We've made it through Thanksgiving and now we are headed into December and the Christmas Holiday!
Sugar is everywhere - cookies, pies, cakes, delicious Christmas candies, fudge and you name it!
How do we navigate this season while trying to keep our insulin levels from spiking too much and gaining weight?!
Here are some tips to keep in mind:
1. When you eat your meals, keep them balanced with a healthy protein, fat and carb. I prefer to get most of my carbs through vegetables (yay, fiber!). This will help give you sustained energy and will help keep you full so you don't fall prey to snacking on the sweet stuff.
2. Choose when to indulge. Having a sweet isn't bad! We just need to work on the timing and amount. The best time to enjoy a sweet is AFTER you have eaten a meal, so your stomach/digestive tract already has food in it, so it will buffer the sugar when it hit's your stomach. When we eat sweets on an empty stomach, we will have a huge insulin spike vs. a much smaller one, when we've already eaten a meal.
3. Go for a walk or exercise for 20 minutes after eating a sweet. If we immediately put our muscles to use in order to use that glucose spike, our bodies won't have to worry about storing the glucose.
4. Starving yourself or "saving up calories" usually backfires on us and we overindulge. Be sure to eat a balanced breakfast, lunch and dinner. When we aren't starving we tend to make healthier choices and are less likely to overindulge.
5. If you overindulge, don't beat yourself up over it! Just get back on track with your next meal!
6. When you eat your meals or indulge in a sweet, take your time to enjoy it! Sit down and smell your food. Have gratitude for the hands that prepared it. Look at how delicious it looks, and be sure to chew your food thoroughly to support your digestive process.
7. Stay hydrated - sometimes we are really just need some water when we feel like we need a snack! Drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water and be sure to add electrolytes! This can be as easy as adding sea/mineral salt to your water.
When we add these easy tips to our Christmas season, we can have a plan so we can strategize and enjoy the season and the sweets. Your body will thank you later!