The holidays are a time when we’re focused so much on the external –  the gifts, the house decorating, the get togethers – that we forget about our own health. About feeding our bodies healthy foods and getting proper rest and just taking time for ourselves. Listen in as Laura talks about how to stay healthy amidst all of this fun, sometimes stressful, excitement.

Listen on Apple Podcasts: Click here.

Links Mentioned

New Mama Energy Guide
Episode 10: Holiday Overindulgence: The How Not-To
Episode 11: Holiday Baking Alternatives
Laura’s Instagram

Transcript

You’re listening to The Love & Lettuce Podcast, episode number nine. I am so excited to dive into this episode today because the topic is all about how to stay healthy during the holidays. Let’s face it, we all go a little nuts this time of year as we try to get it all done and stay on top of it and be ahead of the game, and then we get stressed that in fact we’re behind and Christmas is around the corner. Okay, maybe that’s a “me” problem.

But seriously, the holidays are a time when we’re focused so much on the external, the gifts, the house decorating, the get togethers, the cards that we meant to send, but we didn’t get around to it. Okay, wait, that’s me again. But yes, we’re focused on everything external, and we forget about our own health, about our own bodies. About feeding our bodies healthy foods and getting proper rest and just taking time for ourselves. Not to mention all the extra desserts and treats that seem to be lurking everywhere and asking for us to eat them at every turn. So let’s talk about how to stay healthy amidst all of this fun, sometimes stressful, excitement.

Hey, this is Laura Lima, holistic nutritionist and founder of New Mama Nation and host of The Love & Lettuce Podcast.

I am here to help mamas know what to eat to give them energy and help them feel fantastic so they can better enjoy life with their littles. And remember, this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not replace medical advice from your healthcare provider, and is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical condition. As always, please consult your healthcare provider to find out what is right for you. With that said, let’s get to the show!

Could you use more energy, mama? I mean, who couldn’t, right? Get my free New Mama Energy Guide, where I’ll give you 10 tips to increase your energy stat. Go to bit.ly/newmamas to get your free copy. 

During the holiday season, when we are go-go-go, when we have so many things on our plate, literally and figuratively, when we force ourselves to get it all done… what inevitably happens to so many of us? Well, we get sick, we become so rundown that our bodies can’t help but to succumb to whatever cold or flu is out there, and we are forced to shut down. (Although, many of us still push through and stay as busy as we were before we got sick, which is the worst thing we can do.) But anyway, that’s why I’m so excited to talk about this today and give you some tips for keeping your body healthy, despite the busyness that is the holiday season. 

So here we go. Here is the first super important tip:

Breakfast

Start your day with a healthy breakfast, without fail. By nourishing your body first thing in the morning, you are giving it the fuel it needs to perform its many processes, and you’re helping to prevent cravings and unnecessary hunger throughout the day. Because we know when those arise, we are so much more likely to feel the need to reach for the chocolate. And there is always chocolate within reach during the holiday season, isn’t there? Or cookies, or cookies with chocolate in them. And I’m not saying those are only bad and you should never eat them, but I definitely do suggest avoiding those times when we can’t seem to stop eating them. And those times happen when we’re not properly nourished.

Eating a healthy breakfast also gives you awesome motivation to continue throughout the rest of your day, choosing healthy foods, and making sure that you prioritize your body and your health. Trust me, it’s amazing the way it works. So without fail, start your day every day with a healthy breakfast.

Examples of a Healthy Breakfast

Now you might be wondering what a healthy breakfast might look like. Here are some examples, all of which include the three components of a healthy meal, which are protein, fat, and fibre:

Two fried eggs on sourdough toast. Talk about delicious!

You might even want three, but I find when I add the toast in, like the bread, I find that I get extra full, of course, and so two eggs is enough in that case. But sometimes I even add some raw cheddar to the toast because, hello, delicious! Sometimes I add avocado to it. But I want you to go by your hunger. So if you eat that food and you’re like hmm, I’m still not satisfied, eat something more. Maybe it’s an extra egg, maybe it’s some Greek yogurt on the side, maybe you’re adding some berries to your meal, maybe having some leftovers from last night. Whatever the case may be, I want you to go to your hunger, to your satisfaction.

On the other hand, if you ate that food and you were like, holy, I am stuffed even before you finish, don’t eat the rest. We have to get into the habit of listening to our bodies when it comes to our hunger and our fullness, or our satisfaction. That is the way to eat.

So our next healthy breakfast example is plain – emphasis on plain, not the sugar-filled one, you guys – plain Greek yogurt with hemp hearts, walnuts, flax oil, and berries. Maple syrup optional.

In my case, obvious. Yes, I absolutely add a little bit of maple syrup for sweetness. But the emphasis is on plain yogurt and Greek yogurt because the Greek adds the extra protein. And when we’re adding in the hemp hearts, that’s a really great way of adding extra protein, fats, fibre and nutrients – vitamins, minerals, and good fats like omega-3, for example.

Alright, the next example of a healthy breakfast is an avocado mashed with sea salt and spread onto sourdough toast. Talk about yum! I actually might have this tomorrow now that I’m saying it… I want it. And so you might be thinking, oh yeah, that’s avo toast, avocado toast. Yes, that is exactly what it is. Sometimes I mix this with a fried egg on top, like, you do you and enjoy (or put the avocado on top, whatever). 

Next example, an omelet with leftover veggies and feta or goat cheese.

So you literally chop up the veggies, sometimes I add onion that I chop up as well. Or if I’m running short on time, I do onion powder, yup. I add sea salt, I add some pepper. You whisk up the eggs, put them in, you add some feta or goat cheese or cheddar and call it a day. Delicious.

And our last example here, but there are many more, like you can also just have leftovers for breakfast, by the way!

Leftovers are not just a thing for lunch or dinner. But our last example here is a smoothie. So you have to make sure in this case, because you can absolutely have a smoothie that is not nourishing by any means, that gives you too much sugar and not enough of the other stuff.

So you have to make sure you’re adding protein (so maybe whey protein powder), you’re adding fat (so for example, coconut oil or flax oil, yup, right in that smoothie, can’t tell it’s there, but it just adds so much nutrition), and fibre (so frozen berries are my fav here, but you could also use a banana, or mix a banana and frozen berries, greens like spinach or kale, and maybe some ground flaxseeds or chia seeds. You don’t have to use all of those; you could use one or you could use a mix; it’s totally up to you.

So that was number one. Make sure you start every single day with a healthy breakfast, without fail.

Now here’s the next one:

Supplements

Don’t forget about your supplements. If you’re currently taking them, continue them. We tend to get so busy and wrapped up in other things during this season that we neglect our supplements. We neglect our own routine, our own healthy habits for our bodies, but our bodies still rely on supplements for extra nutrition. Now, I do believe that the majority of our nutrients should come from food. Absolutely. But it can be hard to get enough from food alone. And that’s where supplements come in.

The supplements I especially love at this time of year are cod liver oil, vitamin D, and a probiotic. All things that help to keep our immune system strong and healthy.

Now, if you feel like you’re coming down with something, as soon as you feel those first symptoms coming on, then I highly recommend starting a supplement like, for example, Echinaforce.

One of the reasons I love this one is that besides it being very effective at preventing your cold from getting a lot worse, and also helping it to go away faster, is that it’s safe during both pregnancy and breastfeeding. This is huge, as so many supplements are simply not tested on women during pregnancy or breastfeeding (especially, I find, the ones for colds and flu), so we don’t know the safety of them. So for this one to have on the label that it is safe during these times is huge.

So that one was Echinaforce and the brand is A. Vogel. I always love to have it on hand, especially during cold and flu season, and especially because I have two little kids who love to sneeze in my mouth, basically.

Make Your Own Healthy Desserts & Treats

Alright, moving right along. How to stay healthy during the holiday season. This one’s fun:

Make your own healthy desserts and treats. Check out episode 11, coming out in 4 days, on December 18, 2021, to find out the ingredients to use that still taste good, but are a bit (or a lot) healthier.

The thing is, I don’t feel that we should have to deprive ourselves of yummy treats, especially around the holidays when they are everywhere.

Not just in people’s homes and at work, but on social media! We are inundated with drool-worthy pictures of cookies and cakes and bars and treats that make it impossible to not want them. And yeah, I don’t believe that we should have to avoid them completely. In fact, I want us, each of us, to indulge and enjoy the heck out of them. But at the same time, I do want us to bake our own as much as possible. Because then we can control the ingredients; we know what’s going in them, and we can use the better options as much as we can.

So to find out what those better options are, when it comes to holiday baking, and just baking in general, really, you must listen to episode 11, coming out on December 18, 4 days from now.

Here is our next tip:

Drink Water

Drink water. I know it seems boring, but my friend, like, I have to say it because it’s so important. It’s so easy to do, but it’s so easy to forget to do. And this is why I include it as a tip in so many of my episodes and blog posts… because it’s just so important.

In addition to all the food treats out there, there are these sugary concoctions that we call holiday drinks. And when we drink sugar, it affects us so much faster and to a much higher degree, since there’s no fibre or protein or fat in it to slow down the digestion of it. So our blood sugar level just spikes right up. This is not good for our blood sugar, obviously, this isn’t good for our insulin, which we should be keeping as low as possible. This isn’t good for our inflammation, it’s not good for our immune system. It’s just not good, period.

And besides, water is needed by our bodies, hugely so it’s needed.

For the functions of our body, including carrying nutrients to ourselves, and flushing waste and toxins out, our body relies on a steady supply of water in order to happen. These functions need water in order to work.

And fancy coffee drinks too, these are dehydrating by nature because caffeine is. So if and when you do have a coffee, and this goes for any day of the year, not just around the holidays, make sure you’re drinking an extra cup of water that day to keep your body hydrated. So for every cup of coffee, drink two cups of water to keep your body hydrated.

Here is the next one:

Sleep

SLEEP. I actually used capital letters on my episode notes for this one because it is that important. As a side note, anybody who has been pregnant and has experienced the bone-tiredness of the first trimester knows the importance of sleep. Our bodies during that time are so exhausted if we don’t sleep enough, or just, period, because they require sleep in order to carry out their functions of growing and nourishing this baby. Well, our bodies require sleep in order to carry out all functions… it just seems the most obvious and we tend to feel it the most during that first trimester, at least in my opinion.

And even when we’re sick and we’re exhausted, you just know that your body needs that rest and needs that sleep.

So when you feel tired, or in fact, before you get to that really tired phase of the night, go to bed. Don’t wait for that second wind to happen. You know when you’re falling asleep on the couch, but then you go wash your face and brush your teeth and suddenly you’re magically awake again?

Don’t get to that second wind because it means that there’s been a spike of cortisol in your system that is making you feel alert. Because guess what? When you then get into your bed later on and you try to turn off your brain and fall asleep, it’s going to be so much more difficult than if you just went to bed when your body needed it because cortisol interferes with melatonin production, and I’m sure you know melatonin as our sleep hormone. We need it in order to fall asleep, and stay asleep.

So make a habit of going to bed early enough that you’re not relying on that second wind to get you through. When you feel tired, go to bed.

Alright, here is the last tip for you to stay healthy during the holidays, you ready?

Enjoy Yourself

Enjoy yourself! Yes. Just accept that it’s going to be a busy time and choose to enjoy it, honestly. Like, we know what we’re in for… we’re already in it! It’s December 14, we are in it. And we can choose to just let it all bog us down and get so stressed and so exhausted… or we can just go with the flow and be like, you know what? I’ve got this, even if I don’t have this, even if I forgot to send my holiday cards or just didn’t make time for it. Even if I still have to get the majority of my Christmas shopping done. I am going to go with it, and I’m going to enjoy it because that is what the holidays truly are all about.

And I think that we forget that; we just get so wrapped up in the busyness of the season that we forget the enjoyment of it, the enjoyment that they’re supposed to be. So choose to enjoy it. Embrace the busyness. Go with it, do only what you can, don’t force yourself to do more, be okay with the fact that you didn’t do 100% of the things that you wanted to get done, and just enjoy.

Let’s Recap

So let’s recap. Here are the things that we can do to keep ourselves healthy during the holiday season:

• Start your day with a healthy breakfast, without fail.
• Don’t forget your supplements. Cod liver oil, vitamin D and a probiotic are the ones that I highly recommend during this time (and basically always, let’s be real). Plus Echinaforce when you feel the first symptoms of a cold or flu.
• Make your own desserts and treats using better, healthier ingredients.
• Drink water.
• Sleep.
• Enjoy yourself. Just accept that it’s going to be a busy time of year and choose to enjoy it.

Okay, I hope that you’ve gotten some tidbits and takeaways from this episode. If you have any questions about what you’ve heard today, or you just want to let me know what you thought, send me a DM on Instagram. I’m @lauraannlima.

I’d also love it if you took a screenshot of this episode and shared it in your stories. (And don’t forget to tag me so I can see it!)

To have you help me spread the word out there so more people can benefit from this information would mean so much to me. And if you’re not already subscribed to this podcast, do it, mama. That way when a new episode comes out, you’ll see it right there on your phone.

Alright, I will talk to you soon, and maybe see you in my DMs! And don’t forget to get your free copy of my New Mama Energy Guide. Just go to bit.ly/newmamas for instant access. Thanks for listening to The Love & Lettuce Podcast. To find out how to work with me and for more great info, check out newmamanation.com. This is Laura! Until next time, love and lettuce.