Tips to get back on track now that Christmas is over!
By Dr. Brenda Gill
One of the areas I address, especially after the holiday season, is helping people get into a good routine again with eating and to try to lose those added pounds from the holidays. Here are a few tips to achieve that goal.
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Eat three full meals a day to keep the fire burning and burn off excess fat
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Always eat breakfast. Whole grain porridge oats or whole grain flakes with nuts/seeds are a good choice or eggs/veggies and a piece of whole grain toast
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Eat only unrefined complex carbohydrates including whole grain bread, whole grain pasta, brown rice, quinoa, millet, oats, rye, so that you feel more full with less amounts and this helps bind toxins accumulated over the holidays.
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Make greens one of the main vegetables in the diet since these give you many of the micro-nutrients that help lose weight and to give the liver the nutrients to eliminate accumulated toxins (all that extra chocolate, sugar, coffee, desserts etc. etc. etc– you know what I mean!). They also help keep you alkaline which helps the body detoxify, which helps let go of excess weight that surrounds those breakdown products.
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Drink plenty of herbal teas, water or diluted fruit juice to flush out toxins and to prevent constipation.
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Always eat so that you are satisfied, then stop. Soups are great to start a meal to decrease the need to eat large amounts afterward.
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Eat slowly and savour your food so that your body has a chance to signal that it is full.
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Graze in between meals with such things as nuts and seeds to add protein to stabilize blood sugar. Often, after the holiday, the body gets used to more food. This helps to re-establish the balance.
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Minimize your intake of dairy products, beef and pork and trim off all white fat, since these cause inflammation in the body and contain fat that isn’t utilized but stored.
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Avoid foods that have been hydrogenated, which create trans fats that are stored as fat and are not utilized, such as solid margarines. It’s better to use butter.
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Increase your amount of unsaturated essential fats, such as the Omega 6 in nuts and seeds and of course their oils, and the Omega 3 in fish such as salmon, tuna, sardines and halibut. These fats are utilized to lubricate your joints, keep your skin moist and prevent wrinkles, decrease inflammation in the body and produce hormones.
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Use maple syrup, concentrated apple juice, barley malt and date sugar for sweeteners and honey sparingly.
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Reduce salt intake which retains water, therefore weight–Interestingly when buying a free-range turkey for Christmas, the farmer told me they don’t feed the turkeys salt to increase their weight quickly!
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Investigate whether you have allergies, sensitivities or a yeast overgrowth, which can all lead to excess weight retention.
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Make sure your thyroid is functioning normally and take steps to improve its function. One of the indicators is temperature– a normal temp is 98-99F or 37-38.2C
All these tips should help you get back to the weight you wish to be and maintain it at that level consistently.
Dr. Brenda Gill is a naturopath practising in Rossland and Nelson.
