Navigating The Holidays

Hello, and welcome to Reset Your Health, the

podcast where we'll discover your mind, search

your heart, and repair your body. I'm your host,

Mary Phillips, and joining me is my husband,

Steve. In today's episode, we're gonna cover

holiday tips and how people like to tell me,

can't I just wait until after the holidays? Didn't

you used to see a lot of people come in the gym

in January after all the holidays were done?

Yeah, so I've worked at multiple different gyms

and I've also worked out at a lot of gyms and

we always used to make a joke and old class that

I used to go to all the time the 5 a .m. fit

family is what we called ourselves, but anyways

at January 1st or right after January 1st, we

would see multiple people come in and we kind

of stand over in the corner and make bets who's

gonna stay and who's gonna be here after two

weeks and if people actually made it past two

weeks we were high -fiving them because very

few ever made it past that um two -week mark

because that new year's resolution wears off

real quick um so what i like to tell people is

sure you can wait until after the holidays but

why And so I've kind of put together a few holiday

tips and kind of some things that people have

brought to me and why they wait. So one thing

is busy. People are going to gatherings. They're

going to family outings. They're just busy. Holidays

are busy. The other one is traditions. You know,

we fall into, well, our tradition is to do this

and to do this. And a lot of times it revolves

around food. Well, in speaking of food, remember

last year where we tried to duplicate one of

the traditions your family has with the chips,

the crackers, the cheeses, the various unhealthy

foods, which generally it's kind of the staple

of this particular holiday. But what did we realize

after we ate it that same day? I don't remember.

So what we realized is we didn't feel very good

after we finished eating it. It was not very

satisfying. I don't remember that happening to

me. We did. We threw away the bags of the food.

Well, I know we threw away because we don't want

to have extra chips and stuff in the house, but

I don't remember eating to the point of sickness.

Well, we didn't eat to the point of sickness.

It was just garbage food. Yeah. Yeah. And so

that's a lot of the excuses that people give.

And honestly, all it is is overeating for, you

know, I have people that don't want to start

personal training or don't want to start nutrition

with me until the end of the year. You know,

this happens every year, not just this year.

And I'm like, Because of two days or three days,

you know, if you want to count Christmas Eve,

you're going to put your health on hold for two

months. So I just wanted to kind of come in and

give a few tips and suggestions. And one of my

first tips is before the holiday meal. Before

the holiday meal, drink half of your body weight

in water. ahead of time to keep you full. And

then while you're at the gathering, keep the

bottle of water in your dominant hand. In other

words, keep it ready so that you are more likely

to drink the water than you are to eat an excess

amount of food. Yeah, because I mean, if you're

I'm right handed, if I'm holding my water bottle

on my right hand, I'm less likely to grab that

extra cookie to grab those little. or dervs that

are sitting on the counter. Another tip I want

to, I'm kind of going to take some focus on this

for a while. Don't save up your calories for

that one meal. So waiting and waiting and not

eating breakfast or maybe eating a small breakfast

but waiting because you know most holidays I

know for us, you eat at like two, three o 'clock.

So instead of eating an apple for breakfast and

then saving all your calories for that one meal

continue to eat every two or three hours. And

the reason why I say that is because when that

meal does come, you're going to eat less because

your blood sugars haven't dropped and you're

not as hungry. Well, and it's like it's like

the fact of when, like, for instance, when you

were younger, you used to not eat all day until

you went to a buffet and then you guys would.

Gorge yourselves, which not saying that I didn't

do it too. Uh, when I went with you guys, but

it, it still was, it's like you said, it's, it's

not healthy. You're not, you're not kind of keeping

your body from having that hunger to where you

do overeat because you haven't eaten all day.

And a lot of that has to do with blood sugar

drop. an insulin spike and things like that.

But if you're not eating all day long and then

all of a sudden eat, you've had your blood sugar

drop and then you just go crazy because you're

hungry. But the average American actually eats

5 ,300 to 7 ,000 calories on Christmas Day. And

that's a lot of calories, especially since most

of us need somewhere, if you're female, somewhere

between probably 18 and 2000 calories a day.

Male's a little bit higher than that. But yeah,

so like three days worth of food, maybe four

for most Americans. And that's so unhealthy for

the body. It's not that you're going to blow

up like a balloon because of one day of overeating.

It's the continuous... journey of doing it day

after day after day after day is what gets you

into a rather unfortunate situation later. I'm

going to cover that in a future episode in long

-term binging, per se. I don't want to go a lot

into that today, but some of the long -term,

of course, is weight gain, increased risk of

type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, leptin resistance,

and elevated triglycerides. Like I said, I'll

go into more details of those, but The thing

is, it's not that that happens just from one

or two days, but usually those one or two days

can turn that into a habit for the year, because

then it turns into twice a week, and then it

turns into three or four times a week, until

it's to a point of that habit, and what we wanna

do is create healthy habits. So I wanna go into

a little bit about what happens when you do binge

and when you really go hog wild. on the holiday.

So your stomach is about the size of your fist.

I'm guessing most of you have heard that. So

ball up your fist and that is how big your stomach

is on average for the average person. When the

stomach expands, so of course the stomach is

meant to expand to put some stuff, some food

into it, but when it Just continues to stretch

and stretch and stretch. It actually starts pushing

on your organs. And of course we know that's

not a healthy situation. And some of the short

-term effects are like heartburn, acid reflux,

discomfort. Of course you can get to the point

where you're feeling sick because you're so...

Overfilled with food. Yeah. And feeling sluggish.

So that one's funny to me because everybody is

always like, oh, they just... take a nap after

the holiday meal well that's because your body

is in overdrive trying to digest that food so

it has to take that energy that you need to stay

awake to put you to sleep into sleep mode so

it can repair itself yep and so that's actually

not a good thing and the thing is if you do let's

just say chris you have this plan you're not

going to, but Christmas Day comes around and

you've overeaten. All of a sudden, ten pieces

of fudge later and the ham and whatever else

you eat on Christmas Day. What should I do then?

Is it over for me, Mary? No, just don't beat

yourself up. I mean, things are going to happen.

And for the short term, this one you've probably

never heard before, but chew on ginger if you're

having a lot of discomfort in the stomach and

the abdominal, it'll help ease it. Well, and

like in Michigan, one of the things they used

to tell us if we had a stomach ache or stomach

pains is they had this drink there called Verner's,

which it's a ginger drink, but it's carbonated

too. It does help in that instance, too, if you

can't, for whatever reason, stomach chewing on

ginger. And that, I don't know, I never really

got that much. And it's probably because of the

ginger, but carbonated drinks aren't the best

thing when your stomach is upset. But they tell

you to sip on it. It's not a highly carbonated

either. And another thing is take a walk. I know

you're feeling sluggish because your body's in

overdrive. Go outside. But get outside. If you

can take a walk and Allow yourself to use don't

lay down. The thing is the laying down. That's

what causes that acid reflux and the heartburn

and things and don't get into the all or nothing.

So I have struggled a lot with the all or nothing

mentality throughout my life. Well, I've it's

only Christmas Day once a year and I'm just going

to eat and eat and eat myself sick. or, well,

I can't have this tomorrow because let's get

for real, I can have it tomorrow if I want, but

I'm not going to, right? And I get into this,

I've gotten into a lot of all or nothing. So

I'm gonna eat everything I want and everything

in sight because tomorrow I'm not going to have

it. Don't get into the mentality. Maybe it's

the middle of your meal and you've eaten half

a plate of food and you're starting to feel full

and you're thinking, oh, well, Well, I need to

finish it because it's on my plate or or well,

well, it's only this one day. Don't go crazy

and go hog wild because of that one day. Just

eat until you're satisfied and stop. And the

beautiful thing about holidays are you usually

have leftovers. So there's no there's no real

loss of that. You know, I'm going to miss out

on eating whatever X, Y, Z is. You can always

save it for later. Like, you know, you don't

have to eat it all in one sitting. You don't

have to, you know, try and fit all of these meals

that you're excited about for the holiday. Although

most of the food should just be thrown out after

the holiday so that you don't have a reason to

eat unhealthy food. Well, typically that is true,

but it depends on what it is. Yeah. And the other

tip I would give is bring healthy alternatives

to your meal. so that you know there will be

something available that fits your goals. You

know, I mean, for instance, stuffing for Thanksgiving,

having some having cauliflower stuffing. I mean,

don't bash it until you try it. OK, so don't

be all that cauliflower girl. Everybody always

wants to use cauliflower to make everything.

No, you can make some really good dishes with

cauliflower, but there's a lot of other things.

Maybe you really like chocolate. Why not bring

an alternative that's a healthier alternative

that is a chocolate, that is a dessert? You can

share it with everybody else, but also you have

something that's a better dessert than eating

the fudge or eating whatever it is. So like,

for example, your homemade dish that you make

for the boys out of summer squash. Like you turned

it into this. Chocolate pudding type thing and

the boys love it and it's not like it's not unhealthy

like having a block of fudge or something Yeah,

I make a summer squash out of Or sorry chocolate

pudding out of summer squash that my kids love

is so I guess I would just Say just really focus

on your health your health matters in November

and December, too Not just the other times. And

when we wait for that New Year's resolution,

I mean, I'm not saying there's nothing wrong.

There's anything wrong with the New Year's resolution,

but I just don't feel like enough. There's not

there's I've seen a lot of people just make those,

but they don't last very long. Well, it's because

we get into the schedule of every day to day

life and it just kind of falls by the wayside

when it's not an everyday habit. And I'll tell

you what I tell all my clients and friends, and

you'll hear this on this podcast multiple times,

I'm sure. But what I like to tell them is tomorrow

will never come because it's always tomorrow,

next week, next month, next year. And if you

don't start now, when will you do it? So why

not begin your journey now and work through the

holidays, work through the challenges, because

there'll be challenges if you're not If you're

not trying to do a diet and you actually want

a lifestyle, there are going to be huge challenges

that come your way. And sometimes you'll screw

up like is going to happen. But. If you want

this to be a lifestyle, something that you can

maintain and not gain the weight back or, or

just maybe you're not trying to lose weight.

Maybe you just want health, then you're going

to have to learn how to make it through the holidays

without going crazy. You have to really work

the lifestyle. I've been working a lot with my

clients on what their plans are for the holidays.

If they want to stay, you know, on plan, or maybe

they want to eat, um, you know, the pie or the

fudge or whatever, but we're making a plan of,

okay, instead of eating multiple, let's have

one or let's have a small amount of this or that

or whatever, or one plate instead of going up

for seconds or thirds or any of that. So it's

making those plans ahead of time and just kind

of knowing and having a plan and a goal and knowing

what you're going to do before that day comes

so that you're not sick. Well, I'd like to pose

the question to the listeners, what is one of

their biggest struggles during the holiday? What

is one of the food that is just that, for lack

of a better term, the kryptonite of their holiday

experience that they just can't stay away from

or can't seem to stay away from that's the biggest

struggle that may not necessarily be this great

choice that we're making in the moment. And we

know that, but we're just wanting to eat it because

we like how it tastes. Yeah, and it's funny because

I kind of reached out to some people and asked,

you know, do they focus on their health during

the holidays? And I kind of got a variety of

answers. And one person said they only eat tamales

during the holidays. I think it was Christmas

something. One of their traditions, well, Why

only during Christmas? So why only during this

time? Why not go ahead and make it something

that every once in a while you have at Tamale?

I mean, I know that's not the healthiest thing.

I myself am not into Mexican food. I'm into Italian

food. But honestly, make it so that it doesn't

matter. Quite as much and I'm not saying eat

it all the time But kind of take the special

part out of it And also I feel like in the past

when I really had a struggle with food a much

larger struggle than I do now I was more focused

on the food that was around and in front of me

than I was on the family and the friends that

were around me and now I live about like 13 1400

miles away from all my family and will be a We'll

be with just us and some friends and stuff on

the holidays. And now I'm just like, man, I was

always so focused on that food. And why didn't

I really focus on the people? And it's not that

I wasn't focused on them, but I really was focused

on that food when I should have been more focused

on those that those loved ones that were around

me. So just don't let the holidays. Mess up what

you're trying to accomplish and mess up your

goals and put you into new into habits like overeating

or You know saving calories for a big meal. Don't

let it Don't let it take you there because you

could end up growing those habits kind of For

life and then you have to try to break those

unhealthy habits and you don't want that so What

what's a topic that? And again, this is kind

of towards the listeners as well, but what's

a topic that is something that you're curious

about or that you would like more insight about

from the perspective of a national nutritionist,

personal trainer? life transformation coach,

just somebody of that sort that might be able

to help you with a particular struggle that you're

having, whether it be working out, whether it

be food, whether it be closet eating, whether

it be just anything. What would be something

that you'd be interested in hearing for the next

episode of this? podcast. And we're working on

currently a way to contact as far as like email,

website, all that kind of stuff. But that that'll

come probably later in December as we continue

to publish these episodes. But you'll be able

to reach out to Mary on social media in the meantime.

Mary Phillips. So I think that's all for this

episode of the podcast, Reset Your Health. So

until next time, we have been Mary. And Steve.

So we'll see you next time. Bye.