Holiday Toolkit

Navigating Nourishment Podcast

As celebratory as the holiday season is, many of us dread it because of the temptations. Beginning with Halloween and all the holidays up to New Years, many of us indulge in foods and treats day after day, feeling defeated and full of shame. In this podcast, we want to interrupt that frame of mind and give you some tools to help you get through this holiday season gracefully and feel nourished. Here's the transcript (edited for clarity) Wendy When we're trying to stay on a path of health and wellness and vibrancy and resilience, the holidays, sometimes trip us up. So we wanted to talk about how to navigate the holidays, be in celebration, be happy and not be too hard on ourselves. And where's the line? It's like tightrope, right? Debbie That's right. This is Debbie. Wendy And this is Wendy. Debbie Alright, welcome to Nourish Noshes. So, strategies about how to deal with these next couple months of celebration. You know, I wrote a blog recently in our newsletter about the holidays, because, yeah, being tripped up and baking pies and people bringing stuff over and extra helpings and things like that happen. And people kind of just throw their arms up in the air and say, I'll deal with this in January. And that frame of mind can come along with not feeling so well. extra weight, you know, being heavy with yourself being almost kind of judgmental to yourself, because you don't have what we, quote, the "willpower" to get through the holidays. Wendy It starts with Halloween, right? With all the candy everywhere. We see it everywhere in all the stores and in odd places. Right? Like, art centers. Debbie Exactly. Yeah. It's hard not to have it on your mind at all times. And especially if you do buy it and put it in your house to give out at Halloween. There it was. But we're past that now. And so maybe people have dealt with that. And have said, Okay, I have a month to to straighten up a little bit. But here comes Thanksgiving. Wendy Thanksgiving, and then right around the corner, all the other celebration of lights and Kwanzaa and Christmas and Debbie December is a big month for celebrations. Wendy Yeah. And then we've got New Years. And then people say, Oh, well, in January, I'll start. We want to interrupt that whole concept. We want to talk about the holidays, how to walk through them with grace and ease and happiness and joy. And this idea that food and celebration, it's at the center of our connection with people. And we're in a really weird time. So maybe this isn't even landing with you. But even if you're by yourself, or just with a couple of people, the whole idea of holidays and sugar, and alcohol. It's like this, like, if it's holiday, then I can indulge too much. Debbie Right? But that's the idea too, is that we're not saying don't have that piece of pie, you know, don't have that eggnog. It's not about depriving yourself of those things, either. But it is about it being one day, you know, each of these holidays are one day, and yes, maybe there's a string of holidays. But that doesn't mean the indulgence has to last day after day after day and extra portions day after day after day. You know, it's just a celebration. Wendy Yeah, I love that-- you just wrote that in our newsletter about you know, the six weeks we have between Thanksgiving and New Years, if you celebrate everything, maybe there are six days in there that are true, literal holidays that we could use as the ringer for, for the celebrations. And so I loved that idea that you shared is that it's it's a single day, or a single event or a single meal and use that single meal as a time to be in the joy and celebration and sharing goodies with each other. But it doesn't have to be every day for six weeks. Debbie Right. And there's also the idea of having that piece of pie and maybe, if you're not cutting it, and it's a little bit too big, say, "could I have half of that half that size?" No,