The time leading up to Thanksgiving has been filled with thoughts of family, friends, food, food, and more delicious food. You've been perfecting that family recipe and coming up with new ones to become part of this yearly tradition. So much to be thankful for and so much more to look forward to.
There is something that we tend to not think about, until after the holiday season, and that's our tummy (gut) health. You're going to be filling it with all kinds of yummy things but you've gotta keep it happy and healthy at the same time.
Healing my gut has been a journey and during this time it can be easy to get off track and allow sickness to creep up. I don't want that for me and I don't want that for you either, sos here's my go-to gut health products to keep your tummy happy.
Save this so you can be prepared for Thanksgiving as well as the rest of the holiday season and beyond.
Morning
- Start your day with EssentialZymes. Enzymes are so helpful in breaking down and digesting food, so they're a great place to start your Thanksgiving Day. Add a few drops of Lemon Vitality to a glass of water, the one you drink to take your EssentialZymes with would be perfect. Lemon is a gentle cleanser, provides liver support, and tastes yummy!
- NingXia Red is going to become your new best friend once you get started using it. 2oz is all you need a day to help support so many aspects of your health. For the holidays it's going to be a game changer because NingXia contains ingredients that can help keep your blood sugar naturally balanced & help provide sustained energy. You could even swap your water out for NingXia and add your Lemon Vitality drops to it to take your EssentialZymes.
Post-Meal
- Rub some Peppermint or Digize on your tummy. Both of these oils are great for aiding in digestion and to help with that stuffiness you may be feeling.
- Take EssentialZymes-4. These are different than the enzymes we started the day with, and they're great to take after a big meal. they can help your body adjust to eating things you might not be used to eating all the time, and help you absorb what's nutritious and get rid of the rest.
Evening
- Make sure to get in a good probiotic. I love Life 9. Probiotics are full of "good guys" that go into your gut, fight off the bad guys, and repopulate the area with health.
- Pop a few DetoxZyme to get in even more enzymes. I wasn't kidding when I said you needed these for good gut health. they'll help your body detox from the excess goodies you may have enjoyed and help you recover.
- Lastly, take a Cortistop. Cortistop helps to balance cortisol levels. Cortisol is known as the "death hormone" that is released when we are under stress. The holiday season can be stressful and taking care of you is going to be important to make sure you are able to show up exactly how you want to the entire season. Having this stress-reducing supplement in your arsenal will help you do just that.
Stressing can cause it's own issues in our guts, having the tools to help manage it is crucial. Grab my free 10 Self-Care Tips to Reduce Holiday Stress to help you create easy ways for you to enjoy the season without the hard emotions and stress that may come along with it.
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What if you took care of yourself the way you take care of everybody else?
What if you loved yourself the way you love everybody else?
It's as easy as breathing to pour into those you care about, to make sure that their needs are taken care of. While at the same time being so easy to push yourself to the back burner, so far that you forget what it even looks like to take care of you - your wants, your needs, your likes and even dislikes.
When you hear someone say, "practice self-care", you don't even know where to start or what that might even look like. I get it!
I've been there and over thought what it even means to me. If you're reading this and this is you here's what I did to answer those tough questions and how I got back to loving myself and taking care of myself in the same way, if not even more than, I was loving and taking care of everyone else.
💜 Find what makes you feel joy, things that you love and can do daily.
Self-care is not a one size fits all, doing what you need is what's right always. This was one of my favorite things I did to get a clear picture of what self-care was for me because it reminded me of all the things that I love, that makes me smile. When you're doing this, sit down with a pencil and paper (or your notes app, whatever works) and write out all the things that you can think of that bring you joy. I mean literally everything and anything that brings you joy. It can be things like having fresh flowers around the house every week, having music playing, a specific color, or a back rub. Take the time to sit in the moment, remember it's what brings you JOY.
💜 Have a plan for how you will bring those things into your daily life.
This is important to helping you make a habit of taking care of you. Start out small. Jumping in and trying to implement multiple new self-care activities/practices could become overwhelming, try adding just one at a time. You are working toward these being daily habits and you know as well as I do that if you pile too much on at one time you'll be more likely to quit. You can start by adding one bouquet to your living room or kitchen and then slowly work up to multiple rooms, asking your partner/spouse for a weekly back rub, or getting in at least one evening walk. Low and slow will make it so much easier for you to make these joyful activities/practices a daily habit you don't want to skip.
💜 Set goals for when you'll do them throughout the week.
Accountability was huge for me. Now that you've got the activities/practices down that you want to start doing more, it's time to set some easy, realistic goals for how often and when you'll do them. Like I said above, low and slow. Maybe you want to start unplugging from social media or your phone more. A good goal might look like taking 20 mins off every evening or before bed or taking 15 mins to just be with yourself after you've gotten the kids out the door to school. Once you've been consistent with these goals for a week or two, turn it up a bit and challenge yourself.
💜 Find support, Find support, Find support.
These changes are going to not only be challenging for you but they will be challenging for your family too. Make sure that you have a support system who can be there for you. Find people who are walking a similar path of getting back to loving and taking care of themselves, bonus points if they are engaging in the same activities/practices as you. If you're doing similar or the same things you can meet up and do them together to switch up.
💜 Don't be afraid to adjust and tweak as you go.
There will be set backs and bumps as you navigate through this so it's important that you know you can change things with the ebb and flow. What you decide to do this week is not set in stone for the next week or even a month from now. Your needs will change, life will change and that's ok. Figure out what it is you need in that moment, that stage of life and switch it up if you need to.
Self-care is about what you do to protect your wellness and happiness so you can operate & function at your highest level. From places of joy not obligation. It won't always be things as pretty as flowers, it may be to prioritize your dental checkups or to say "no" more. As long as it's ultimately boosting your wellness and happiness, it's taking care of you and that's self-care.
I never was big on routines. I always felt like the same thing day in and day out was boring. I was like shake it up do something different.
Turns out, though, that having routines actually brings me joy.....
