Holiday Overindulgence (The How-Not-To)

Laura talks about the overindulgence that seems to happen this time of year during the holiday season, and how we can avoid this overindulgence. This is the “how-not-to” guide to holiday overindulgence… tune in now!

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Links Mentioned

New Mama Energy Guide
Episode 9: How To Stay Healthy During the Holidays
Episode 20: How To Indulge Without Overindulging
Laura’s Instagram

Transcript

You’re listening to The Love & Lettuce Podcast, episode number 10. Let’s talk today about the overindulgence that seems to happen this time of year during the holiday season, and how we can avoid this holiday overindulgence. This is the how-not-to guide to holiday overindulgence. And I can’t wait to dig in to this topic. 

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. 

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!

Here we are in this busy holiday season, complete with get togethers, baking delicious treats, and just being surrounded by food, basically. And I think that’s a great thing, actually; I’m certainly not going to tell you to avoid any of it. I want you to enjoy and have freedom with your food and your eating.

But there is a point, and we all know this to be true, where it’s just too much. We’ve overeaten those cookies or that stuffing, and we feel like crap. So we know there’s a point that we can get to where yes, we feel like crap, but we find it hard to stop, even though we’re not feeling great, or even though we know that this won’t make me feel great.

Holiday Overindulgence

So I’m here to help you with that. Today, I’m going to give you ideas and tips for how to prevent this holiday overindulgence that is so common, especially this time of year.

Here we go with the first holiday overindulgence tip:

Start every morning with a healthy breakfast. If you listened to episode 9, you would have heard me say this one there too. That one was all about staying healthy over the holidays, and it absolutely applies here too. Eating a healthy breakfast does absolute wonders for setting you up for a good day. It helps to stabilize your blood sugar level, which is so key when it comes to preventing cravings, and it gives your body the fuel that it needs to run so it’s not always searching for more food.

I gave actual examples of breakfast ideas in the last episode (episode 9). So you can take a listen to that, or check out the show notes for quicker access. They are at newmamanation.com/9. But here I’ll give you a few foods that are awesome to have at breakfast: eggs, avocado, leftover meat or fish and veggies, a smoothie, Greek yogurt, almond butter, and nuts and seeds. That’s certainly not all of them, but it gives you a good idea.

Notice I didn’t say cereal, because that is not typically a healthy, nourishing, and satisfying breakfast. And that’s because it’s usually high in carbs, and low in protein and fat. This is the opposite of what we want. We want more protein and fat, and fewer carbs.

So starting out with a healthy breakfast will set us up for a day where we’re not chasing our hunger, where we’re not craving everything in sight, and where we can go throughout the day actually enjoying what’s going on and not thinking about food all the time. We can enjoy the party because of the people there that we get to visit and hang out with instead of only because of the food.

So that’s number one, both on our list and in our day. Start every morning with a healthy breakfast.

The second thing to think of when it comes to choosing the foods that make up our meals is making sure we include all of the right components of a healthy meal. This includes protein, fat, and fibre.

Protein is typically meat, fish, eggs, beans and lentils, dairy products like yogurt and cheese, and some nuts and seeds (pumpkin seeds and hemp hearts are some of the best in that category).

Fat includes fish, eggs, nuts and seeds, oils like flax oil and coconut oil, also butter… all awesome fats.

Fibre is your plant-based foods like vegetables, fruits, beans and lentils, nuts and seeds. Also grain products like rice and bread, and quinoa, although quinoa is technically a seed… did you know that? Very interesting!

So when we put a meal together, we want to think about including all three components, the protein, fat, and fibre. And you might have noticed that some foods that I mentioned fall into more than one category, because that’s the beauty of real food; they contain all sorts of nutrients, and they truly nourish our bodies.

So for example, eggs are protein and fat, beans and lentils, protein and fibre, nuts and seeds are a bit of all three. So putting a meal together shouldn’t be so complex or confusing. Just do your best to ensure that you’re including all of the healthy components, protein, fat, fibre.

Now let’s stay on the topic of food and move on to our next tip for avoiding holiday overindulgence. Here we go:

Have healthy snacks on hand. You’re probably like, boring, Laura! I know, I know. It can be boring, and seem so basic to hear this, but it simply cannot be overstated.

You know when you get so caught up in what you’re doing, maybe what you’re working on, what you’re watching, taking care of the kids, whatever, that you suddenly realize you are starving? What happens then? You go to the pantry or fridge and you raid it. And the first thing you see that looks good and satisfying, out it comes and into your belly. Like, you know this is true.

The problem with this is that at those times when you’re starving, when your blood sugar is low and needing you to eat right now, what types of foods are you tending to choose? Typically the ones that are high sugar and high carb, which also usually means that they’re low in protein, and low in good fats.

And what does this do to our body?

It spikes our blood sugar level right back up, causing our insulin to follow suit and get secreted in large amounts. This in turn brings our blood sugar level back down pretty quickly, which causes the cycle to continue. We get hungry, actually, starving, and we need to eat again right away. And if we don’t have those healthy snacks ready to go, we are choosing the refined foods once again that just aren’t serving us, and on and on the cycle continues.

A fluctuating blood sugar level leads to cravings for more, more, more. And when I say more, I mean high sugar, high carb foods. And this leads us right into overindulgence, and right away from where we want to be if we want to feel good, have energy and mental focus, a stable and steady mood, instead of it being all over the place, not to mention feeling proud of our food choices and like yes, I am awesome. I’m feeding my body what it needs, and I’m feeling amazing because of it… all from having healthy snacks on hand.

I mean, yes, it can be that effective. So what are some examples of healthy snacks?

Well, I think that boiled eggs are something we should always have on hand. They’re just so fast and easy, they provide an awesome dose of protein and fat, and they’re delicious. I add some sea salt to mine and YUM.

Another one is almond butter. Sometimes I’ll slice an apple or banana and dip that into a bowl of almond butter. But when I’m looking for super quick, I will literally take a spoon and eat it right out of the jar. Another thing you could do is put some in a bowl, add coconut oil, give it a stir and scoop up that deliciousness. That adds even more good fats by adding the coconut oil in, and it keeps you going for even longer.

On the topic of almond butter, make sure you have almonds and other nuts and seeds on hand. My favs besides almonds are walnuts, cashews, and pumpkin seeds, but I mean there’s more, too. You can have them on their own, or you can mix them together. And actually, I love to mix them all together and add raisins… so delicious.

And for the pumpkin seeds, whether you’re having them on their own or in the trail mix, toast them! Like, trust me, just toast them. It enhances their flavour so much. I actually don’t even really like the taste of raw pumpkin seeds, but I love them when they’re toasted. You just put the raw pumpkin seeds in a pan over medium to low heat, and you wait until they start to pop, like, it sounds like they’re popping. Keep stirring, letting them pop, then let them cool. Then, add a tiny bit of olive oil and a lot of sea salt (believe me, more than you think). Just stir it around, taste it, add more salt if you need to, and oh my goodness, DE-licious.

Store them in a container in your fridge so they last longer. Actually, I love adding these to my salad too. It ups the flavour, it ups the nutrition profile (pumpkin seeds are actually a great source of protein, and they also provide good fat and fibre). So nuts and seeds, toasted pumpkin seeds and trail mix that combines all of them, with raisins if you want to jazz it up a bit. 

Next, Greek yogurt.

Make sure you get the plain one so you avoid the boatload of sugar that will come with it otherwise, and also look for the highest fat content you can find. We want fat; our bodies need it. And it helps us to feel fuller longer, which definitely helps with preventing holiday overindulgence. And I say Greek yogurt so that it’s higher in protein than regular yogurt.

Regular yogurt is great too, but I just love having the extra protein for blood sugar stability and longer satisfaction. You can have this yogurt plain on its own, or you can have some stevia added to it or some maple syrup to add a bit of your own sweetness, or you can do the whole shebang and add berries, walnuts, and maple syrup to it. Even a little flax oil to increase the good fats. But again, if you’re looking for super quick, just have a few scoops straight up. Delicious and satisfying.

Next up is cheese.

Whether it’s cheddar or goat cheese or gouda, you can have some on its own or with rice crackers or similar gluten-free crackers, or at least wheat-free crackers. So fast, so easy, so delish.

Alright, our last healthy snack example, though there are many more, is super obvious, but we usually don’t think of it. Here it is:

Have a bit of leftovers from the night before.

Maybe you had chicken or salmon or steak… take a bit of that and just eat it right from the fridge. Warm it up if you must, but I personally love it cold too. I know. You might think, oh, that’s weird (my family sure does), but don’t knock it ‘til you try it. That’s all I’m gonna say. It’s faster; you don’t even have to heat it up! Just take it from the fridge, eat it, done. Now if you have some hummus or other dip in the fridge, by all means have that with it, or just have it plain.

Having healthy snacks on hand has a twofold benefit:

It prevents us from getting to that point of I’m starving. And, it gives us a nourishing and delicious option for if and when we do get to that place. Talk about a win-win!

Okay, let’s move on to the next thing we can do to avoid holiday overindulgence at a party or get together:

Go first for the protein-rich foods to help fill you up and steady your blood sugar.

Think cheese and meats, veggies with hummus or dip (the dip part being the protein), deviled eggs, meatballs, and so on. Then, after you’ve had those, you can enjoy a few desserts and sweeter treats.

Listen, I don’t want you to feel deprived or like you’re missing out, and I also don’t want you to feel out of control with your eating and cravings that you can’t enjoy yourself at the party or when your family comes over, or even just when you’re by yourself and you’ve got those treats around the house.

So that’s why truly taking these considerations and tips in mind, and using one (or all) of them is so freaking important. All you can do is try, right? And the worst that’s going to happen is… nothing. That’s it! If you try something and it doesn’t work for you, so like nothing happens, then you can go back to your old way of doing things. Like, you have that choice! It’s your life; it’s up to you. But I’m telling you, if you put one, or ideally, more, maybe all of these things, in place, you will feel better, you will have fewer cravings, and you’ll find yourself better able to choose those healthy foods that will fuel your body and make you feel fantastic. 

Because at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about, right? We all want to feel fantastic. I’m pretty confident in making that generalization. And these things will help you get there, will help you feel that way.

Okay, moving right along to our next tip:

At said party, that party that I was referring to in my last tip, stick to water, or at least drink mostly water.

A glass (or two) of wine? Sure! But try to avoid the sugary holiday drink concoctions. When you have that sugar in your system, especially when it comes from a liquid that is so quickly digested, it just drives you to want more, more, more. Like, it’s never enough. So sticking to mostly water will help to steady your blood sugar and prevent further cravings while keeping your body hydrated. Win-win.

And if you’re keeping track, this is our second win-win… the other was having those healthy snacks on hand. I am all about winning, with my health, in the kitchen, in finding healthy recipes that are also delicious. That is what I am all about. So anytime I get a win, or more accurately in this case, a win-win, I get excited.

Okay, time for our last tip. Are you ready for this one? It’s not what you think, believe me:

Indulge. Yes, I’m telling you, or rather, giving you permission, to indulge, on a podcast episode that’s all about avoiding holiday overindulgence.

And that’s just the thing though. I’m talking about how not to overindulge. But indulging, enjoying the heck out of yourself this holiday season, including the delicious foods that come with it? Heck yes. So there you go. Balance, right?

I hope you’ve enjoyed going through these tips and ideas with me today, and I really hope you’ve resonated with one or more of them and that you’ll give them a try. Again, what have you got to lose? Nothing. But you’ve got everything to gain… feeling more energy, less bloating and gas and just sluggishness, having a much clearer mind, having fewer mood swings, with a more steady mood overall. I mean, these are all amazing things, right?

And that’s what you get when you start to eat more healthily. And these things we talked about today will help you not just over the holiday overindulgence season, but literally all the time, any day of the week and any time of the year.

So let me know what you thought about today’s episode. Do you have questions? Need something clarified? Do you just want to give me some feedback, which I am definitely here for?

Send me a DM on Instagram @lauraannlima. I would love to hear from you. 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! Have a fantastic day. 

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.