[00:00:37] Vesna: Welcome to the Peak Revival Podcast. My name is Nesna. Today I am gonna talk about food, mood, and festive season stress, and how to stay energized throughout the holidays.
[00:00:46] This time of the year, any of your rules may go out the window, so I wanna put some kind of containers around it for you so you don't get to the end of the year and feel like, oh my gosh, I feel disgusting, or find it hard to push through for the last few weeks of the year while still having fun and enjoying the Christmas parties and the festive season and Christmas and all this good stuff that this time of the year has to offer.
[00:01:10] Now if you are going to a lot of Christmas parties, this is where we can really come undone. And obviously kind of the days leading up to Christmas, catching up with more friends. So how do you still have a good time and partaking everything without, like I said, having a complete blowout that you know, by the end of the year you're like, Ugh, I feel so gross.
[00:01:29] I feel so bloated. I put on weight and my head is just all over the place. So the first. Tip I have is, these are very practical tips, okay? Because at the end of the day, you're gonna go out, you wanna have fun, but you don't, necessarily wanna undo all your good work from the year. So if you're going to a Christmas party, my number one tip is do not drink alcohol on an empty stomach. As tempting as it is, as soon as you walk in there to grab the first glass of champagne resist that urge and make sure either you go there having eaten a little bit of [00:02:00] something, or you go to the canapes first. And the reason being is that. Alcohol is absorbed very quickly through our stomach, and apparently 20% of alcohol passes through our stomach and hits our brain within a minute.
[00:02:13] So what ends up happening is that, yes, we get drunk quickly, right? And you can be a cheap drunk because you don't have to drink so much you'll really feel it because there's no buffer there, right?
[00:02:25] There's alcohol going straight into the bloodstream. And what that will mean is that you are more likely drink more, but then go for bad food later, right? To mop up all the alcohol so that you're more likely to overconsume fried foods. Salty foods, fatty foods, sweet foods, if you've drunk alcohol on an empty stomach.
[00:02:44] Okay? So because it messes with your blood glucose levels, your body wants to restore the glucose levels. Before detoxifying the alcohol. So that's gonna take preference, right? So you are going to find that you're gonna crave lots of food and just have a blowout, your discipline goes out the window completely okay? Because the brain is just hit with so much alcohol so fast. And the other reason is that, you know, alcohol will make you wake up in the middle of the night, and that all again comes down to blood glucose regulation.
[00:03:11] So making sure that you have something to eat before you drink alcohol. Never drink alcohol on an empty stomach. That's tip number one.
[00:03:17] Number two is Eat mindfully. Okay? You can do this more easily when you don't drink alcohol on an empty stomach, but more so if you're going to these parties, eat mindfully in a sense of, you know, really enjoying what you're eating. Don't, you know, shovel food down and think, oh, how many canopies did I have?
[00:03:36] Or you go to a Christmas lunch and you know, you just eat everything that's there and you walk out and you're so full and you're like, I'd come, what did I even eat? I ate so much. I didn't even realize I ate that much. Right. I like to use a couple little mindset tricks where I'm like, okay, this is, you know, particularly for Christmas lunch, I've definitely been to family lunches where I've had a blowout too many, many years ago, and I used to walk away from them thinking, oh, I feel like I've [00:04:00] undone all my hard work in one sitting.
[00:04:02] Right? Just remember, this isn't your last supper. You are going to have many more opportunities to eat more Christmas meals, more Christmas snacks, more Christmas cake, whatever it is that you'd like about this time of the year, many more opportunities to eat that. So just remember it's not your last supper.
[00:04:17] You don't have to go wild on that meal. another little hack that I have is that when I'm eating to be mindful is that before I put the next canopy in my mouth, or before I put the next, you know, spoon fork full of food in my mouth, I'll ask myself,
[00:04:31] Am I enjoying this as much as I enjoyed that first mouthful that I had?
[00:04:36] And if not, then I'm done.
[00:04:39] eating is over. Okay. So that's a one way to kind of be more present with what you're doing, with what you're eating, and don't get carried away and eating mindlessly.
[00:04:46] Tip number three, eat to you're satisfied. So that again, is like when you're reaching for that next mouthful and you're finding that I'm not enjoying this as much as I enjoyed the first one, then you're done. Okay. So making sure that eating to a satisfied not to complete fullness will prevent a blowout.
[00:05:02] Tip number four is to hold off sugar where you can, right this time of the year, again, we've got alcohol, we've got cake, we've got, biscuits, dessert. Sugary stuff everywhere, right? So where you can hold off on some of those things, right? The desserts, maybe just limit yourself. I'm gonna have one dessert, I'm gonna have one sweet thing tonight.
[00:05:21] Or maybe, you know, you look at the day, if you've got a few things going on that day and be like, you know, first part of the day I'm gonna completely avoid any sugar whatsoever. And so that when I go out for that meal, I'm going to have a piece of dessert. Or I'm gonna have a bit of alcohol, I'm gonna really enjoy it as well.
[00:05:36] Okay? So sugar will really mess with your mind. Will mess with your mood. It'll make this time of the year really more stressful for you. Because
[00:05:44] as our glucose levels fluctuate, we become more stressed
[00:05:47] because the highs and lows of sugar create highs and lows of cortisol. So you're gonna feel more stressed, your brain's just gonna get, be completely off.
[00:05:54] You'll have to do all this work, and you can't do it right because your brain's just not online because it's caught up in that. [00:06:00] glucose or sugar, cortisol response. Okay. That rollercoaster that happens. So the best you can hold off on sugar where you can, but don't, put deprivation in your mind where you're missing out and everybody else is having enjoying it and you are not.
[00:06:12] So allow yourself, one of those meals or one of the times of the day, or one outing, whatever it is, that special moment where you can have those sugar and those things that you want. Drink much more water than usual. That's tip number five, because as you're drinking more alcohol, consuming more foods that you wouldn't have, it's really important to flush that out.
[00:06:28] Okay? Alcohol requires more water to flush out the toxicity from the night before, so you're not feeling so sluggish and so tired. Okay, so stay hydrated.
[00:06:38] And the final one is to keep active. Okay? So it's really easy this time of the year be like, I'm too busy and I feel gross, and I'm not sticking to what I should be doing. That kind of all or nothing mindset, but when you are feeling sluggish, it's kind of, that's the moment where you tend to go for comfort food, and then it's like a downhill spiral.
[00:06:54] Okay? Keeping active also helps with detoxification. So detoxifying the alcohol and the excess food that you've eaten, making sure that they're clearing the body, but also to keep your endorphin levels high. Keep you feeling good and keep you wanting to feel active. Okay. So if you can stay on top of that activity level, you'll generally be able to stay on top of your food a little bit more because they kind of go hand in hand.
[00:07:16] What I've seen in my work over the years, if someone's food blows out and then they stop exercising, it's just like a downhill turn from there. Okay? So where you can, you know, keep those two propped up, but particularly the activity.
[00:07:30] And most importantly, enjoy this Christmas time. Okay? Enjoy spending time with your family, with your friends, with your colleagues, with people that you haven't seen in a long time. I think it's really important to remember that this time of the year we get so caught up in the busyness and the presents, and.
[00:07:46] Gotta be here, gotta be there. And we forget the whole purpose is to come together and reconnect with our family and our friends and our loved ones. I spent time in different countries where they really honor this time of the year to spend time with their [00:08:00] friends and their loved ones, to reconnect, to slow down and catch up and hear how they're doing and kind of, you know.
[00:08:06] Feeling that cup for them of having their loved ones around them. So that's the most important thing. So don't get caught up in too much of all the busyness and all the hype and all the commercialization of Christmas. Really enjoy this time whether it's for yourself and to be with those around you that you love.
[00:08:23] finally, I just wanna wish you a Merry Christmas from me and all of my team. If you've had anything to do with my business, you would've dealt with me or my team members who are, do an amazing job behind the scenes that you don't see their faces.
[00:08:34] But we just wanna all wish you a, a beautiful Christmas and a happy new and we look forward to serving you in the new year. And, um, I hope you enjoy this time.
