5 tips to stay healthy during the holiday season!

Hi Beautiful, Since the silly season is fast approaching and as this is my last blog for 2015, I thought it appropriate to run you through my personal tips for staying healthy over the holidays..... 1. Do not deprive yourself of your favourite indulgences, just find the healthier option! Deprivation does not work and it is why I don’t believe in dieting. When you feel you are depriving yourself of something, you are more inclined to crave that food or think about it more. Decide what meal you would like to indulge in and allow yourself to have a little, would you rather let your guard down for desert or a nice Christmas brekkie? Rather than depriving yourself of the things you love in life by using sheer will power, just find a healthier option or alternative that could be a good substitute and swap this in. When cooking Christmas day, try swapping white potato for sweet potato, sugar for stevia or rice malt syrup, pasta for quinoa pasta, milk for almond milk, cheese for cashew cheese and the list goes on! There are so many options out there that you can experiment with to ensure your family has a healthy and TASTY meal! 2. Be kind to yourself! I am not perfect, you are not perfect, the world is not perfect and that is absolutely OK! So when you wake up face down in those packet of Christmas cookies or surrounded by beer bottles after a Christmas party or indulgent meal, instead of beating yourself up and making yourself feel worse so you reach for more Christmas cookies as comfort, simply dust the crumbs off, acknowledge that you had a great time, but now take one positive action step to do something good for your body in the form of nourishment such as; have a green juice, go for a walk or cook yourself a nice leafy green meal. Just do better and make the better choice for your next meal or the next day. Give your body a chance to breathe and recover without beating yourself up! 3. Swap your wine for a sparkling water.... Sun, surf, BBQ's, Christmas....there will always be an excuse to drink over the holiday season! That is why it is so important to love your liver by reducing your toxic overload in some shape or form. I would encourage you to try this simple tip....swap your glass of wine for a sparkling water in a wine glass with some fresh lemon / lime! This may sound silly but the psychology of just holding a wine glass can make you feel at ease and less anxious when out at social events. You might want to also pick the events that you are going to drink at and give your body a break for a few days following by using this tip, so your liver has a chance to recover and process all the toxins out of your system. Try it, what have you go to loose? 4. Take time out to self-love.. During the holidays, there can often be so much on, you can find yourself running from place to place with events daily and highly stressed out! To ensure you are re-energising yourself from the inside-out, it is important to take some time out for yourself daily! Stick to a little non-negotiable routine of at least 10mins of alone time so you can enjoy some meditation, read a book, do some exercise or a take a nice hot bath. Find some time each day to self-love so you can give more love back to others.... 5. Take small steps now towards your 2016 goals! For those of you who have intentions to set New Year’s resolutions for 2016, I believe they are like the Olympics of goal setting! There is so much expectation to achieve this goal and pressure that when you slip up, it can be dis-heartening and the cause of your unravelling for the rest of the year. We set this big goal and never really give much thought as to how we are going to achieve it. I would advise you to set yourself up for success by taking small, tiny steps towards your goals now and get really specific as to what you need to do to achieve this. Such as; drinking more water. This could be a small step you practice implementing into your life for a few weeks during the holidays until it becomes second nature, then you can move onto the next small step. Break this small goal down and get specific as to how you are going to achieve it, for example, you might need to buy a water bottle or keep a jug at your desk at work. Start small & get specific to set you up for a successful 2016! Desiree XXX