Easy Ways to have a Healthier Festive Season

As the festive season approaches, if you are trying to stick to a healthy eating plan it can seem a little scary with so many tempting treats around.

The holiday season is all about celebration and coming together to relax with family and friends. You deserve to let your hair down and enjoy a few treats and I am on hand to help you make the right choices so you can make sure you enjoy the festivities with a newfound sense of food freedom and zero guilt.

Don’t Eat Less – Eat Smarter!

Let’s make this the year you really enjoy the festive treats without worrying about gaining weight or impacting your health.

Making smarter food choices will have a positive affect on our energy levels and can help stabilise blood sugar levels so that we feel fuller for longer and making us less likely to snack.

Did you know that lots of festive food is actually really good for us! Turkey, tangerines, Brazil nuts and walnuts, Brussels sprouts, red cabbage, parsnips and dates offer a range of nutrients and can benefit our health due to their rich spectrum of vitamins and minerals.

Give Your Gut a Gift – Eat More Fibre

You can still have plenty of food, but choosing higher fibre meals can be very beneficial to our health at this time of year. Fibre can fill us up as well as supporting our gut microbiome to get the best health benefits.

A portion size is around the size of a clenched fist or 80-100g.

Try and eat half a plate of vegetables at each main meal
Choose at least 3 different vegetables with ideally 3 different colours for variety

My TOP TIPS to up the FIBRE on your plate

Give celery, peppers, kohlrabi, carrots and other vegetables a chop and make into easy sticks to keep in the fridge in a tub with a lid. Prepping veggies makes it really easy, as it is normally the hassle of prepping that stops us in our tracks. Why not team them with a great hummus recipe— Get your eBook HERE
Enjoy a smoothie the morning after from 1 apple, half an avocado, the juice from 1/2 lemon and a handful of spinach. Mix together in a blender with 200ml water. Pour over a couple of ice cubes and enjoy!

Beware the Buffet

Who doesn’t love a buffet? All that delicious, already prepared food, sliced to perfection, adorable mini snacks and treats that we just would not have in the fridge at home.

While the first bite is often moreish – an explosion of crunch, salt, umami and tart flavours all in one bite, a quick look at the label reveals these imposters are often ultra processed foods (UPFs). While it is fine to eat some UPFs, research has linked too many of these foods with increased weight gain and increased appetite. These foods are designed to be very addictive – so one bite is never enough.
Consuming crisps, bread, pastries, mince pies, glazed biscuits, cakes, and chocolates results in rapid sugar conversion in the body and when the excess sugar is not immediately used it tends to be stored as body fat.

Sadly these foods can lead to feelings of heaviness and fatigue instead of energy for dancing and partying.

Think Proportion and Eat Like a Nutritionist

This is such an easy but effective tip! When it comes to eating healthily, simply arranging your food on your plate in the right proportions will automatically help you balance your meals with the correct amount of proteins, carbohydrates, fibre, and fats. Start with vegetables!

Vegetables provide loads of fibre, which not only fills us up but also supplies us with plenty of antioxidants to support our immune system. Filling your plate full of colourful crudites (sticks of veg) is a great way to begin and salads are fantastic but avoid heavy pasta salads! Fibre slows down our digestion, delays gastric emptying, increases fat burning, and ensures we absorb carbohydrates and sugars from our food more slowly.

Put some protein on your plate! Like fibre, protein fills us up faster and for longer, and helps keep our blood sugar levels more stable. This can reduce our appetite and craving for sugary treats. Go for chicken, salmon, prawn skewers, cheese canapes or some hummus dips.

Look out for some healthy party food options including cucumber rings with cream cheese and salmon, cocktail sticks with mini-Mozzarella balls and cherry tomatoes, or Parma ham and melon. Want to impress the host? Bring some healthy choices for everyone to share!

Get Healthy Food Swap Savvy

With the darker evenings and colder weather we often eat differently at this time of year with more treats, desserts, festive drinks and canapes creeping into the diet. It is of course fine to have the odd treat, but have a look at these clever swaps for damage limitation:

Swap baked Mozzarella sticks for mini Mozzarella balls and cherry tomato skewers
Swap pigs in blankets for prunes wrapped in Parma ham
Swap creamy dips with tortilla chips for fresh vegetable crudités with home-made hummus
Swap popcorn chicken bites for satay chicken skewers
Swap roasted nuts for crispy chickpeas
Swap smoked salmon blini for cucumber topped with sour cream, salmon and chives
Vegetables are your best friend. Not only do they contain fibre, nutrients and powerful plant compounds that support our health, but fibre helps to slow down the digestion of our food and can keep us fuller for longer. Aim for 5-8 portions of vegetables a day. A portion size is around the size of your clenched fist.

Eat Sugary Treats AFTER and never BEFORE a meal

If your office or home is filled with lovely sweet treats, it is so easy to pick up a few mindlessly as you pass by the table.

The sugar gives you an instant pick-me-up, but be warned, once you start to nibble it can be hard to stop. Research shows that eating sugary foods on an empty stomach can lead to greater blood sugar spikes. A meal creates a food obstacle course in our stomach which slows down the speed that we absorb glucose into the bloodstream, so the sugary treats will have less of an impact. Have you seen the advert line “once you’ve popped you can’t stop!”?

Avoid Skipping Meals

If you know you are going to be indulging later it’s easy to think that skipping a meal might be helpful, but the opposite is true and in some cases leads to us eating MORE than we planned. Eating regular balanced meals can help us to feel nourished and keep our mood on an even keel. Start the day with a good source of protein, healthy fats and fibre with some fruit, vegetables or a small amount of seeded bread. Good choices to start the day include scrambled eggs with avocado and mushrooms, plain yoghurt with milled flax and chia seeds with berries, or a bowl of porridge with grated apple and cinnamon!

When we eat sufficient protein and healthy fats (avocado, nuts and seeds) at our meals we tend to feel better throughout the day. It is better for our metabolism to eat more at our meals and ditch the snacks than to graze continually. Many of my clients who snack regularly often find it harder to manage their weight and are more likely to feel hungry during the day.

Don’t Arrive Hungry at a Party!

You’ve heard the saying, never food shop hungry and the same goes for parties! Arriving at a party with an empty tank is likely to lead to poor food choices so aim for a high protein snack before you leave the house.

Most party food is high in fats, low in protein and missing healthy fibre and vegetables. Eating a mix of all of these before you go out will reduce your appetite and help you feel far calmer and more relaxed around the food.

My top tips are:

2 egg omelette with peppers and onion and a sprinkle of feta cheese
Smoked mackerel mixed with a little cream cheese eaten with vegetable sticks
Hummus with carrots, peppers, celery and a slice of rye pumpernickel
Bowl of tomato soup with extra ’halloumi’ croutons
Wholegrain gluten-free pitta bread crammed with grated vegetables and goats cheese

Know your Drinks and Drink Smarter

A large glass of wine (250ml) has about 220kcals, and a pint of beer around 240kcals – surprisingly, similar to a doughnut! Opt for champagne at 80Kcals per glass or clear spirits (vodka, gin) at around 50kcals.

Be mindful of sugary mixers adding 7g of sugar. Try vodka, soda, and lime for a low-cal option.

For non-alcoholic choices, Ginger Switchel by Mother Root is a favourite at 34kcals per glass.
A ‘Gunner’ mixes ginger ale, soda water, lime, and Angostura’s bitters. Or go sugar and calorie-free with soda water, lime, and pomegranate.

· For calorie-free, choose sparkling water with a twist of lime and pomegranate.

Don’t Forget to Drink – WATER!

We often forget to drink enough water especially when we are out of our normal routine or out and about. Drinking enough water is great for the liver and kidneys and stops us feeling so sluggish. Water helps improve digestion and prevent headaches. Get into the practice of making sure you have a glass of water in between each alcoholic drink.
Aim for around 1.8-2 litres (60fl.oz or 3.5 pints) of water each day.

Walking – An Easy Way to Balance Blood Sugar

Walking after a meal can have a blood sugar lowering effect. After a meal, our blood sugar levels rise as the carbohydrates and sugars from our meal are absorbed into our bloodstream. Walking helps to use up some of this free glucose, which can lower the overall blood sugar spike created from our last meal. This is better for our metabolism as well as our weight, as some of this glucose will be used by the muscles for fuel, rather than stored as body fat. Just 20 minutes can offer benefits.

Clever choices can make all the difference and could mean that you go into January with some healthy New Year’s resolutions that don’t include ‘weight loss’!

Don’t Be Too Hard on Yourself!

One indulgent meal does not make you unhealthy any more than one salad makes you healthy! There are plenty of other meals you will eat in a week. Just make sure your next meal, usually breakfast, is a healthy one and get back on track as soon as you can. It can be tough during the festive season with so many parties or visits to family but what you do 80% of the time is what really matters. A healthy body is resilient to the odd night off.

Beyond the Festive Season

Remember this is a time for enjoyment and if you find you have indulged rather more than you hoped, don’t beat yourself up. The New Year is a chance to RESET and if you are serious about switching to healthier food choices, I invite you to join my Renew Reset Recharge® programme where you actually eat plenty and feel fuller for longer yet manage your weight effectively. Join the hundreds of others who have found their food freedom on Renew Reset Recharge® .

About the Author, Dominique Ludwig, Nutritionist MSc and Nutritional Therapist mBANT

Dominique Ludwig is an accomplished Nutritionist MSc., and Nutritional Therapist who is also BANT, CNHC and AFMCP accredited. Dominique works in numerous health conditions using a personalised nutrition approach.She specialises in her signature group programmes Renew Reset Recharge® programme and The Triple 30 Plan and runs a busy clinic in the heart of the South Downs where she works with her private clients as a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, offering personalised Renew Reset Recharge® appointments.Dominique is also a double award-winning nutritionist. Dominique has over 30 years’ experience as a King’s College, London qualified Nutritionist and almost 20 years as a registered Nutritional Therapist.

Dominique works with many high-profile and A-list clients, known and respected for her discretion, expertise, and trustworthiness. Dominique works out of her own busy practice, Dominique Ludwig Nutrition Limited, in Hampshire as well as Meyer Clinic in Chichester. Dominique has helped over a thousand clients, globally, live healthier lives. She is a regular contributor to The Times, The Sunday Times and Times 2, Sheerluxe, Top Sante and many other magazines and podcasts.

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