The holiday season is here - and Thanksgiving is right around the corner with all the warm and sweet flavors of roasted turkey, sweet potato casserole, green beans, and cornbread galore. With all the homemade family dishes, sugar-filled cocktails, and dessert tables filled with sweet treats that are hard to avoid, it’s easy to overindulge in the moment and find yourself feeling weighed down, bloated, and uncomfortable at the end of the festivities.
But who wants to restrict themselves and go “cold turkey” on all the delicious offerings of the holiday? Life’s too short!
Luckily, there’s another way.
With a few simple strategies in place, you can navigate this year’s Thanksgiving celebrations bloat-free, while still fully enjoying and savoring the fun of the holiday season. Let’s unpack them one by one.
Stay Hydrated
One of the most common reasons for bloating is actually dehydration. With all the sugar, alcohol, and sodium filled dishes during Thanksgiving, your body will naturally retain more water than normal in an attempt to balance out what you’re consuming, leading to bloating, temporary weight gain, and abdominal discomfort. For this reason, drinking enough water during the holidays is more important than ever to help properly flush your body and keep everything running smoothly.
Try drinking a glass of water in the morning, between meals, and at the end of the night to easily up your water intake. Additionally, if you are enjoying alcoholic beverages, aim to match every drink you have with a glass of water. This way, you help move the alcohol through your body and reduce the chance of a hangover in the morning!
Eat Mindfully
During the holidays, it can become easy to shovel excess food in your mouth and eat mindlessly, especially when you are distracted and talking with your loved ones. This is often what leads to overeating, which can overwhelm your digestive system, leading to bloating and an awful stomach ache post-feast. To avoid this, try eating mindfully and use every bite as a way to practice gratitude when you are indulging in a holiday meal or treat.
Chew each bite thoroughly, taste and enjoy all the flavors, and put your utensil down between bites. By slowing down, not only are you allowing yourself to enjoy your food more, but taking breaks between your bites also allows your body the proper time to register the food you’re consuming. As a result, you'll be able to better process and digest each bite, reducing the chance of bloating, and will also prevent overeating, as you’ll be able to better pay attention to your body’s fullness cues.
Lean Into Fiber
Think of fiber as your digestive system's best friend. It helps promote regular bowel movements, preventing the risk of constipation, and feeds your healthy gut bacteria to support your gut microbiome. Especially with the increase of sugar, sodium, and rich flavored foods that come with the holiday season, it can be easy for your digestion to get congested, leading to a build up of toxins in your body and a higher chance of bloating, stomach pain, and water retention as a result.
To prevent this, emphasize incorporating fiber-rich foods into your meals the few days before and after Thanksgiving, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes. This will help balance out your digestion and keep everything running smoothly, despite the extra helpings of pumpkin pie and gravy! Additionally, fiber helps you feel more full, which can be a useful tool to help reduce the likeness of you overindulging in the less healthy leftovers and sweet treats stocked up in your kitchen from the holiday.
Get Moving
Even when you’re being mindful and indulging in your Thanksgiving meal with balance in mind, your body can still sometimes overdue it or end up feeling sluggish afterwards. The best way to quickly alleviate that stuffed feeling and reduce any unwanted bloating, is to go for a short 10-20 minute digestion walk outside. It doesn’t have to be long, even telling yourself to just take a quick 5 minutes to go around the block is better than nothing, and most often once you get yourself off the couch, you’ll realize how good it feels to move and end up walking for longer.
Physical exercise is a great way to not only kickstart your digestion, but also boost your metabolism and help your body speed up its detoxification process. You’ll finish your walk feeling more energized, more clear headed, less full, and far less bloated than when you started. Plus, it can be a fun way to get the whole family outside for some fresh air and movement after your delicious turkey meal.
Probiotics and Digestive Enzymes
A strong, healthy, and balanced gut is essential for helping prevent bloating and digestive discomfort. While gut health is important all year long, it’s even more crucial to focus on during the holidays, as all the sugar consumption can disrupt the environment of your gut microbiome, leading to imbalances and an increase in unhealthy gut bacteria. To combat this, try including more probiotic rich foods into your diet during the holidays, such as yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, and kefir, as well as taking a daily probiotic supplement to help maintain your gut’s health.
For optimal digestive support, add a digestive enzyme supplement to your holiday survival kit as well. Combining these with probiotics creates a powerful defense duo that works hand in hand to support your gut health and your body’s natural digestive process.
Looking for an all in one supplement to take? Try our Gut Glo capsules: a 4-in-1 doctor-formulated supplement combining 14 vegan probiotics, 13 vegan digestive enzymes, magnesium, and 10 organic herbs into a single capsule, delivering a comprehensive all-in-one solution that checks off all the boxes you need for optimal support this holiday season.
By bringing all of these strategies together, you’ll be well prepared to combat the seasonal bloating this year and fully enjoy your Thanksgiving day with confidence, knowing you have the tools in your pocket to fully indulge in all the family favorite dishes - and still feel your best at the end of the night.
We love seeing you GLOW! Share how you incorporate Gut Glo into your Thanksgiving day with us on Instagram @gloinnerwellness.
