Christina Najjar

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Healthy Holidays: How to Stay on Track

October 25, 2016 by Christina Najjar Leave a Comment

It’s October 25th, which means that Christmas and other holidays will be coming up in the next two months. Some people may struggle to stay on track with their health during that time. In order to have healthy holidays, it’s important to think about a few things before the holiday season actually begins.

Start by deciding what your healthy holidays will look like. Come up with realistic health goals. Determine how much you want to allow yourself to indulge and try to stick to your plan. Don’t be critical of yourself, though. If you fall off track, acknowledge that you did so, and then kindly allow yourself to get back on track.

How to have healthy holidays and not gain weight

How to survive family dinners

If you’re hosting a dinner, tell guests what you would like them to bring. Make fewer side dishes to reduce the desire to overindulge and use smaller serving spoons to reduce how much of each dish you’re having. Keep the meal healthy by making mashed sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes, and making your gravy and stuffing from scratch. Stick to one tasty dessert, instead of a dessert buffet.

As a guest, your best bet is portion control. Start with less food on your first plate, and grab seconds if you still feel hungry. Or, you can fill your plate with vegetables and turkey, then have the treats like mashed potatoes and gravy once you’re a bit more full. Cut wine with soda water and save it for toasting. Set a limit on the number of holiday drinks like eggnog.

Prevent blood sugar fluctuations by eating throughout the day, as opposed to “saving your calories” for dinner. Otherwise, for days after, you could continue to put on weight, and experience cravings, mood swings, and fatigue.

Healthy holidays include healthy shopping

On a long day of shopping, drink warm lemon water in the morning. Eat a filling meal, including a good protein source that will help you stay full longer. Bring a healthy snack along with you, such as raw almonds or pumpkin seeds. If cooking healthy meals during that time seems impossible, cook ahead for leftovers, or prep and freeze ingredients.

You can also reduce the amount of shopping you need to do by agreeing with family and friends to reduce the amount of gifts or having a Secret Santa. My family has already agreed to my request to skip the gifts altogether this year. Instead, we’ll be making the holidays all about spending time with the people we love.

For gift exchanges, request to avoid sugary gifts like cookies and chocolate and opt for tea instead. Alternatively, you can ask for a membership to an activity you enjoy, or tickets to an enjoyable experience.

Address your stress

With the holiday season, stress levels tend to increase. This is an issue because stress increases belly fat and inflammation. It also uses up the body’s nutrients at a faster rate than in a relaxed state. Additionally, it reduces immunity and slows down digestion.

To counter the effects of stress, it is extremely important to allow yourself some time to relax and to get adequate amounts of sleep. Consider a pamper session with relatives, and schedule celebrations to allow for proper sleep. Avoid caffeine in the afternoon and consume alcohol in moderation. If you feel your stress levels go up, try these ways to destress in 30 seconds or less.

Very importantly, you’ll need to support your immune system as you consume more sugar and go through more stress. Try to include nutrient-dense foods in your diet such as eggs, green leafy vegetables, colourful vegetables, pumpkin seeds, and raw almonds. Eat immune supporting foods like turmeric, garlic, and fermented foods (such as sauerkraut).

What are you strategies to stay healthy during the holidays?

Filed Under: Articles & Tips Tagged With: adrenal fatigue, blood sugar balance, destress, healthy holidays, PCOS, PMS, weight loss

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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