Choose Yourself and Your Health This Holiday Season!
Thanksgiving is coming in the US. It’s only a couple of weeks before we’re into the holiday season, with Thanksgiving, Christmas parties, Christmas and the New Years. It can become one of the hardest seasons when you’re doing protocols. Only slightly harder than BBQ season.
Either you’re having to show up with all your own food or your feeling uncomfortable because you’re eating foods that aren’t necessarily a part of the protocol. And if you eat foods that aren’t on protocol then it becomes just one slippery slope after another. It gets a little bit tiring. There is a bit of stress involved, understandably. If you have food that is not on protocol one time in a month, in small portions, it’s not going to set you back.
It’s going to slow your progress a little bit, but it’s a very small amount. Now, if you’re starting to do two and three parties a month and you’re doing turkey dinners, high fat, sugar, dairy and grains for three or four days because you’re doing leftovers that can slow your progress down significantly for the month.
When we’re working through these protocols, what we’re doing in a month is cleaning up what maybe was accumulated over years, so it’s not like one day of eating the ‘no’ foods can compare with many years.
You’ll probably feel it, especially if you’re in the middle of protocols because again, your body is a little more sensitive. The inflammation has come down and you are affected by those ‘no’ food more dramatically because they affect the nerves immediately, but you’re not going to set yourself back.
If you can drop any stress that you have around that and then remember that it’s not just about the food, that it is also about your soul, about you accepting and recognizing that food is also an emotional, mental and spiritual event as well.
There’s a certain amount of balance that we all have to find for ourselves and that is so important because if we get obsessive about food, then we’re triggering our adrenals and it’s causing us to be less effective in what we’re doing.
So if you’re going to have a piece of the pie, then have a piece of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. You think that having that piece of pumpkin pie plus adding stress on top of it is going to be beneficial? I’m going to tell you no, have a small piece of pumpkin pie and move on.
Know that you’re going to go back to your lemon ginger water and low fat. You’re going to use all of the pieces to help you to keep moving forward because we’re playing the long game. It’s okay.
We’re not going to go really, really hard for 28 days being very strict and we’re done. We have to find the balance that allows us to keep going and to sustain this. And that being said, your personality has to come into play in that if you’re the kind of personality that needs to stay very strict so that you don’t end up on a slippery slope, then that’s your personality.
If your personality is one that says, wow, every 10, 15, 30 days, I need to have an afternoon where I can just relax with this a little bit, that is what you do. Still avoid dairy, eggs, and please minimize alcohol, but have something that feeds your soul for the afternoon.
If you indulge over much it will probably hurt. And the contrast will be another reminder of why you are eating to reclaim health. You’re working so hard and it’s okay.
We want to switch our perception around food so that we are conscious about it. It is time to let go of the idea that gifting ourselves with food that does not serve is okay. November is a crazy month for my family with birthdays, can so if I want to go and celebrate each birthday, do I really want to go out and have five drinks and a big steak and a big portion of mashed potatoes with a bunch of dairy in it.
Is that really celebrating me? Or them?
I chose to switch my perception years ago because I love feeling vital and energized. Celebrating my birthday now is about food that I love and nurtures me.
Surprise. It’s about vegetables with maybe a little higher fat content than it would normally do because I love feeling good. The foods that I celebrate with are the ones that caused me to feel really good every day.
Now, does that mean I’m not going to have a small glass of wine? I don’t know. It will depend. It will depend on how I feel. It will depend on what phase of healing I am at. It will depend on who I’m hanging out with. Physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects all factor in. I really love celebrating life with foods that are very life-giving.
I’ve had to work hard at that because with my family extended family growing up around Thanksgiving it looked like the turkey, mashed potatoes with lots of topping, shrimp salad, pumpkin pie, apple pie, cherry pie, lemon pie and lots of it all!
It was unbelievably tasty but not exactly high-density nutrition that was low fat. If we can recognize that just being with family is nurturing to the soul then we can choose foods that are beneficial to experience true health.
Over time, through these protocols, we have the ability to shift our perception a little bit at a time. So any time that you can shift your perception it makes it easier.
Be willing to take your food with you, especially if it’s a potluck, and even when it is not. Support yourself in any way that you can. Talk with family and friends about food additions or choices. Try taking extra of something you love so you can share it with others.
It’s about celebrating that you are working hard. It is you reclaiming health and it is your responsibility, it belongs to you. Not only reclaiming it physically but reclaiming it emotionally, mentally and spiritually as well. Enjoy your holiday season!
To your True Health!