It is December 14th and the ‘Silly Season’ has well and truly hit. Social gatherings, tasty food + drink, days in the sunshine playing finska, big family gatherings with all the weird and wonderful, and the list goes on. And although it is busy and sometimes a little chaotic…I love it. I have always loved this time of year and yes, I am an absolute sucker for your classic Christmas Carols.
BUT!! What I don’t love (AT ALL), is the ‘health tips’ and ‘health advice’ I see come out at this time of year. I read on social media, a nutritional health professional advising us all to “avoid pasta and rice over the silly season” and “don’t arrive hungry when going out for dinner so you can avoid the entrees and go straight to mains”…..face palm. I have no words for this kind of “health advice” and it truly saddens me. In fact, it makes me ANGRY. It makes me SO ANGRY that “advice” like this is still being thrown around like it is OK. IT. IS. NOT. OK. Change it up people!! We MUST move beyond this whole horrific body-shaming, food-shaming paradigm. I will stop here otherwise this blog will just become an enormous rant.
So! Moving on! My top 3 actual pieces of advice for this festive season ahead…
Eat the Food and Drink the drinks (and enjoy it)
Heading into this time of year, when it comes to food, my BIGGEST HEALTH ADVICE…..get ready….it is a little radical…..but….. eat the food. Every. Single. Day. Hungry? Eat some food. Breakfast time? Eat food. Peckish mid-afternoon? You guessed it, food. Going out for dinner? Great! DELICIOUS! Can I come!?
Healthy eating = eating foods every day. Eating the right VOLUME + VARIETY of foods and REGULARLY, every day.
We MUST nourish every single cell, organ and organ system in our body (mental + physical) so we can THRIVE. And remember ladies, a big factor in getting a healthy period each month is making sure we are fully nourished in every respect – that is eating enough, getting all your micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), and enough macronutrients (protein, essential fats and complex carbohydrates - hello rice and pasta) every single day.
Eat food. Honour your hunger, make peace with food, respect your body and treat it with kindness. We are given one body to live in on this Earth – so we need to fuel it and treat it with respect and kindness every DAY. Yes, the majority of this fueling and respecting comes from eating nutrient-dense, whole foods…BUT those soul foods are important too. All in moderation my friends, all in moderation. And coming into Christmas/New Year? This is where that moderations comes in just perfectly ;).
Be merry team, and enjoy all the foods and all the beverages. We only live once right? And for goodness sake, eat the rice, the pasta and the entrees…and throw in some of Nan’s gingerbread and Christmas Pud while you are at it too.
2. Ditch the Scales
The LAST thing I want you doing is weighing yourself…ever.
I do not have scales in my home or office, and I never will. In fact, the day we got rid of the scales in my house, was a momentous day indeed. I have come to realise, that the scales serve me no purpose, and that number on the scales, that bloody number, actually reflects nothing of my true mental and physical health - I hope you can come to this realisation too.
Plus, due to my past experiences with my Restrictive Eating Disorder, as a health practitioner, I don’t advocate 'weight loss'. For SO many reasons, but mainly....I strongly believe it is not a helpful or healthy wellness goal. The amount of negative energy that surrounds those two little powerful words, is endless. And I see jumping on the scales x amount of times/week or month....to be in the same category.
Why do we obsess and care SO much about this number on the scales? Seriously, why?
I think a lot of you know the feeling of jumping on the scales, and that number determining your happiness and self-worth to an extent. How crazy is that!? I certainly know that it became an obsession for me, I would jump on the scales multiple times a day and it would literally determine my mood and what food I ate/didn’t eat and what exercise I then did.
You are so much more than that number on the scales, whatever that is for you. There are so many other factors that can signal and help you determine your health, and help you achieve better health and well-being, other than weight, and THAT is what I am all about! We have blood tests and other pathology, a thousand other signs from your body, your sleep health, stress levels, exercise/movement, nutrition, sunshine, mental health, what you do for happiness and enjoyment, hormonal health, immune health, and the list goes on and on AND ON!! We need to put more focus on all these other factors of health, and less on that number on the scales.
If your nodding your head right now, pick up those scales and chuck them out. Get rid of them FOR GOOD. Go on….do it! And what better time to do this than coming into a new year?
3. Rest More You Tired Thing
If you needed someone to tell you this, here it is. Please rest more. You don’t need to be busy, productive, kicking goals etc. ALL the time. I promise. There is enough time to be able to rest as well and it will do your mental and physical health wonders. I too often see patients who are simply not resting anywhere near enough, not getting enough sleep, not resting from work, not resting from technology, not resting from intense exercise, not resting from the constant to-do list, and so on.
Better yet, winding down for the year, perhaps change up your exercise routine? Take a little break from all that intense exercise that you may have been doing. Your body needs some rest and rejuvenation for the big year ahead.
It is time to rest my young cubs.
Enjoy this time of year and remember to eat all the foods, ditch the scales and rest more, any other health advice you might hear over this season will have to be approved by me.
Love Nutmeg xxx
