Let's Serve Health this Christmas!

Christmas 2022 is here, and we can’t be more pumped up. Our wonderfully diverse India is nothing less than an amalgamation of several beautiful people in one entity. We celebrate all the festivals with immense joy and excitement. With the cool breeze of winters, here we have one of our favorite festivals. As we are also approaching the end of the year, we wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Christmas is a global festival and phenomenon and has touched India the same, percolating through to all cultures and communities. The simple joys and rituals of visiting churches, fun fairs, social meets/parties, attending house parties, exchanging gifts, decorating a Christmas tree, lighting up the house, wall hangings, mistletoe, and of course Santa Claus, bringing in the celebratory aspects of Christmas. One should however not miss the main essence of Christmas when we are immersed in the celebratory mood.

What is the main essence of Christmas?

– With some Mistletoe that smells of nourishment, some Xmas lights that bring our focus to a good lifestyle, and Santa Claus who brings gifts of health to us. Let’s look at Christmas 2022 – the Nutritionwithvibha.com way

The universal human values shared by Christ- Belief in the power of god, to spread positivity and kindness.

The message of Love: Being kind and understanding the meaning of compassion, spreading love, and taking care of each other surely makes the world a better place. While we all should be kind to one another, we sometimes forget to be kind to ourselves. Our body is the place where our soul resides, and providing purity and solitude should be the ideal way of life. Self-care should never be neglected, instead caring for our Body Temple should be the utmost priority.

Trust: Christmas teaches us to trust in God and live with a good malice free heart. Believing so, we should have trust that our body and soul brighten when treated with the right approach. We face difficulties everyday, and there are challenges, but still, we trust that we have the power to heal. What we need to do is to mindfully improve our nourishment and lifestyle choices.

Hope: With immense trust and hope in our hearts, this Christmas, let us take a step towards walking the path of fitness and health. With the notion of - One day at a time. We can improve our habits and modify our lifestyle every single day. Hoping to get better and healthier this Christmas, we can try a routine to nourish our bodies.

Diligence: Christ lived his life being an earnest, diligent man, who constantly took care of the people around him. To adopt this attribute of his, we should know that consistency is the key to achieving long-term goals. Thus, building a routine would help in following good habits. Routine would help in avoiding procrastination and saves time. Let’s plan and schedule and stick to the plan. A little bit everyday, showing up to honour our commitments to the Body Temple is the way to build good health in the long run.

Faith: Our positive approach and mindful choices can help you change. Let’s keep faith in the strength of our efforts. Our prayers will be heard, we will receive fair results. The Divine energy is looking after us. With belief in God and doing our best as much as we can, we can make our minds powerful. This can then be translated into building health for the body with a good nutrition and lifestyle plan.

Let this Christmas be filled with strong beliefs and kindness and let these values touch our bodies too. We at Nutritionwithvibha.com are here to help make a change and achieve your health goals.

How do you stay healthy during Christmas?

Making healthy food choices while preparing Christmas meals :

Choose protein-rich recipes, and try adding different food groups.
Consider adding nuts, seeds, fruits, pulses, egg protein, and herbs, and go less on oil. Try new healthy sauce preparations for your dishes.
You can make your mashed potatoes protein rich by adding chickpeas/lentils with some herbs.
In India, we make a lot of fried foods, try baking/grilling/ steaming/braising this time.
Cooking methods can help you achieve low-fat recipes. Further, do add your proteins and fiber to every meal.

Try making your snacks at home :

You can make several Christmas delicacies with your family together.
Cooking can be a great bonding activity for the family. This way, you can track the oil quality and quantity in the recipe.
You can make freshly prepared healthy recipes with your loved ones.
There are plenty of expired or stale products in the market that goes unnoticed and are accidentally sold in the market. Making snacks at home can prevent such incidents and save you from health issues.

Gift health this festive season :

It is surely a challenging choice to make when choosing the best gift for your loved ones.
The best gift one can receive is prosperity, good health, and lots of love!
We can always pray for one’s prosperity, and pamper them with love. So, to give them good health, let’s buy a healthy present this season.
Buying a healthy snack/ gym equipment/a yoga mat/a health diary/a water sipper can motivate them to work on their health.

Quality eating over quantity eating? -Remember that even when you have loads of food in front, maintaining portion sizes is necessary. Eating large portions might give you gut issues and ruin your festive time with your family. For some, binge eating can lead to guilt and later they skip or overeat meals post-holidays. To avoid such consequences, maintain balance in your meals. Serve yourself only how much you can finish. Eat at your regular meal timings and do not overfeed.

What is a good meal to have for Christmas dinner?

Christmas falls in the winter season and brings along a lot of soothing recipes to try. From soups, and baked potatoes, to yummy desserts are here for us to relish. Different baked recipes, soups, and protein-rich sides can be smart options. It is great to relish all various recipes during the festive season. From sweet dishes to savory snacks, one can eat everything in adequate portion sizes.

(Reminder- if you have a certain health condition and are told to avoid any food item then please do so.)

Every region has its own recipe that is prepared during Christmas. In different states of India, we can see various popular dishes being made. Bibingka, biryani, Indian sweets, chicken/ lamb curry/tandoor, and western culture-derived recipes like cookies, pie, and lasagna are also made these days.

A perfect Christmas meal would be something both nutritious and fulfilling for the entire family. Introducing new recipes and dishes for all can bring joy to the festival.

Benefits of cooking together and eating together- The family can spend time together and prepare some unique dishes. It helps the family to come closer and feel assured. In different countries and regions, Christmas has its own menu. Different regions have their own culturally followed list of recipes.

Is it acceptable to indulge over Christmas?

It would be very difficult to resist the delicacies prepared during Christmas. These recipes can be consumed in smaller portions rather than over-eating. Mindful eating and celebration is always better option. Take care of your sobriety and health while you are celebrating. Indulgence is acceptable only to a level where you are stable and physically comfortable. There should be a big stop the moment you feel the discomfort of any sort.

How do you avoid sugar at Christmas?

Sweet dishes like plum cake, kheer, payasam, and cookies are eaten during Christmas. We cannot take the sweet dishes out of Christmas, but we can surely make the dishes low on sugar. The recipes can be made by adding some sugar substitutes like date sugar, fruit pulp, berries, etc.

Lastly,

What values do we learn from Christmas?

Christmas teaches us to be kind, share love and positivity and take care of the people around us. Christmas is about believing in the power of love and kindness. The festival should be celebrated with the intention to share and spread happiness. ‘Happiness shared is compassion’

Sharing and caring about our health is one of the ways to show kindness. Being kind to our body and the system that is working for us every single minute. Helping our body supports us with utmost efficacy, thus nourishing ourselves with self-care and being kind to our mental and emotional health.

This Christmas let celebration bring in compassion & love in our hearts,

Let us forgive all those who knowingly or unknowingly hurt us.

For kindness is what makes Christmas lights brighter,

For love is the meaning of Christmas truly holds.

Merry Christmas!

This Christmas let us revere our Body Temple, with will and faith

May healing be the way of life, and may we choose wellness and health

For kindness to oneself is the way of God

For Self-care of the gift of the body is the way of God

Merry Christmas!

Write to us with your comments and suggestions and three self-care routines you initiated this Christmas. Let us know if you are choosing to be a Healthy Living Ambassador this Christmas on.

Stay Nourished

Stay Blessed

Merry Christmas! 😊😍