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5 Tips for Healthier Holiday Parties

December 6, 2016 by Christina Najjar Leave a Comment

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!

Filed Under: Articles & Tips Tagged With: blood sugar balance, candida, diabetes, digestive health, healthy holidays, PCOS, PMS, weight loss

Why I (Mostly) Don’t Eat Grains and Legumes

November 1, 2016 by Christina Najjar Leave a Comment

We’ve all heard of the Paleo Diet, the diet that avoids grains and legumes, that our ancestors supposedly ate. People love it because they have heard that it will help them lose weight. Whether that’s true depends on many factors. But, that’s not something I focus on, myself.

Sure, many of my clients want to lose weight, but they usually see me for help with their digestive issues like IBS and food sensitivities, or issues like PMS and PCOS. (As a side note, you can download your FREE PMS Survival Guide here.) Weight loss just kind of happens once their other issues are back on track.

Why I mostly stopped eating grains and beans

It turns out that avoiding foods like grains and legumes can help with more than just weight loss. Does that mean that you should go grain free and legume free? Well, not necessarily.

Why I mostly don’t eat grains and legumes

I found out in university that I had a ton of food sensitivities after stuffing myself with the typical student diet (ramen noodles, KD, etc). I ended up cutting out gluten, and went vegan. For months, I lived off of whole grains and legumes, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. I felt better than I did before, but still felt like crap.

A few years later, I went to nutrition school. As I learned new things about different foods and diets, I became my own guinea pig. I had a new diet every other month.

One of the things emphasized in nutrition school is the importance of eating a variety of whole foods (i.e. unrefined foods). Because whole grains and legumes have all kinds of nutrients, I was firmly against the idea of eliminating them from my diet.

However, over time, I started noticing that many of my digestive problems happened when I ate less meat. I would eat whole grains and legumes to cover my protein needs during those times. Let’s just say that I had unbearable acid reflux for hours, I looked 5 months pregnant, and everything came out of me in liquid form. I felt crappy (pun intended!).

Then, I decided to try the paleo diet briefly. To my surprise, my digestive issues completely disappeared. You have to understand that I’ve had digestive problems for as long as I can remember.

Are my digestive issues 100% better now? Nope. But that’s my own fault. When money gets tight, I’ve been known to eat gluten free grains. I also have a complete weakness for black bean and brown rice chips (that will remain unnamed), so I occasionally eat them when I’m pressed for time.

Why grains and legumes can be problematic

Grains and legumes can aggravate issues in those with IBS, autoimmune diseases, and conditions like food sensitivity induced PMS.

Grains are difficult to digest because they have a coating called phytic acid that prevents them from sprouting until they are in ideal conditions to sprout. This coating happens to block the absorption of many nutrients.

Additionally, grains contain a type of carbohydrate that is difficult to digest for those with digestive issues. To make matters worse, they affect the production of enzymes needed to break down your food. As a result, you end up feeding the unfriendly bacteria in your gut, as they digest your food for you.

Legumes (and some grains) contain lectins, which are a plant’s defence mechanism against other organisms that may want to eat them. Since we can’t digest lectins, the immune system launches an attack on them when it sees them. With repeated attacks, the immune system becomes tired.

You know how when you’re tired at work, you make more mistakes? So does your immune system. A burdened immune system may start attacking its own cells, resulting in autoimmune diseases.

Some of these issues can be minimized by soaking and sprouting grains and legumes. However, no amount of soaking or sprouting will entirely eliminate the accompanying problems.

Should you follow the paleo diet?

Just because avoiding grains and legumes works well for me, doesn’t mean that it’s the right diet for you. Some people find that they have a much harder time breaking animal protein down.

All I can say is that you should experiment and see what helps you feel your best. But if you choose to eat grains and legumes, PLEASE soak them for 12+ hours and rinse them before cooking them! Healthy consumption of these foods requires effort.

Are you ready to put in that work?

Filed Under: Articles & Tips Tagged With: autoimmune, digestive health, IBS, paleo, PCOS, PMS

How to Make Stevia Taste Good in Recipes

October 18, 2016 by Christina Najjar Leave a Comment

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?

Disclaimer: The provided links may be affiliate links. Opinions are all my own. Any money received through these links will go back into this website to support the hours of work that go into weekly posts. Thank you for your support.

Filed Under: Articles & Tips Tagged With: candida, diabetes, digestive health, food sensitivities, IBS, PCOS, PMS, sugar free

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