How NOT to Overeat this Holiday Season

 Want to avoid a massive overeat this holiday season? Read on!

 I adore Christmas. I adore lights, presents, friends, family, trees, elves, and most of all, I adore food. Yes, I know - I know I am supposed to be a beacon of radiant good health and moderation. This is a health blog after all. And as important as my health is, and as important as healthy eating is to a healthy body and mind, sometimes a gal enjoys a feast.

That being said, there are ways to enjoy your cupcakes without getting a muffin top.

This is a muffin top!

1. Before you go to a party or a big feast where you know you will be tempted, drink a protein shake with added fiber. I love a product from RenewLife called FiberSmart. This will do a couple of good things. It will help fill you up a bit so you make decisions based on what you actually want, rather than random shoveling of food into your open mouth (oh, come on, I know I am not the only one!). It will also help to regulate the rush of sugar you are going to unleash on your unsuspecting system. This is critical not only to your health, but to your weight. The slower the sugar rushes through your system, the better. So fiber it up before hand!


2. Choose only your favourites. If you are going to cheat and eat from the naughty list, then at least make sure it is the very best of the naughty. If you want chocolate, have chocolate, but make it the stuff you really love. High quality food, ate with enjoyment and savoured, is instantly removed from your thighs by elves...true story! Ok, maybe not, but if you truly savour and enjoy food, a few beneficial things happen. First, you tend to eat slower and therefore eat less. Second, up to 20% of digestion happens before you  ever put food in your mouth. It starts with enjoying the colour, the smell, and the anticipation. Your body, acting like a little Pavlovian dog, starts releasing anticipatory chemicals, juices and enzymes, so that the delicious treats you consume can be digested. And the better you digest, the healthier you are, the stronger your immune system and the easier your weight management will be.

3. Move away from the food! I don't know about you, but as long as I stand by the food table at a party, or as long as I sit at the dinner table with all of the leftover turkey and stuffing, I tend to keep eating. And I do it rather mindlessly. So once you ate your fill, back away from the food before it lures you back in for seconds (thirds and fourths). Simple, but effective.

I wish you a remarkably enjoyable and healthy holiday season. I know I will enjoy mine!

Kristi Shmyr

haunted by your health?

haunted by your health?

does the future of your health scare you?

Thinking about how your current lifestyle is going to come back to haunt you?

Stop worrying. There are so many little things you can do to make a BIG difference to your health. Pick ONE per week and within 6 weeks you won't believe the difference.

1. Get 6,000 IU of Vitamin D a day, 20 minutes in direct sunlight, or some fatty fish like salmon, trout or mackerel. It lowers your risk of diabetes, cancer and weight gain. Vitamin D goes very well with your Omega 3's, so take both for amazing brain, body and beauty benefits.
2. Drink 2 glasses of warm water in the morning upon rising and sit on the pot regardless whether you feel "the need". This will train your digestion to work efficiently. Help things along by gently rubbing your belly (from rib-cage to below your belly button) in a clock-wise way.
3. Sleep 7-9 hours a night. It is critical to your health, especially your immune system and your waist line. When you even have one night of less-than-optimal sleep, your hunger goes up, your ability to burn fat goes down, you store calories, and your immune system depresses. If just one night can compromise your health, what do you suppose a lifestyle of this can do?
4. Cut your sugar (NOT your fat) consumption in half. Stop eating low-fat, because that simply means "we replaced the fat with sugar". Sugar lowers your immune system, depletes your body of important nutrients, messes with your ability to burn fat and lose weight, and causes you to CRAVE MORE SUGAR!
5. Breath deeply, down to your belly, 10 times each day. This will increase your digestion, your energy and your beauty, not to mention it will help to alkalize your system so disease simply cannot thrive in your body! And, it is FREEEEEE (which means most of you won't do it ;)
6. Replace your long cardio program with 10-20 minute sessions of All-Outs. This lowers your stress hormones, increases your ability to handle stress, increases your sexy, anti-aging Human Growth Hormone, and allows you to lose fat easier. To do this interval-type of exercise: Choose whatever form of cardio you like best (stairs, running, jump rope, biking, etc) and do it AS HARD AS YOU CAN (or go All Out) for 30-60 seconds. Recover at a slower pace for 60-120 minutes, then repeat. Do enough All-Outs to add up to 2-8 minutes (with the recovery stage, warm up and cool down, this cycle will take 10-30 minutes).
7. Add 1 serving of raw vegetables to your diet. Vegetables like cauliflower and broccoli are especially amazing at fighting everything from cancer to obesity. Stick to low-glycemic veggies for the best result.s Start thinking of potatoes and corn as non-vegetables. Corn is a GRAIN (and a common allergen, as well as a heavily genetically-modified crop) and potatoes are just about as quick to turn into sugar as white bread. Limit them to 1 time a week, in a small serving.

The health industry can be a pretty intimidating place to watch from the outside. It often seems like the very same food we revered as a health food is vilified the following week. If this seems overwhelming to you, stick to the basics. The truth is, the best advice is often the free advice - drink water, breath deeply, chew your food, and exercise. And eat your vegetables!

Kristi Shmyr,

Prana Holistic

Sugar is to nutrition as Tiger Woods is to commitment

(Hmmm...I am not entirely sure that analogy is sound, but you get the idea!)

Sugar. It holds such a key spot in our hearts and our society. Chocolates at Valentine's Day, candy at Halloween, and that striped emblem of Christmas, the candy cane - sugar is everywhere. It's in your salad dressings, on your fries, and (chances are) its in most of what you will eat. 

We KNOW sugar is all but a biohazard when it comes to our health. It depresses our immune system. It raises tryglycerides and increases weight gain, diabetes and metabolic disorders. It aggravates asthma, arthritis and gallstones. It can destroy your kidneys and increase your risk of infection. Yet we are eating eat at a record rate - in the last 20 years, our consumption in North America has risen from 26 to 135 pounds of sugar per person per year!!!!

That's like eating a whole human made of sugar!

Not shockingly, the rate of heart disease and cancer seems to be somewhat correlated with the rise in dietary sugar.

So my intrepid friend and colleague, Roberta, and I are setting out on a little experiment.

How would 30 day sugar free days feel?

What do I expect? Well, its only 3 days in - cravings are strong. But after 30 days, I expect energy and focus to be more sustainable, and my mood to be more stable. I suspect everyone would embrace those changes for me!

So what are our rules?

1. No baked goods
2. No juice of any kind, fresh or not
3. maximum 3 servings fruit a day, focusing on berries and apples.
4. No sauces or dressings with sugar
5. no chocolate or candy (obviously)
6. No yogurt, except plain.
7. Just no sugar!

I'll let you know how it goes!

Kristi Shmyr

Prana Holistic