s toxic load influences your microbiome and makes it more difficult to rest and digest by occupying your body with detoxification rather than digestion. With extra cleaning for guests, holiday-scented candles, pinecones, and aerosols, wearing more makeup for events, and more processed foods, your body is exposed to extra amounts of toxins this month.
Using non-toxic cleaning products, non-toxic beauty products, and essential oils rather than artificial scents are all great ways to reduce your exposure to toxins this holiday season.
Holistic Approach to the Holiday Season {is your Mindset}
This holistic approach to health is a mindset I wholeheartedly believe in and share with all of my clients.
It’s overwhelming to look at a list of every factor that could be affecting your health and gut health and try to decipher which ones are affecting your health the most, and then which order to address them in.
There are two ways to make this process of sorting through factors 100x easier.
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- Use the Healing Blooms from Within Journal.
- Work with a health coach!
These two reasons were the fundamental motivation for designing the Healing Blooms from Within Health Coaching programs.
This program is designed to:
- Help you get the most of the journal
- Teach you how to use it as a healing method
- Support you in finding trends and patterns in diet, exercise, sleep, hydration, etc. that provide insight into how to heal.
- Give you an accountability partner
- Help you navigate healing diets, grocery shopping, and meal planning without starving yourself or dreading eating!
- Use the journal to teach you how to listen to your body for the rest of your life
There are two options for the length of the program.
Because Healing Blooms from Within is a 90-day journal, the program was also designed to be 90 days, but, if you feel you only need support getting started, there’s a 30-day option as well.
During the first month, we’ll meet once a week. This month focuses on setting you up for success with your journal. We’ll make a plan of how you can harness the healing power of the journal to meet your individual needs and explore factors in your healing you need the most support with.
The second and third months are more focused on accountability. We’ll only meet once a month, but you’ll have a full day of my attention for email communication once a week. During this month we’ll focus on unpacking discoveries found with the journal, staying accountable, and then wrap up with how to take the changes you’ve made in these three months to life without the journal.
You can find more details about the program HERE and if you feel you need extra support this holiday season, we can start ASAP!
From today through December 31, 2020, use code HOLIDAY2020 to save 12% on this program and anything else on agutsygirl.com
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me at opportunites@agutsygirl.com or fill out THIS form for a free 15-minute intro session together.
SKH Note: I 100% believe in the magical experience you’ll have with Trinity as your health coach. If and when Trinity has questions, I am still here to support her however I can. I am no longer going to be health coaching, since my areas of focus are in different places now. However, I will still do health coaching mentoring in small, 30-minute sessions. You can sign up for one of those HERE.
If you liked this post, you might also enjoy:
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- (Trinity wrote this as well) DIY Elemental Diet for SIBO
- DIY Herb-Infused Olive Oil {Bonus: Holiday Gift Idea}
- A Gutsy Girl Holiday 2020 Gut Wish List
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Xox,
SKH
You will heal. I will help.
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