​Wow! We’re at that end of the year already! Everywhere you turn there is another bring-a-plate, have-a-drink or let’s-celebrate. It’s impossible to avoid. And let’s face it- we love it! Seeing all our friends and family we’ve barely had time to check in with all year, the chocolates and mince pies, the extra drinks and so many nibblies. There is a reason Santa is so jolly! And jolly large! 

​I’m not giving anyone the green light to eat, drink and be merry with abandon but cut yourself some slack. There is a lot of benefit to sharing food with people. By eating together, we feel more satisfied with our lives, we laugh more and are more engaged with our community. Eating together is extremely important even if that only happens at Christmas. 

​Of course, group eating can also lead to the inevitable over-eating and drinking as well! There are tonnes of articles out there on how to moderate your drinking during the silly season, how to make a healthy Christmas meal or minimise the damage done to our waistline. Read those. Use those tips but I’m going to focus on January. When the pants are tight, your face is puffy and you can’t seem to stop the carb cravings. I’m dreading it already!

​Once the parties are done and we’re into January but still feeling blah, pull up this blog and have a look at some of these tips to get yourself back on track.

​Fasting- this may come as a surprise because I’m not usually one to suggest this! But drastic times call for drastic measures! For just one day drink purified water with a bit of lemon. Just one day. No coffee, tea, food. Just water. It’s a very fast way to get you back on track. Of course, if you have medical conditions this may not be suitable for you so check in with your GP first.
Vegetable days- If the idea of fasting totally for a day makes you a nervous wreck try this more subtle, but effective, approach. For 2 days eat just lightly cooked or raw veg. No extra sauce or stocks just veg. You can make a big veg soup or eat tonnes of salad but keep it uber clean for 2 days.
Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate- the best way to detox is water. Drink lots of water. At least 2L but you may need more than that. It’s about 35ml per kilo of body weight if you want to calculate it out.  Each cup of tea and coffee attracts a tax of 125ml of water extra!
Back to routine- get back to your usually routine A.S.A.P.! If you felt good before Christmas think about what you were doing. Maybe it needs tweaking but it’s a start.
Alcohol free- take a week off the booze. And drink more water. The Christmas hangover can last for weeks…this is like a reset for the body regarding alcohol. Break the habit of a drink at night or after a hard day quickly.
Move it, move it baby- get moving! Movement moves lymph which carries toxins out of the body. Such a cool system and all we have to do is move. Take a walk or go for a swim.

​Take a well-earned break over Christmas and New Year! Enjoy your family and friends. Eat and drink in moderation and when you wake up one January morning ready to welcome the New Year feeling great…take a look at the tips above!
Merry Christmas and seasonal greetings all! And a happy, healthy New Year! 

References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5783752/
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40750-017-0061-4
http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-03-16-social-eating-connects-communities
​

This topic is peppered thorough everything I write and say so I figured the time had come to get some things down in writing! Gut health. It's a term that is incredible popular right now. It's a buzz word and I know why!

What's the first thing you think of with gut health? The first thing? Is it poo? I think of poo! I"m sure i"m not the only one (please don't let me be the only one). Well here's the interesting thing. It's only partly about poo. We can tell heaps by noting our bowel habits, timing, frequency, consistency, difficulty, smell, colour texture...but who honestly looks? I ask ALL my clients and consistently get "Great! Fine! All good! No problem!" but they are complaining of symptoms of a poor immune system, skin conditions, allergies, and a low mood or difficulty sleeping. Mix and match as you wish. Each and every one of those symptoms can be impacted by gut health. 
Here's couple of quick facts:

• 90% of seratonin (feel good hormone) is made in the bowel. It's not well understood but the gut-brain axis is a real thing and the bowel microbes play a role in all of this. One of the theories is the the microbes interact with the host (being us) to produce seratonin. Bottom line (pun intended) is that our gut health can directly effect our mood. Cool huh?
• About 80% of your immune system lives in your gut. I know! Who'd of thought! But it makes perfect sense when you think about it. The bowel comes into contact with tonnes of bacteria every day. There is a heap of gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) down there. This type of tissue helps stop pathogens in their tracks. But it can also get too excited and an excited immune system can result in all kids of allergies. If the mucosal lining becomes inflamed thanks to inappropriate bacteria we get a leaky gut thing going on and the bowel lining can't stop things passing through that really shouldn't pass back into the blood stream. This creates problems right through the body. 

           Not only that but histamine is degraded in the gut. Histamine is part of our immune response
           but if we get too much histamine it produces all sorts of allergic issues.

• We need lots of diverse healthy, good bacteria for digestion! That's simple.

Now we know why we need good gut health the bigger question is how do we keep it healthy? This is easier than you think!

• First we need to feed the good bacteria. Bad bacteria is just misplaced bacteria but can reek havoc. By eating a fibre rich diet we can keep the right bacteria happy.
• Eat onions and garlic as they are excellent prebiotics. These everyday foods feed the good bacteria.
• Stewed apples are another great prebiotic. Leave the skin on for maximum pectin action which is also soothing for the bowel walls limiting the chance for leaky gut.
• Glutamine rich foods like bone broth cooked for 24hours is utterly perfect for soothing the bowel walls and keeping them strong.
• Gelatin also has some bowel soothing and wall building components in it like collagen. 
• Naturally fermented foods are brilliant as they are a combination of pre and probiotics and yummy as well!

Totally easy to do! No excuses to give your gut some TLC to boost your immune system, mood mood and digestion! 
​Enjoy!