Live Free Through The Holidays
“Hesitation is the enemy. It allows the moment to pass, the opportunity to be lost, and the enemy to get the upper hand.”
- Jocko Willink (Retired Navy SEAL officer; Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win)
Welcome again to the Live Free blog! We have received an outpouring of love and encouragement from so many of you over this last month since the release of our first newsletter and blog. We thank you and hope we can continue to bring education and positivity to you all. If you have enjoyed our newsletter, please consider sharing it with your friends and family. We would love to share and serve them as well!
With Thanksgiving and Christmas right around the corner, we are heading into the season where most of us will not only get off track but completely off the rails with our diet and exercise regimen. We end up having to come up with a resolution at the New Year just to get us back to where we were before the holidays! What if this season was different? What if we didn’t go into the New Year in a deficit but had a plan to Live Free through the holidays so we can continue in our resolutions—and become the best version of ourselves yet?
Heavily processed grains, sugars, and oils can create an immune response, leading your body to release inflammatory markers like cytokines and interleukins, and even raise your C-Reactive Protein which is high during times of stress and inflammation. These are only a few ways your body can react to these inflammatory foods. Processes like this can happen even when you eat just one bad meal. Think about what it will do to your body if you keep this up for the entirety of the holiday season. The holidays bring out all sorts of temptations to be on the lookout for: the work parties, your kids’ school parties, friend/family potluck dinners, and the list could go on and on.
How do you stay on track? Here is our plan to Live Free through the holidays.
Control What You Can Control
We know your Thanksgiving table is going to be filled with dressing, mashed potatoes, pies, casseroles of all kinds, and all the foods we love that are likely unhealthy. Christmas will be no better with all the cookies, holiday parties, and candies/chocolates They’re going to be there whether we want them or not. This, for the most part, is out of our control. What we can control is how we eat outside of these meals: The dishes we make ourselves and bring to share with others and deciding whether we need more food or whether we are just feeding our cravings.
Stay clean before and after holiday meal.
To Live Free is not about shunning all cravings or not enjoying delicious food. In fact, it is the exact opposite of that: To Live Free means enjoying that Thanksgiving meal and Christmas dessert without feeling crummy about it by limiting the negative repercussions of these meals. Since we know we want to enjoy that Thanksgiving meal, we’ll be disciplined in the days leading up to it. Don’t choose the convenient option that makes you inflamed, but instead, stay strong and know you have a delicious reward waiting on the other side. Enjoy that meal, but once it is done, get back on track. This will keep you from cascading down the rabbit hole of pies, cookies, and sweets that we have all been down before.
Bring dishes you can eat to meals and parties.
We also control what we contribute to these meals. Every year we try a new recipe (which everyone usually ends up loving!) that is in line with our plan. Last year, the Sweet Potato Casserole and Pumpkin Pie recipes from this month’s newsletter were a big hit and had no leftovers.
Don’t give into the cravings after the meal is over.
We know eating sweets and carbs only drives our want for them and tricks our brains into thinking we need more and more calories. The last thing in our control is choice and deciding “Do I need more food right now or is this just a temptation?” We can choose whether we want to give into that temptation or decide to Live Free.
Supplementation for the Immune System
Our gut microbiome and immune system rely heavily on what we feed it. If we eat these refined carbs and sugars, we create an inflammatory response and affect our immune system as well. If you control the factors that you can control, you won’t have to work so hard to boost that immune system for the winter months.
Whether you stayed on track during these meals or you went off the rails, here are some supplements to boost your immune system:
Digestive Enzymes
These help us break down foods and extract the vital nutrients we need. Processed carbohydrates and sugars (plus many more foods) can inhibit our bodies production of these important enzymes causing gas, bloating, diarrhea, and cramping. Adding a supplemental digestive enzyme will help your pancreas and intestines perform better if you cheat a little. Look for a digestive enzyme with a broad spectrum of enzymes to break down each nutrient, specifically protease, amylase, lipase, and lactase. They help break down proteins, carbs, fats, and dairy in your meal. Add the enzymes before and after you eat to avoid that post-meal ‘unbutton your pants’ feeling. We have several digestive enzymes available at the office.
Probiotics
Probiotics are an important piece to the gut microbiome puzzle. Probiotics can help reduce uncomfortable abdominal pain and create a healthy intestinal flow. We suggest one with strains of Bacillus Coagulans, Lactobacillus Casei, and Lactobacillus Acidophilus. We have several great probiotics at the office.
Colloidal Silver
This is used as a broad spectrum antimicrobial and has numerous other medicinal purposes. It fights symptoms like fatigue, colds, sinus infections, sore throats, and ear infections. We never travel without a bottle and take the recommended dosage at the first sign of any cold-like symptom. This would be great to have in your arsenal during the holidays. Our Supplement of the Month is DesBio’s Smart Silver and can be found at our office or purchased online from us here.
Vitamin D and C
Boost vitamins and minerals to support your immune system. Vitamin D plays a major role in regulating the minerals in our body and immune system. During these cold months, we might not get sunshine for days or even months. Supplementing with Vitamin D will help fight off infections and boost your mood. We suggest starting with 4000-5000 IUs during these months. Vitamin C is another good addition to your routine. With high antioxidant properties, it can help eliminate free radicals and fight infections. Always a good one to keep in your tool belt! Both of these can be found at our office.
If you’re interested in purchasing any of these supplements, please email us!
Earn Your Carbs
“Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it.” - Plato (427-347 BC)
The late & great Charles Poliquin preached “earn your carbs.” Now, many factors determine how you earn your carbs, from muscle mass and volume and intensity of training to body fat percentage and insulin sensitivity. However, there are acute effects of movement we can use to “earn our carbs” this holiday season.
Work out before your meals.
We usually go into the holiday season with the thought, “I’m gonna eat these meals and work it off later.” The reality is that these bad meals turn into bad days and weeks. The inflamed state this leaves you in hinders you from performing optimally in future workouts. What if you were more proactive instead of reactive? Research shows that a single bout of exercise increases skeletal muscle glucose uptake. This means that the extra glucose floating around in our bodies from holiday meals gets used to feeding our muscles instead of being stored as fat for later use. This “insulin sensitizing” effect is short-lived and disappears after approximately 48 hours. However, repeated physical activity (i.e. exercise training) results in a persistent increase in insulin action in skeletal muscle (ever more reason to stay on track with your exercise routine leading up to and throughout the holiday season). Find a way to get any exercise in before these holiday meals: run a Turkey Trot 5k, ask a family member that needs some inspiration if they want to workout with you, play football Thanksgiving morning, find a new workout class to try (a lot of fitness facilities take advantage of this and offer morning classes on holidays). Get that workout in and reap the lasting benefits during your meal to limit the damage it will do to your body.
Take a walk after your meal.
All of these holiday meals leave us in a food-induced coma, and our first response is to sleep it off. While we are not opposed to some holiday rest and relaxation, take a walk after your meal to help with damage control before you sit down on the couch. Research shows that “15 minutes of postprandial (time after a meal) walking can blunt the spike in blood glucose and overall glycemic response.” When your belly is full is no time for intensity. A nicely paced 10-15 minute walk goes a long way to reduce how much damage a big meal could do to our bodies. Grab the family, walk around the neighborhood, and talk about what you are thankful for this holiday season.
So there you go! Let’s stay on track this holiday season by controlling what we can control, supplementing our immune systems, and keeping that fitness regime up.
‘Til next time, go and Live Free.
- Paul and Dr. Crystal Rodenbeck
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