5 Ways to Supercharge Your Energy Over the Holidays
Why Holidays Can be Stressful
Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Hanukkah revive beautiful traditions such as bright lights, choral music, and children’s smiles. However, the holidays can be filled with challenges:
- Family stress and obligations
- Travel, late nights, and missed planes
- Unusual seasonal foods
- Unusual drinks such as eggnog, specialty coffees, and alcoholic cocktails
- Dysregulated routines and lack of sleep
- Harsh weather and limited sunlight
These unexpected bumps and snags can ruin the holiday season. When you are stressed, your energy can be depleted, and you may experience brain fog and burn out. Potentially, these symptoms of stress may progress to bloating, acid reflux, and constipation. Therefore, joy, delight and reverie during the holidays can rapidly disappear.
This blog is your early holiday gift from me and includes key approaches how to glide through the holidays feeling good. Follow the five steps below to elevate your holiday season.
Step 1: Digestive Enzymes—Your Best Holiday Friend
Stress, even "good stress," depletes digestive enzymes. Without digestive enzymes, food can sit in your stomach like a rock—leading to stomach aches, inflammation, and weight gain. When the body’s energy is engaged in digestion, you may feel exhausted, impatient, and even depressed. Mood is directly tied to the state of your gut.
Take Enzyme Energy digestive enzymes with meals. Order now, so that you have this gut-saving supplement in your bag throughout the holidays. Since holiday meals include a variety of foods—turkey, gravy, and mashed potatoes, or tamales with chicken, guacamole and salsa, etc.—digestive enzymes can calm your gut.
Step 2: Practice Proper Food Combining
Proper food combining is the understanding that certain foods digest well together. When you combine food in the right order, the result is a reduction in bloat, inflammation, and weight gain. In fact, best-selling books, such as Fit for Life, focus on successful weight-loss diets based on the principals of orderly food combining—not counting calories. Counting calories is not part of my diet either and not necessary when you combine foods correctly. Your energy level and ability to fit into your clothing will delight you when you properly combine food.
An example of a properly combined meal is roasted chicken, a salad, and steamed or stir-fried low-carb vegetables. Proteins and carbohydrates do not combine well. However, most traditional meals are miscombinationed:
- Turkey and mashed potatoes
- Tamales, chicken, and tortillas
- Eggs and toast
If you miscombine food during the holidays, digestive enzymes are critical and can save your gut. For a more detailed understanding, click the food combining chart above.
Step 3: Stay Hydrated During the Holidays
Constipation, fatigue, and brain fog are often caused by dehydration. When you drink water, be sure to add an electrolyte formula which includes no added sugar. Stress consumes electrolytes—and when low on electrolytes, you may experience leg cramps and headaches. Drink more than you think you need because dehydration causes blood sugar to crash which triggers cravings.
Step 4: Cleanse Your Colon
The holidays bring extra challenges to colon health and constipation is never fun. Most holiday sweets might be tempting and delicious but are likely made with gluten and sugar. Travel, interruption of routine, and fewer vegetables causes irregular bowel movement. Order my best-selling product, the Happy Gut Cleanse for the holidays. The Happy Gut Cleanse is safe to consume daily, and you will not encounter inconvenient trips to the bathroom.
Step 5: Boost Your Holiday Energy
For an energy boost, reach for my favorite afternoon reboot, Performance Energy. Formulated from green tea, this natural mood enhancer, improves mental clarity, focus, and energy. The B vitamins in this formula nourish the brain and nervous system. I love this formula and consume Performance Energy daily instead of coffee or tea. I appreciate the energy and mood life along with the extra patience. Have you tried Performance Energy? This product may be your new secret weapon against holiday stress and exhaustion.
Gut-healthy Holiday Recipes
I am delighted to share my favorite, easy-to-prepare holiday entrees and side dishes—no chef skills necessary. Most dishes can be prepared in 15 minutes or less. These recipes are designed for busy people who want to stay healthy and happy over the holidays—and enjoy some new cuisine. Enjoy the Sweet Potato Pie recipe to the right as my gift to you. You may purchase Julia's Gut-Healthy Holiday Recipes to obtain all seven recipes.
I hope you can practice these 5 steps to supercharge your holiday energy. I would love to hear your questions and comments. Feel free to leave them in the purple chat box in the bottom of corner.
I wish all of you a safe, healthy and happy holiday season.
Julia Loggins,
Author & Digestive Health Consultant,
Santa Barbara, California