[powerpress]
Holiday Cravings
Hey friends, the holidays are coming, and so are the holiday cravings. Am I right?
So many clients and listeners find this time of year to be incredibly challenging for their human suits, their hearts, and even their spirits. Despite the joyful season, often we are overindulging in food and alcohol, overindulging in expectations and what others demand of us, overstressed and just plain worn out. This serves to significantly increase our inflammation and decrease our health and wellness. It’s the same for all but scales up when you are living with a chronic illness.
So in today’s episode, we are going to talk about the holidays and food and cravings. About indulging in those things you wait all year long for in the least health-damaging way. (Next week we will talk about the energetic and emotional stress too.)
RESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED IN Nutrient Deficiency an Autoimmune Trigger:
Transcript: https://audreychristie.com/136
Join the private group Wellness Circle: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Audreychristie/
Join Fit & Festive Holiday Challenge https://audreychristie.com/festive
Download Autoimmune Revolution Kickstart https://audreychristie.com/autoimmune
________________________________
Say HI and join the conversation on social:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/audrey_christie
Facebook: https://facebook.com/audreychristiemsn
________________________________
Holiday Cravings
Rough Transcript (listening is best)
Holiday Cravings Introduction
Hey friends, the holidays are coming, and so are the holiday cravings. Am I right?
So many clients and listeners find this time of year to be incredibly challenging for their human suits, their hearts, and even their spirits. Despite the joyful season, often we are overindulging in food and alcohol, overindulging in expectations and what others demand of us, overstressed and just plain worn out. This serves to significantly increase our inflammation and decrease our health and wellness. It’s the same for all but scales up when you are living with a chronic illness.
So in today’s episode, we are going to talk about the holidays and food and cravings. About indulging in those things you wait all year long for in the least health-damaging way. (Next week we will talk about the energetic and emotional stress too.)
Intro
Welcome if this is your first time listening - I’m Audrey Christie - I’m a functional and integrative nurse nutritionist and energy medicine practitioner. I help women start their very own Autoimmune Revolution so you can stop chasing symptoms and learn how to heal your body from autoimmune disease.
Okay - so here’s the thing - I don’t care how good the book is or how phenomenal the supplement is - there is no quick fix for your health. There is quick symptom masking - what I like to refer to as band-aid medicine. And now there is quick symptom masking and bandaids with natural remedies too.
If it's true healing, from the root cause of your issue, that you are looking for, if you are looking to create health, I’m sorry to say - there just isn’t a short cut.
What there definitely is though, is a foundation that you can build to help make healing faster and easier, to help to create health, no matter where you are on your journey.
The Typical Holiday Cycle
If you are inundated with food and drinks from Mid-November through New Years and maybe on into the Superbowl and you combine it with stress, anxiety, emotional ties to the food AND then the family stuffs and budget stuffs that happens - you have a big recipe for big inflammation and effects that last long after the holiday joys wear off.
As I mentioned, I hear from many more of my clients and listeners this time of year who find the holiday season to be extremely challenging, and I completely get it. I hear from my friends and connections a lot of “I wish my holiday was XYZ” or “I hate having to trek all over the city/state/country to visit everyone on the holiday.”
There was a time in my life where I found them challenging as well. Years ago, the holidays would be a time of overindulgence in food and alcohol, little sleep, and a significant increase in inflammation, pain, mental turbulence, and a void in spiritual connection. Not to mention, running all over the place to please everyone else (but that is for next week’s show).
Today we are focusing on the physical nutrition side of things. Specifically cravings. I like to call it cravings because who doesn’t crave their holiday favorites all year long?
We all have them sometimes, but how can you honor those emotional ties, those needs, and also avoid feeling worse than ever on January 2nd?
What is Really Behind these Holiday Cravings
A craving is a really intense hunger or need for a particular food. It’s most often caused by a physical void, like a nutritional need rooted in a biochemical change in your body. Those can be things like hormones or blood sugar.
A craving can also be caused by an energetic void, such as guilt, stress, or other emotional voids.
Sometimes a craving is really a habit, like an evening snack while you watch TV or a more common one is buying popcorn at the movies even though you aren’t hungry and you know that corn products inflamed your psoriasis and butter aggravates your rheumatoid or fibromyalgia.
When you combine these issues with not exactly being “in control” of what is available to you at holiday dinners/gatherings it can be a recipe for symptoms and sickness, whether it is aggravating an autoimmune condition OR wrecking your immune system so you are prone to all of the viruses and germs floating around.
The good news is that despite not being in control of what is served around you, or even the behaviors of others around you, is that you ARE in control of your body and what you put in it. Sometimes this is harder for women in particular, and women who have been sick with anything including autoimmune disease to remember. Maybe remember isn’t the exact right word, but more like to feel in control of.
I officially grant you permission to be in charge of YOU! And forgive yourself for not being in charge of you in the past.
Why do Holiday Cravings Come Up
Let’s look at the common ways this craving and control issue comes up.
Common Issue #1 Look at all of this food! I have to eat it all!!!! Sometimes also disguised as, “My auntie worked so hard on this, it would be rude not to clean my plate.” This could come from your own internal dialogue or out loud from a family member.
Common Issue #2 I had a few too many last night and now I feel awful and I’m craving all the things to fill the void.
Common Issue #3 There is a biochemical change in your body, like hormones or blood sugar issues.
The solution to Holiday Cravings
There is a 3 step solution to this - using the acronym G.S.G. Give up, Seek Out, Give In.
Step 1: Give Up
Are you already like WHAT? Give UP? That’s no help!?
Don’t worry, I didn’t bring you this far to leave you hanging. But I do want you to focus on that release of giving up. It’s a big part of the solution moving into the holiday season - for a peaceful holiday (internal peace - you can’t control others and I can't either).
I want you to give up and stop now, your restrictive diets, killer cardio plans, counting points/carbs/calories. These are bandaids at best, they temporarily mask the trouble and they actually create stress, cravings, and over-indulgence.
Now, this isn’t a license to give up necessary restrictions if you are gluten-free for your health to continue if you are dairy-free because of a leaky gut don’t. It is a license to indulge in sweets like dark chocolate, to make your favorite pies gluten and dairy-free, it is a license to stop counting.
Most of all, it’s a license to get in touch with your body and the messages it sends.
Step 2: Seek Out
Once you have put a stop to all of those counting and restrictions, because they do cause you to not be present in your body, the next step is to seek actual presence. Being present is critical to avoiding overindulgence at any time, not just in your holiday pants.
Seek out this presence by stopping and asking yourself BEFORE indulging in anything food or beverage (alcohol counts too), “Am I physically hungry?” If you don’t get anything, take a nice big inhale and exhale, look up, and ask again.
Sometimes we seek comfort in food and alcohol from an emotional void, so if you aren’t physically hungry, repeat the exercise and ask “what am I hungry for?”
Sometimes I get a follow-up question here, around how to know if you are physically hungry. Here are some tips before we continue:
Physical hunger is a hunger for fuel. It doesn’t occur because it is a particular time or a particular circumstance socially. Physical hunger isn’t picky, it can be satisfied with any type of food. Physical hunger allows you to stop eating when you are no longer hungry. Physical hunger causes satisfaction when it is attended to, not guilt. Physical hunger has physical signs, like a growling stomach or your energy levels beginning to dip.
Step 3: Give In
Yep, that’s correct, the last step, if you need it, is to just freaking give in. Have that pecan pie and be FULLY present with it. When you are fully present WHILE you are eating, you aren’t double fisting food into your mouth...you are taking a bite at a time, savoring the textures, the flavors, the smells, and the sensations.
If you opt for the less healthy treat, then check in with yourself every 3 bites. There’s this principle called the Law of Diminishing Returns. The first bite is bliss, the second bite is really great, the third bite is good…by then you don’t need anymore. Once your pleasure in giving in has diminished, push the plate away.
If you have more questions about how to navigate this holiday season and are looking for more actionable steps in this episode, I would love to have you join us in the Wellness Circle, my exclusive and free community to help women pursuing holistic wellness, body, mind, and spirit and discussions around the Autoimmune Revolution Podcast.
Friends, chronic disease is 99% preventable and autoimmune disease is capable of being healed or put in remission with lifestyle, energetic, and nutrition practices. You can get the direct link on the show notes page or at audreychristie.com/facebook
When you join the free Wellness circle you will also get the Kickstart your Autoimmune Revolution guide. It has 5 steps to get you started on your very own Autoimmune Revolution. Are you ready to stop fighting and starting healing?
A special festive invitation...
If you are really interested in pursuing this holiday season without all of the BS - I encourage you to nab my Fit and Festive Holiday Challenge! 4 weeks of cranking the holiday out stress and guilt-free in bite-sized steps (because who has time for more items on their to-do list- did I mention it's super fun too?)You can find it at audreychristie.com/festive
To wrap this up...
To wrap this up - you’ve got this mama! This holiday CAN be different. Don’t put all of the work you’ve done healing this year back at the starting line. And if you are watching this too late or you mess up - it's OKAY. Be gentle with yourself, begin self-care. Choose grace for yourself. (insert talk on grace - grace is an accident not repeated abuse of your being)
Thank you so much for tuning in, if you have a second it would mean the world to me if you could leave a rating or review! That helps me help more people get clear of autoimmune disease. I’d be oh so grateful.
I hope you have the most magical and restful day friends, and I challenge you to leave your world, however you can, a little better than how you found it when you got up this morning.
Be well,