Holidays are a special time of year for family, friends, and celebrations. Unfortunately, they can also be a time for overeating, overdrinking, overworking, and overstressing. Between endless shopping adventures, traveling, potlucks, and parties, one is likely to spiral into a season of out-of-control food, drink, and stress binges.

Of course, none of this is inevitable. With a little help from Ayurveda and your own awareness, we can stay our happy, healthy selves even through the chaos that the holidays may bring. Whether you are traveling or staying home, these simple reminders will keep you energized and fit all season long. Holiday weight gain and toxic build-up can be avoided. Don’t wait until the New Year to take control of your health. Start today!!

Healthy Holiday Tips

1. Keep to your daily routine.

The holiday season is often a time of chaos, travel, and fluctuation, making it essential to keep awareness of your daily routine during this time. Keeping an optimal sleep cycle, eating schedule, self-care practices, and exercise routine is a very effective way of staying balanced throughout this season of celebration.

2. Keep the digestive fire strong.

During this season of parties, potlucks, and endless holiday goodies, it is easy to overtax our digestion, leading us to lethargy, toxins, weight gain, and sickness. Some simple ways to keep digestion strong are to avoid grazing, eating without hunger, overeating, and improper food combinations (see #5 below). Eating simple, well-cooked, and well-spiced meals during this time (such as kitchari!) will help give your digestion a rest, allowing it to be strong and robust for the occasional holiday party and potluck.

Taking a digestive aid before meals (especially heavy ones!) is another essential way to keep digestion strong throughout the season. Digestive-enhancing teas, spices, tinctures, and tonics are wonderful companions this time of year!

Try our Agni Elixir!

Try our Digestive Tonic Tincture!

Try our Healthy Digestion Tea!

3. Ginger, ginger, ginger!

Ginger is a crucial daily necessity during these times of heavy foods, heavy drinking, and just overall heaviness. This sharp and penetrating root is a great way to keep your digestion robust, your metabolism strong, and your energy flowing. When taken regularly, ginger will help to flush toxins from the system. Ginger is easy to add to your daily routine with ginger tea, ginger slice “appetizers”, spicing your meals with ginger, or even taking a ginger and baking soda bath.

Try our Tulsi, Turmeric, and Ginger Tea recipe.

Try our Ginger, Honey, and Lime Appetizer recipe.

Try our Ginger Bath Blend!

4. Eat with awareness.

Unconscious eating is all too common during this time of year. Mindless grazing is a major culprit of improper food combinations, leading to unnecessary calories, weak digestion, and systemic toxic build-up. If you are going to a potluck, try to eat a healthy meal before the party to fill up and allow yourself one or two indulgences while there. If someone brings holiday snacks, cookies, or candies to work, just say “NO”. One cookie often leads to another, especially when you are bored, tired, and stressed out at work. No matter the situation, keep awareness while eating and ask yourself “Do I need this?”.

5. Avoid improper food combinations.

This is a common undesirable habit during this season of snacking. Whether at a potluck, a party, or baking at home, it is all too easy to combine these incompatible foods as we graze along. Some crucial “food combination no, no’s” include eating fruit with ANY other food, eating meat with heavy starches or grains, and mixing multiple animal proteins together.

Click here for a full chart on the Improper Food Combining Guidelines.

6. Avoid iced beverages.

Drinking iced or even cold beverages is highly frowned upon in Ayurveda. This is because the cold liquid is an antagonist to digestion, leading to constriction in the GI tract, a weakened digestive fire, and toxic accumulation. Drinking any beverages during food should also be avoided, as this waters down the vital enzymes and weakens overall digestion. Since we need our digestive fire to be at its best during the holidays, these common Ayurvedic food rules become even more essential!

7. Avoid overeating.

Whether you are holiday snacking, indulging in a large celebration feast, or just unconsciously grazing, these can all lead to the undesirable trend of overeating. Unfortunately this time of year, overeating tends to become a habitual occurrence and typically involves heavy, fatty, and excessively sweet foods. Make sure you keep awareness of your food intake, eat slowly, chew your food, only eat when you are hungry, stay hydrated, and only eat to a healthy capacity. It also helps to sit down with your food and avoid too much conversation while eating.

8. Take a walk after a large meal.

Taking a walk after a meal is a simple and effective way to keep things moving and stimulate digestion. It is easy to feel sleepy and sluggish after a large holiday meal, but it is crucial to avoid nap-taking and lying down after eating. By getting the body moving and in the fresh air, you will alternatively be encouraging energy and digestion while reducing toxins and congestion in the gut.

9. Do not eat too late at night.

Eating late at night when the digestive fire is wearing down and sleep is near will inevitably lead to indigestion, toxic build-up, a sluggish metabolism, and weight gain. If you are attending a late-night holiday gathering and know there will be food, try eating a healthy meal ahead of time to make sure you are not tempted to overindulge at a late hour. Keep your willpower strong and if you feel like eating after 8 pm, make it a light snack such as fruit, steamed vegetables, broth, Golden Milk, or a warm beverage like herbal tea with honey.

10. Keep exercising.

As our holiday schedules get busier and busier, it is easy to put our exercise routine on the back burner. Of course this time of year, with the heavy foods and excessive drinks, we need more than ever to keep to a regular exercise routine. If you have not currently established a weekly exercise schedule or your old routine has become a distant memory, begin a new routine today. Don’t wait until the New Year, after you have gained 10 pounds and your energy is at an all-time low. Exercise keeps the metabolism pumping, energy high, and digestion strong. Not to mention it relieves stress and burns toxins. I think we can all use a bit of this during the holiday season!

Click here to discover the best exercises for your Ayurvedic body type.

11. Take herbal immune boosters.

Traveling, shopping in overcrowded malls, and the “go, go, go” of the holidays are almost inevitable this time of year. The winter weather brings on an abundance of germs and with our already susceptible, over-stressed bodies, illness may find its way to you all too soon. Herbs are a simple and effective way to stay healthy during these times of stress and overindulgence. Taking a powerful immune-boosting herbal tincture, tea, or powdered formula will definitely help to keep you healthy all season long.

Try our Immaculate Immunity Tincture!

Try our Mahasudarshana Churna!

Try our Tulsi Synergy Spice Tea!

12. Sip on warm water throughout the day.

With all of the holiday celebrations, eventually comes toxic accumulation. Simply by sipping on warm water throughout the day this time of year, we can help keep our system hydrated, our digestion strong, and flush out unwanted toxins. Adding a splash of fresh lemon juice or ginger will enhance these properties even more, making this an essential part of your healthy holiday routine.

13. Eat light and healthy on “non-party” days.

If your willpower seems to go out the door during holiday parties and gatherings, then make sure to keep an extra strict and healthy diet routine on the “off” days. Eating a simple diet of warm, well-cooked, and well-spiced foods like oatmeal, porridge, kitchari, red lentils, soup, crockpot meals, and veggie stir-fries will allow your digestion to rest, making times of indulgence a bit more bearable for your health.

Click here for some healthy Ayurvedic recipes.

14. Show that sweet tooth who’s boss.

Holiday cookies, hot cocoa, chocolates, pies, and candy, oh my! Sweets are a toxic setback of the holiday season and a large protagonist to weight gain, lethargy, and lowered immunity. Willpower can run low this time of year and for good reason. However, we are still the master of our choices in life and this is the time of year that it really gets put to the test. But remember, our health is in our hands, even when temptation is running rampant. Use some of the tips mentioned above to help you learn when to indulge moderately and when to say “No”.

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