Holiday Survival 101

Dr. Kasia Kines, Nutritionist, CEO and founder of EBV Educational Institute
Virtual clinic serving the US and globally
[email protected]

How not to let the Holidays sabotage your efforts towards health and optimal weight and avoid stressing about it! Here are some HOW TO holiday survival strategies to keep your sanity and good holiday spirit!

Holiday Survival Strategies…

1. Be realistic: Will you overindulge? Probably yes. Will you have too many desserts? Probably yes. Will you stop your exercise routine? Probably yes, if you are traveling to visit your family.
2. Plan! If you answered yes to question 1, just be prepared and plan. If you are traveling in a car, bring familiar snacks and healthier go-to foods that travel well and can be used privately. Walnuts, almonds, carrots, chopped veggies, are all good options for a quick bite. Bring your herbal teas. Watch a short video I posted recently on facebook of Dr Hyman’s favorite traveling foods! You can make your travel pack 100% plant-based too.
3. Plan to amend the damage and discomfort! Bring your digestive enzymes for the indigestion from overindulgence or eating out; bring aloe vera in powder for heartburn from too heavy/rich/late meals with family. Take probiotics (these do not have to be refrigerated – what a blessing!) to reset the colon. And get some liver supporting herbs (my favorite is a superstar Hepatocleanse) to help the liver deal with the holiday insults. Why the latter? If you eat organics in your own home but are visiting family that does not care, you will eat produce with pesticides, herbicides and animal protein with human growth hormones, antibiotics, possibly arsenic. You may filter your drinking water at home already, but your family may not, and so you may get more toxic, chlorine and fluoride exposure. The few simple supplements taken daily during the holidays will help your body recover better and clean up faster.
4. Precious time with family. If you are very concerned about #3, bring forward “gratitude” and remember that you are safe and you have already brought support for your body. The most important purpose of your trip to visit family this holiday season is to reconnect, to spend quality time, to experience joy of being together, and, which is so important, to share meals together that the hosts have prepared with love for you. Set a stage for gratitude and peace around the foods you may not eat everyday. At meals, focus on the company and joy of being together.
5. Realistic weight goals: If you have been on a weight management plan, rather than expecting to lose weight during holidays, focus on maintaining the weight you are at this time. Keep a food log if possible.
6. Post-Holiday Detox in a Box: If the festivities are particularly heavy for your GI tract, take the Nutri-Clean gentle One Week Detox Kit to help the body reset and clean up after you return home!!! It does include the daily Hepatocleanse herbal capsules.
7. Holidays locally. If you are staying at home and only visiting locally without staying in hotels or overnight with family, then if you have concerns with overeating, make sure you eat something at home so that you are not starving and making wrong decidions when you join the party! Do bring a packet of digestive enzymes and aloe vera with you just in case. They are as small as a tea bag.
8. Do not skip breakfast just because you will have a holiday food party in the evening. Keep blood sugar steady. Get your body the nutrients it needs in the morning. This can help you prevent overeating later. Studies showed that people who skip meals overeat for dinner and put on more weight.
9. Appointments with you gym gear. If you are in town, put your physical activity into your planner, literally “book your appointments”. Find ways to continue moving: park away from the store so that you have to walk further to do holiday shopping; take the stairs to the office.
10. If you are stressing about the holidays, make sure you get enough sleep (if need be, take one dose Calcium Complete before sleep- it helps many of our patients get a better and more restful sleep also due to some Magnesium in it) or take Bliss to help you deal with the stressors. Stress and lack of sleep both can contribute to extra pounds under your belt! Bliss is a wonderful combination of adaptogenic herbs that is a great hit with our patients. Do not forget to take at least one if not two doses of Activated B Complex since these are the stress- vitamins that are depleted during stress and have to be replenished daily! Ready to splurge for your health? Get an Anti-Stress Kit that contains Bliss, a large Activated Bs (90 servings) and a large OPC-3, to help you detoxify from the extra free radical damage of the stress, holiday foods and perhaps lack of sleep and will help curb inflammation at the same time.
11. Spirit – holiday and otherwise: Wine and vodka are NOT hydrating and, unlike water, carries extra calories you do not need!!! We so forget about water during the holidays. Stay hydrated with 8 glasses of water. Add herbal teas, green teas. Minimize alcohol and save that for special occasions. Alternate alcohol with a glass of water!
12. Constipation nation: Make sure you move bowels twice a day during the holidays. Do not let the holiday spirit be a constipated one. What to do? If you know that there will be little fiber in the festive holiday foods, get a fiber supplement that is gentle and has some prebiotics and probiotics in it. As long as you have enough water (#11), the fiber supplement will do the trick. Making for a happier and slimmer person! And where is fiber in foods? Zero in foods derived from animals. Fiber is in foods that grow. Orange juice does not grow = it does not contain fiber. Oranges do. See how close to whole foods you can eat. Always pick some plants as part of your meal, so the bowels will move accordingly!
13. It is ok to say “No”. Practice and you will see that it is possible to say with love that you “could not have another bite, as much as it was just delicious”. Then sneak out to the kitchen and take the digestive enzymes!

And if worst of the worst has happened and you have completely abandoned the healthy habits you were working so hard to develop, just take a deep breath, forgive, and move on. Take Hepatocleanse, drink aloe for a few days, stay hydrated, take the 7-day Nutriclean Detox Kit (listed at #6) and take digestive enzymes with your meals. Do not let one or two weeks stop you from getting back on track. And if you are ready for a tune up come January, join our Detox Program!!!

With that, have more peace of mind and enjoy the loved ones and the foods they offer with love and joy!!

Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!!!

Dr. Kasia Kines, Nutritionist, CEO and founder of EBV Educational Institute
Virtual clinic serving the US and globally
[email protected]