Christina Najjar

5 Tips for Healthier Holiday Parties

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This week, guest blogger Esther Avant provides great tips that can easily be applied for healthier holiday parties that you can still enjoy!

Making habit changes is tricky business under the best of circumstances. But the holiday season can make it especially difficult for you to consistently engage in the behaviors that you know are in your best interest. I’m here to help.

5 Tips for healthier holidays

Chew gum

Pop in a fresh piece right before you arrive at a party and right after you finish eating to prevent yourself from snacking from the minute you walk in til the second you walk out.

Wait until the buffet has been picked through

Hearty dishes are never more appealing than when they’ve yet to be violated by the serving spoon. Those crunchy and/or cheesy tops are enticing when they’re fresh but become a lot easier to resist once they’ve been picked through.

Keep visual evidence of what you’ve consumed

As someone who has spent years working in the service industry, I can tell you first-hand (and this is also backed up by research) that you eat and drink more when you clear away the evidence of what you’ve already had. For healthier holiday parties, keep reminders like empty bottles, wrappers, skewers, or bones to stay mindful of your intake.

Make your plate as colorful as possible

Commit to “taste the rainbow,” so that you have no choice but to go heavy on fruits and veggies. This will also cut down on the various-shades-of-brown dishes (casseroles, etc) that are likely higher in sugar and fat.

Wear a belt or form-fitting clothing

Dressing up will make you feel better and more confident. But additionally, wearing something less potato-sack-esque will help you avoid overeating. Resist the urge to wear your elastic “eating pants” from now until 2017.

Bonus mindset tip: Don’t fall prey to the all-or-nothing mentality

A few indulgences will not set you back. A minor slip-up is not an excuse to go completely off the rails for the rest of the day/week/month/year. It’s what you do consistently that makes the biggest impact so don’t throw in the towel after a misstep, just accept it, forgive yourself, and carry on.

If you found these tips useful, I’ve got a bunch more to share in my free Holiday Resource Bundle. Click the button below to access it.
Holiday Resource Bundle

Esther Avant shares tips for healthier holiday partiesEsther Avant is a Personal Trainer and Nutrition Coach. She works with women remotely through her company Esther Avant Wellness Coaching. She helps her clients lose weight, become healthier, happier, and more confident by making sustainable changes to their day-to-day lives!

Esther take a holistic approach with clients. She truly believes you can completely change your health by improving your nutrition and making the decision to live actively. Connect with Esther on Instagram and Facebook.

What are your tips for healthier holiday parties? Tell us in the comments!

7 Easy Ways to Eat More Healthy Fats

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Almost everyone would benefit from adding more healthy fats to their diet. This is especially true for those with conditions where blood sugar levels fluctuate a lot, such as PCOS and diabetes. Fats from healthy sources help slow down your body’s absorption of sugars in your food. They also help your cells better listen to your hormones.

Use the following tips to increase your intake of healthy fats. And don’t worry about possibly gaining weight. Healthy fats have too many functions in your body to simply be stored as fat for future energy (unlike unhealthy fats).

7 Easy ways to eat more healthy fats

Add nut butters to smoothies

Are you making smoothies for breakfast or after workouts? Use a chocolate protein powder and add a tablespoon of nut butter to make it nut butter cup flavoured. Alternatively, you can add a tablespoon of chia seeds, hemp hearts, or coconut oil to your smoothies to boost the fat content.

Put a dollop of coconut oil or sesame oil to your food

Planning to make a stir fry or steam some vegetables? Sauté or steam your dish with water, and add some coconut oil or sesame oil at the end for extra flavour. Waiting until the end to add the fats will keep them in their healthy form.

Include some avocado on your plate

Making a meal that just doesn’t require fat? Add some avocado slices to your plate as a side. Some vitamins can only be absorbed when consumed with fat. Because avocados can be expensive, all you need is 1/4 or 1/2 of an avocado.

Yolks have healthy fats!

Are you eating egg white omelettes to boost your protein while keeping cholesterol down? Eating more cholesterol won’t increase your cholesterol levels. Your body produces most of its cholesterol for hormones, and as a protective mechanism. Egg yolks not only have healthy fats, but they’re also incredibly nutrient dense.

Eat a handful of almonds

If you’re looking at your plate and see nothing but vegetables, lean protein, and/or grains, save a bit of room for a handful of almonds. You don’t need much – 10 almonds or so will do.

Take a fish oil

A good quality fish oil is a great supplement for most people. It’s an anti-inflammatory, it helps anxiety, depression concentration, diabetes, hormonal issues, and makes skin and hair healthier. It’s also a natural blood thinner, so it should be avoided if already taking blood thinners. If your meal is lacking healthy fats, take a teaspoon of fish oil with your meal.

Make a dip for vegetables

Are you eating vegetables without fats? As previously mentioned, some nutrients can only be absorbed into your body if eaten with fats. Make an easy dip for your vegetables by combining tahini with lemon, or make hummus or a curry dip.

Which strategies are you using to boost the healthy fat content of your meals?

How to Make Stevia Taste Good in Recipes

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Flipping to sugar free nutrition for health issues like PMS, PCOS, and digestive problems, among other issues, can seem impossible. This is especially true for those who have a sweet tooth. While many sugar-free sweeteners are just as bad or worse for you than sugar, stevia is actually a good alternative.

To pick out a good brand, make sure to read the ingredients. Many brands put all kinds of additives in their formula.

The issue with stevia is that for many people, it actually has a bitter or too sweet aftertaste. I really disliked it when I first tried it. Well, it turns out that it’s a bit of an acquired taste!

The other issue is that unlike most sweeteners, stevia doesn’t stand very well on its own. There is work that needs to be done to make it taste better in recipes. Since I’ve played around with the sugar free sweetener for a while, I’ve discovered different ways to make it taste better.

Sugar free stevia can taste good in recipes

Start with protein powder

Many sugar free protein powders are sweetened with Stevia. These formulas are put together to create a product that is as tasty as possible. Of course, some brands succeed at that better than others do. I really like the Vega Sport Performance chocolate powder. Some of their other products are far too sweet, but this one is amazing. The Genuine Health Fermented Vegan Proteins+ vanilla powder is another good one. It blends really nicely with all kinds of flavours. These powders will help you better adjust to the stevia taste.

Add other tastes

Combining a few of the basic tastes (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami) actually makes stevia a bajillion times more enjoyable. I haven’t tried combining umami and sweet so I can’t attest to this one, but by including other tastes, stevia tastes so much better.

So how do you do that? If I’m making overnight oats, I add sea salt or pink Himalayan salt (it’s tasty, it contains all kinds of minerals, and I have low blood pressure). For acidity, I add a bit of pure lemon juice because the flavour is subtle. Then, I may add cocoa for bitterness. And finally, the stevia will take care of the sweetness.

Use liquid stevia

Most people who have experimented with stevia agree that using it in its liquid form is the tastiest. So, save yourself the trouble and don’t bother trying the powdered form. I like the NOW brand liquid stevia. It has less of that unpleasant aftertaste than the powdered form does.

Combine it with xylitol

The two sweeteners seem to work really well together. I specifically recommend xylitol because it is also technically sugar free. However, those simply looking to reduce sugar instead of completely eliminating it may find that maple syrup, molasses, or coconut sugar has the same effect.

A word of caution when using xylitol: since it’s an alcohol sugar, our bodies can’t break it down. As a result, eating large quantities of it can create a laxative effect. I also generally don’t recommend it for those who have known digestive issues.

Which other tricks have you discovered to improve the taste of stevia?

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Christina Najjar - Natural Nutrition

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