5 Tips To Help You Eat With Ease This Holiday

The holidays are here once again. And whatever your situation this year, whether you’re with family or not, whether you have a little or a lot, chances are you’ll be spending time around food.

Here are 5 tips to help you eat and feel at ease this holiday:

Be Present

Whomever you’re with, including self, be present. Center and ground yourself. Any forms of anxiety or stress will lead to an increase of adrenaline in the body, which will divert much needed glucose from the digestive system to the arms and legs for fight and flight response. You want your digestive system functioning optimally.

Say a Prayer

Cultivate a habit of gratefulness through prayer. Whether you’re religious or not, prayer is a powerful way to acknowledge your blessings and express your hopes and dreams. Say a prayer before your meal. Acknowledge the blessing of having family, friends, sustenance, life. Say a prayer for those who are not as fortunate and are unable to enjoy a meal of any kind with their family and friends, and last but not least, say a prayer for yourself, that you will continue to be blessed and be a blessing to all those you come in contact with.

Eat slowly

Enjoy your sustenance. Respect your body’s hunger and satisfaction. Relish  every single morsel, and be attentive to the taste and textures of your meal.  Also, take your time, and chew. Chewing slowly can also help you eat less. It reduces your portion sizes, which can ultimately help you lose weight or put the breaks on weight gain. The last thing you want is to feel full, gassy or bloated before you even had four bites of your food. Chewing is the first stage of the digestive process, which prepares the food for further and seamless digestion in the stomach and small intestines. You want to feel satiated not stuffed.

Put your eating utensils down

It’s always a good practice to put your utensils down when you’re not eating. This helps you resist the urge to constantly put food into your mouth when there is not need to. With the utensils down, you’ll be able to focus on chewing your food, while savoring it’s delight. Pick up the utensils again after you’ve swallowed.

Take a walk

There’s an old Chinese saying, “one hundred steps taken after dinner, can cause you to live to 99 years old.” Taking a slow, mild walk after eating will help to increase the digestion process. It doesn’t have to be miles long. A 5 to 10 minute walk will do the deed beautifully.

Wishing you all a joyous and safe holiday!! Take Great Care of You!