Post-holiday bloat? 7 tips to reset and nourish your body

After an amazing Thanksgiving Day celebration, it's time to refocus on our nutrition and get back on track! 🎉🌱

 

Here are some tips to help you reset and nourish your body after enjoying those delicious holiday treats:

Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate

Start by hydrating your body with plenty of water. Proper hydration supports digestion, helps flush out toxins, and replenishes your system. Aim to drink enough water throughout the day to keep yourself refreshed and revitalized.

Fill Up on Fresh Fruits and Veggies

Load up your plate with an abundance of colorful fruits and vegetables. These nutrient-rich powerhouses will provide you with essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, while keeping your meals light and refreshing.

Prioritize Lean Proteins

Enjoy some of that leftover turkey with some spring greens. Protein is essential for muscle repair and satiety, helping you feel satisfied and preventing overeating.

Embrace Whole Grains

Opt for whole grains like quinoa, brown rice, or whole wheat bread instead of refined carbohydrates. Whole grains are packed with fiber, providing sustained energy and promoting better digestion.

Mindful Portion Control

Pay attention to portion sizes and listen to your body's hunger and fullness cues. Enjoy your meals slowly, savoring each bite, and stop eating when you feel comfortably satisfied.

Plan and Prep

Set yourself up for success by planning and prepping your meals ahead of time. Having nutritious options readily available makes it easier to make healthy choices and avoids relying on unhealthy convenience foods.

Get Moving

Engage in physical activity that you enjoy, whether it's a brisk walk, a workout session, or a dance class. Exercise boosts your metabolism, improves mood, and helps you feel energized.

 

Remember, it's all about balance and consistency. Don't be too hard on yourself for indulging during the festivities. By adopting these healthy habits, you'll get back on track and continue your journey towards optimal health.

 

For a nutritional reset any time of year, try a 3-day reset or a 21-day reset, guaranteed to nourish your body for optimal function.

 

Cheers to a refreshing post-holiday reset! Let's nourish our bodies, embrace wellness, and keep striving for our health goals. 💪🥗🌟

Understanding Carbs and Glycemic Load: A Beginner's Guide

You may have heard about the glycemic index and wondered what it is all about. The glycemic index is a ranking of carbohydrates based on their immediate effect on blood glucose (blood sugar) levels. It compares foods gram for gram of carbohydrate. Carbohydrates that breakdown quickly during digestion have the highest glycemic indexes. The blood glucose response is fast and high. Carbohydrates that break down slowly, releasing glucose gradually into the bloodstream, have low glycemic indexes.

Foods with a high glycemic index convert into sugar very quickly, with negative physical effects. Foods with a low glycemic index turn into sugar gradually, helping maintain your body's chemical balance. In general, foods with a low index are preferable.

Glycemic Load measures the amount of sugar a food actually releases in the body. Foods with a low glycemic load usually have a low glycemic index, yet still have a low glycemic load. Other foods have both a high index and a high load. You should avoid high load foods as a regular part of your meal plan.

When you choose carbohydrate foods, check both their glycemic index and glycemic load. Detailed tables with this information are widely available. When you join my next Empowerment Zone, you will gain access to meal plans that balances your glycemic load without you having to give it a second thought. Leave a comment for FREE Glycemic Index chart!

Simply eating more fruit and vegetables is not the answer - they must be the right fruits and vegetables. Starchy vegetables such as peas or lentils (200 to 250 calories per cup) are healthy, but they contain more calories than you may want. If you need to eat more to satisfy your hunger, add low glycemic load vegetables. For example, spinach and asparagus are better choices than higher calorie corn and peas. A cup of spinach topped with 1/2 cup of tomato sauce has only about 90 calories, but it gives you nutrients from two color groups.

Color code your food

When considering which foods to enjoy sparingly, also use color as a guideline. Many brown and beige carbohydrates, like pasta, beans and potatoes, while healthy, also tend to be high in calories.

How to bring more fruit and veggies in your diet

The new food guidelines issued by the United States government recommend that all Americans eat between five and nine servings of fruits and vegetables every day. When you first hear that number, it may seem like a lot, but it is much easier than you think to fit that many servings of fruits and vegetables into your daily diet. For one thing, the shelves of the grocery stores are fairly bursting with fresh fruits and vegetables. In addition, vegetables and fruits are some of the least expensive, most nutrient rich, foods in the supermarket. With all these fruits and vegetables to choose from, it is very easy to make these nutritious, delicious foods part of your daily meals and snacks.

When you consider how much a serving really is, it is actually quite easy to get five to nine servings of fruit and vegetables per day. For instance, the recommended daily amount equates to a quite reasonable two cups of fruit and two and a half cups of vegetables every day. When you consider how many fruits and vegetables are available, and how low the prices usually are, it is easy to see how to reach this daily goal.

One great way to get the nutrients you need from fruits and vegetables every day is to take full advantage of the variety of these foods available. Eating the same thing every day quickly becomes boring, so why not pick a variety of fruits and vegetables, in every color of the rainbow and in every conceivable shape, size and texture, to give yourself a varied diet every day.

When shopping for fruits and vegetables, it is important to choose a variety of different colors. This is for more than purely artistic reasons. The variety of color in fruit and vegetables represent different types of nutrients, and choosing a variety of colors will help ensure you get all the vitamins and minerals you need each and every day.

Finding new recipes is another great way to ensure you get those five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables every day. Everyone likes to try out new recipes, and these new recipes may just provide the impetus you need to eat all those fruits and veggies.

New recipes can also provide you the opportunity to try out some fruits and vegetables you have never tried before. For instance, everyone has eaten oranges, but have you tried kiwi fruit or mangoes? How about spinach or kale? Trying new things is a great way to find new favorites while getting the best nutrition available.

Many people mistakenly think that they do not need to eat five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables every day if they just take a vitamin supplement. Nothing could be further from the truth. That is because fruits and vegetables contain far more than the micronutrients identified by science and synthesized in vitamin pills. While these micronutrients, such as vitamin C, vitamin A and vitamin E are important to good health, so too are the hundreds of other elements that are contained in healthy foods like fruits and vegetables. These elements are not available in any pill, they must be ingested through a healthy, balanced diet that contains plenty of fruits and vegetables.

In addition, fruits and vegetables are much less costly than vitamin pills. Fruits and vegetables are very inexpensive, especially when purchased in season and grown locally. In the long run, getting the nutrition you need from the food you eat is much less expensive, and much better for you, than popping those vitamin pills every day. 

Having said that, if you find yourself having trouble getting up to 9 servings of fruit and vegetables each day, consider supplementing with a meal replacement smoothie that fills potential nutritional gaps in your diet. I personally enjoy one that contains much of the recommended vitamins and minerals plus prebiotics and probiotics that support a healthy gut, and rarely found superfoods that optimize bodily function including increasing energy, curbs cravings and improves regularity.

So, try your best to get your five to nine servings of fruit and vegetables every day. It may seem like a lot, but you can meet this goal simply by including fruits and vegetables as snacks, as garnishes, as side dishes and as meals or in the alternative, supplement with a high-quality meal replacement smoothie.

The Power of Antioxidants

The prefix 'anti' means against, in opposition to, or corrective in nature. In this case, the 'anti' in antioxidant describes the effect these chemicals have against oxidants.  

Oxidants, usually referred to as 'free radicals' are produced as a natural by-product of the millions of biochemical processes undertaken by the body every minute. The same life-giving oxygen that supports all the functions of the body creates these harmful by-products which cause cell damage, usually to DNA, fats and proteins.  

Free radicals also enter the body through external influences such as exposure to the sun, pesticides and other kinds of environmental pollution. In addition, their levels are increased by mental and physical stress, the consumption of alcoholic beverages, unhealthy foods, and cigarette smoke. 

In much the same way as oxidation causes rust on cars, oxidation inside the body causes a breakdown of cells. If the amount of free radical oxidation in the body is allowed to rise to an unhealthy level, it can result in extensive damage to cellular components and can accelerate the ageing process.  

More importantly, it may contribute to a wide range of degenerative illnesses and reduce the body's ability to deal with other problems, including cardiovascular malfunction, eye disease, and cancer. 

Additionally, it may result in a compromised immune system, leading to immunological disorders and a lessening of the body's ability to heal wounds and overcome infections. Some studies indicate possible links to arthritis and similar chronic conditions.  

Antioxidants counter these effects by binding with free radicals before they can cause damage. They then convert them into non-damaging biochemical substances, assisting enormously with the reparation of cellular damage.  

Certain antioxidant enzymes are produced within the body. The most well-known of these are catalase, superoxide dismutase and glutathione: 

Catalase converts hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen.  

Superoxide dismutase breaks antioxidants down into hydrogen peroxide. 

Glutathione is a detoxifying agent, changing the form of toxins so that they are easily eliminated by the body.  

But how do we get antioxidants in our body through our diet? 

Some of the better known include the antioxidant vitamins beta-carotene, vitamin B6, vitamin C and vitamin E.  

Minerals such as selenium, zinc, glutathione and co-enzyme Q10 may also have antioxidant properties, and so may flavonoids such as cranberry, some amino acids, plus organic extracts from milk thistle and the tree known as ginkgo biloba.  

A diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables provides a large supply of these antioxidants, to help eliminate damaging free radicals. The highest concentrations are found in fruits and leafy green vegetables, such as carrots, orange and red peppers, spinach and tomatoes.  

Cooking can destroy some antioxidants and interfere with the body's ability to absorb them, so eating raw vegetables and fruit, and including sprouts in the diet can help. Steaming vegetables as opposed to frying, microwaving or boiling is also a good idea. 

Antioxidants are best taken in combination, since single antioxidants, such as vitamin E, need other vitamins in order to work as an effective antioxidant. Food and natural supplements may therefore provide the most bioavailable source of antioxidants. Natural products from the rainforests of the world are some of the best sources of natural antioxidants ever found. Fruits like the acai berry are amazing in the health world because of the wide range and high number of antioxidants they contain, making them a perfect source of antioxidants. It’s no wonder that the acai berry has been dubbed one of the top 10 “superfoods” in the world.