The holiday season is here, bringing all the joy, festive celebrations, and decadent tables of delicious food along with it. But with all the rich food, sugary desserts, glasses of wine, gift shopping and jam-backed schedules, this season can also bring chaos and destruction to your gut health. The last thing you want is to wake up the first week of January feeling sluggish, bloated, low energy and uncomfortable because your gut health suffered and declined through the entire month of December. To combat this from happening, here are our top tips to help keep your gut thriving - while still enjoying the most wonderful time of the year.
Balance Out Sugar
Often during the holiday season, you may find yourself consuming more sugar in your diet than usual - from all the yummy baked goods, chocolates, dessert table spreads, and festive cocktails - which can unfortunately negatively impact your gut health. Sugar feeds the bad bacteria in your gut and creates an environment for them to thrive, disrupting the balance of your gut microbiome. This can lead to increased inflammation, bloating, leaky gut syndrome, and other gastrointestinal issues. To counteract this imbalance from occurring, try to prioritize eating healthy foods when you can to minimize the damage to your gut from all the holiday fun. Focus on adding protein, fiber, and fermented foods to your meals, and avoid excess sugar, alcohol, and heavily processed carbs on the days that you can. By being mindful about balancing out the holiday fun with nutrient-dense days, you’ll be able to enjoy the seasonal festivities guilt free, and without sacrificing your gut health in the process.
Release Holiday Stress
With all the holiday activities, parties, family get-togethers, and gift shopping, stress is almost an inevitable occurrence during this time of year, yet it is incredibly detrimental to your gut health. Stress disrupts the brain-gut connection, pushing your body into a fight or flight state that diverts energy away from your digestive system. This response within your body leads to reduced nutrient absorption, increased inflammation, and excess stomach acid, all which impact your gut microbiome and disrupt your overall digestion. Finding ways to let go of your stress, or at least minimize it, is key to surviving this season in one, sane piece. Try meditating for five minutes, heading into a yoga class, going on a walk outside, journaling, or even closing your eyes and taking three deep breaths when in a time pinch to help release those feelings of stress and overwhelm. It’s amazing what putting aside two to five minutes for yourself can do for your mental state - don’t just take our word for it, try it for yourself!
Get Your Sleep
Especially around the holidays, prioritizing your sleep is even more essential to keep you functioning during all the festive happenings and not burning out halfway through December. This requires smart planning, as getting in those extra hours of sleep can be tricky when your schedule is jam packed. But, with mindful adjustments throughout your day, it can be possible. We all have busy lives, so it’s about not creating more time out of thin air, but instead finding ways to be efficient, habit stack where you can, and properly manage your time in order to save minutes throughout the day that can be banked for your sleep later that night. To properly plan your day, take five minutes before bed every night to run through your agenda for the next day and sketch out a mental game plan. Little tweaks, like getting your morning walk in while you take a phone call, wrapping Christmas gifts while watching a movie with your family, or doubling your dinner recipes to save for easy meals later in the week, all can save you more time than you think. Taking those five minutes nightly to time-manage smartly, can be the difference between getting six hours of sleep - and eight.
Sip On Bone Broth
One of the best natural remedies for your gut health, and your overall health in fact, is bone broth. Rich in amino acids, collagen, and gelatin, it helps to maintain the balance of healthy bacteria in your gut microbiome, reducing inflammation within the gut itself. The collagen and gelatin in particular work to repair and strengthen the gut lining, reducing the likeness of leaky gut and other GI concerns. On top of this, bone broth can be very soothing to the digestive system, easing discomfort and improving your body’s ability to absorb nutrients from your food, which helps increase immunity and the health of your whole body. To receive all these benefits, try adding a cup of bone broth into your daily routine during the holiday season. Think of this cup as your gut health insurance, keeping everything running smoothly and reducing the chance of any unwanted digestive issues developing post-holiday feasting. For best results, continue drinking bone broth through the remaining winter months to help fight off the “sick season.”
Pregame With Probiotics
Think of probiotics as your gut microbiome’s daily maintenance. They work to maintain and rebuild your gut environment after disruption and stress, repopulating it with healthy bacteria and restoring the balance to your gut’s ecosystem. Especially with increased sugar and alcohol consumption during the holiday festivities, ensuring you’re actively preventing your gut health from rapidly declining is even more important, as rebuilding your gut is much more challenging than simply maintaining it. If you don’t already take a probiotic, run, don't walk to get yourself a bottle and begin implementing them daily into your routine. Try habit stacking them with a component of your routine you never miss, to ensure taking them becomes a habit that sticks - such as after you brush your teeth, with your breakfast in the morning, or right before bed when you turn off the light. If you need a probiotic recommendation, try our Gut Glo supplement, as it contains special probiotics that cannot be killed by antibiotics, giving your gut extra protection and ensuring that the only thing you have to worry about this holiday season - is tackling your Christmas shopping list!
Let Your Digestion Rest
From the family gatherings, holiday office parties, and friend get-togethers, it’s common to find yourself snacking more, eating late-night meals, and consuming more food than you usually would throughout the rest of the year - and that’s ok! Part of the holidays is enjoying yourself and focusing on the memories being made, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to help your body out with processing all the extra food you're enjoying. To allow your digestion system proper time to rest and recover, try to be mindful with how much time you give yourself between your meals. Aim to give at least two hours between your meals/ snacks to let your stomach properly digest your food, before consuming more. This doesn’t mean holding yourself to a strict eating window or restricting yourself from enjoying food when it’s around, but rather simply encourages you to mindfully choose when and what you eat, and then intentionally choose to breathe for a few hours before your next indulgence.
Digestive Enzyme Nightcap
After a big meal, it’s common to feel sluggish, weighed down, and a little over-stuffed. To combat this feeling and boost your body’s natural ability to digest your food from your meal, end your night with taking a digestive enzyme supplement. Digestive enzymes are not only beneficial for smoothing out your digestion post-holiday party, but are also important for supporting your gut health. The enzymes work to break down your food into absorbable nutrients, alleviating common digestive issues such as bloating, inflammation, and gas in the process. As a result, you reduce the overall stress large meals generally place on your digestive system and allow your gut to properly absorb all your food, giving your body more energy to expend and allowing all your organs to function at their optimal level. Try carrying your digestive enzymes in your bag when you’re on the go so you can quickly pop a capsule at your holiday party, or leave your bottle on your nightstand as your nightcap before sleep. For best results, try using our Gut Glo supplement to receive all your gut health and digestion needs - in one capsule daily.
With a few mindful changes, you can enjoy all the holiday flavor, parties, and fun, without causing chaos to your gut health in the process.
To learn more and shop our Gut Glo supplement, click here.
