3 Tips To Avoid Overeating This Holiday Season

I started off the New Year in a less-than-ideal way - lying horizontal for most of January 1st and then moving between the couch and the bed for the rest of the week. Here are a few things I did to help me recover. Know your illness. We are all unique and we each follow a different pattern when we fall sick. Once you know what your pattern is, and you can start to notice the signals your body is sending you - it's easy to treat yourself from there. Primarily it's about listening to your body. For me I know I'm about to get sick when I experience a few of these: a 'sick' taste in the back of my throat, digestion slowing down (not much appetite) and general lethargy. It then progresses into congestion in the head and I'll get an extremely runny nose, low energy and no appetite. This is my progression - you could manifest with other signs like chesty cough, sore throat, fever etc - the point is, understand your body and recognise the signs of when things are going off balance. Figure out what is the pattern of illness when YOU get sick, and implement herbal remedies to suit that. Lighten your digestive load. Illness begins because our digestion gets impaired - our ability to metabolise food into nutrients and waste becomes compromised and our whole digestive process slows down. So make things easier for your digestion with light meals. If you are experiencing a fever, the first line of treatment should be to fast (according to your capacity). Once your fever breaks and you start sweating then you can slowly introduce light meals. Here are a few examples: brothy vegetable soups, khichdi, roasted/steamed veggies, yellow or green moong dal, raab (a sweet millet based drink). Make herbal teas. I generally make one for the whole day and use the following ingredients: 1 cardamom pod, 3 cloves, small piece of cinnamon, 5 black peppercorns, 1 inch piece fresh ginger, pinch turmeric powder and honey to taste. Crush the cardamom, cloves, black pepper, cinnamon and fresh ginger in a mortar and pestle. Add to 1.5-2 cups of boiling water - reduce to a simmer and keep on the heat for 3 minutes. Add 1 pinch turmeric powder and allow to simmer for a further 2 minutes. Take off the heat, strain into a mug. Once the tea is at a drinkable temperature, add a teaspoon of raw, local honey and sip! All the ingredients in the tea are warming which help to liquefy and melt the mucus. Honey has a special scraping effect which helps to pull everything out of the body. Sip this tea once a day when you feel a little under-the-weather or have a lot of mucus and congestion in your body. Herbal support. Herbs should always be taken under a prescriptive measure - while it's easy to get many Ayurvedic herbs and formulations over-the-counter, they should always be taken after consultation with an Ayurvedic doctor or practitioner. This list is something I have taken since childhood (so my body is used to it) or after consulting with an Ayurvedic doctor: Echinacea tablets - these are great at supporting the immune system when you have a cold or flu doTerra OnGuard essential oil blend as an extra immune support - I add a few drops to a cup of hot water and sip on this Sudarshan + ajwain decoction - Sudarshan is a bitter Ayurvedic formulation that is great when your body is showing signs of a fever. It's something that I have taken since I was a child so my body is used to it. Foods to avoid. Cold dairy, avocados and bananas. One of Ayurveda's basic principles is that like increases like. One of Ayurveda's other basic principles is of 20 qualities, and these are used to describe everything around us - and they're simple adjectives that all of us are used to: cold, hot, rough, smooth, dry, moist, light, heavy etc. And how can we use these qualities to make sense of everything around and inside us? By using our senses. Let's take mucus for example - if I had to describe it, I would say it's cold, sticky, slimy and heavy. Now if there's already an overabundance of these qualities in my body - if I eat things with the same qualities then my mucus production will be on overdrive. So use your senses to figure out what foods could be considered mucogenic - or creators of more mucus - foods that are heavy, cold, sticky and slimy in nature. And bananas, avocados, and heavy dairy like cheese, yoghurt and cream; are some of the biggest culprits. So if you have a runny nose, a lot of phlegm or mucus then leave these foods out of your diet to speed up your recovery process. Lifestyle changes. Lots of rest - let the illness take its course (if symptoms persist and don't get better - then please see a doctor). Getting sick is generally a sign that your body needs to rest and slow down. I also do steam inhalation with eucalyptus oil to help with the congestion in my head - first thing in the morning and last thing before I go to bed. Exercise/Movement . This recommendation should be based on each individual. For me, I generally have low energy or get breathless when I fall sick - so I avoid exercise during this time. When I start to feel a little better - I'll go out for short and gentle walks. Your body is generally using most of its energy to fight off infections, improve your digestion or simply work on restoring balance in your body - this then means that little energy is available for excessive exercise. As a general rule, I'd recommend avoiding anything excessive while you're unwell - if you do want to move your body a bit, then a gentle walk should suffice.

As we enter into the peak of Winter, it's easy to feel overcome by the heavy and dense energy of this season. Of wanting to lay in, laze around and just generally be lethargic. Of course, slowing down and doing less is natural and also beneficial to do at this time of year, but sometimes we can slow down too much - and being introspective can quickly lead to complacency. To make the most of this season and utilise its natural rhythms to your advantage, here are some simple tips to stay warm (in both your body and mind) in Winter. Honour your increased hunger - it's completely normal and natural this season! Our bodies work so intelligently - cold weather constricts the skin pores and superficial connective tissues and this prevents heat loss. Heat that would normally escape is then pushed internally in our bodies, to our stomachs so that our digestive fire becomes stronger in Winter . This warrants us eating foods that are a little heavier during Winter - and we can see this all around us. Comfort foods like mac and cheese, hearty pies, cakes and hot chocolates are popular during this time, and we allow our selves to indulge that little bit more. Our body's digestive fire naturally accumulates in our core over the winter - so it's strong and capable of digesting heavier foods which would normally be difficult for us to metabolise. But make sure you choose foods which are naturally heavy rather than artificially laden with energy. Rather than choose a cheesy pasta, choose a tray of roasted root vegetables garnished with spices and nuts; rather than go for a rich chocolate cake, choose some sweet dates filled with natural nut butters; and rather than choosing rich hot chocolate, go for a gently spiced chai. Favour seasonal winter produce and spice it up If you think of what's in season at the moment - sweet potatoes, beets, parsnips - it's mostly root vegetables. And they've been busy all year growing and storing energy in their roots - protected from the cold and rough winds of Winter. So take your energy from them - a most natural and unprocessed form and you can guarantee you'll be filling your body with the right things. Utilise warming spices when cooking these vegetables to bring in extra warmth into your bodies: add extra nutmeg to your bechamel sauce, more cracked black pepper in your mac n cheese, cloves to your curries, and cinnamon and ground ginger to your sweets. These warming spices will help break down the heaviness of these traditionally richer foods and ensure they don't sit all stodgy in your stomach for hours after you've eaten. Staying warm in your mind In Autumn, leaves falling teaches us to let things go, to create space. Like creating space in the body, it also creates space in the mind. So this winter, make sure you fill your mind with positive thoughts, intentions and perspectives . So we're not facing winter with dread and gloom, but an opportunity to fill ourselves with knowledge, radiance and light. It's easy to be caught up in work and just stay indoors. The outside environment isn't exactly the most inviting during Winter. So set small reminders for yourself every hour - you could break up your work with a ten-minute meditation practice, or practice some warming breathing techniques like Kapalabhati, or do a ten-minute stretch. The idea is to make these micro breaks so simple and effortless that it doesn't feel like you're doing much, but taking them consistently throughout the day will do wonders to keep your body and mind warm and alert this winter season. Surround yourself with people who uplift you - because in the end we are a product of our association. Winter can often make us less likely to socialise because we may be reluctant to leave the comfort and warmth of our house. You could reach out to a different friend each week or a few times a week - either just sending them a message, giving them a call, meeting up for a quick walk or cooking a meal together - try and schedule it into your diary so that it's less difficult for you to get out of the commitment. It may be a chore getting out of the house in the first place, but experiencing the company of your friends will warm you up in ways you never expected!

Seeds and warming spices like ginger, cinnamon and cloves offer flavour and healing—boosting digestion, circulation and easing winter congestion. Naturally.

There's one simple daily practice that can transform your wellbeing. It's nourishing, it delays old age, it removes fatigue, it's strengthening and it calms the mind. Want to know what it is? Massage! I know your next question is going to be - 'Who has time to go and get a massage everyday?' And you're right - going to get a massage from someone else everyday is highly unlikely, but what is likely, is taking the time to give yourself a massage! Self-massage is a treasured practice within the Ayurvedic guidelines - but there's always a lot of ambiguity around how to do it, when to do it, what oils to use etc etc. And I'm here to clear that up for you - after massaging others for over 10 years, I'm beyond excited to bring you my Self Massage Guide - a self-paced, pre-recorded video resource that goes through exactly how to do a self massage. You'll understand which strokes to use, the importance of various marma points, the best oils, the best time to massage and how to make this practice work for you in your current lifestyle. Make this theoretical practice into a reality and get your self massage guide now! You can purchase the guide here: SELF MASSAGE GUIDE.

We recently went on a week-long holiday to France, and while holidays are fun, there is a tendency to let your health slide and go for a holiday too! The older I get, the more I realise that while you may be on a break from work and household duties, don't be on a break from your health - it will just take more time to get back on track, plus even though you've been on a holiday mentally, your physical body will suffer. So whether you're flying or driving, staying in a 5-star hotel or a budget Air BnB, here are some tips for you to ensure you stay healthy on your holiday: Find balance through your day's meals: we love to indulge in delicious food while we're travelling. Whether it's sampling the regions local cuisine, or enjoying the hotel's breakfast buffet - if you know that breakfast/lunch/dinner is going to be a big meal that's heavy to digest - then keep the other meals of the day light. Just have some local fruits for breakfast, or opt for a simple soup/salad for the other meal. For us, because we were generally out and about for the day, our lunches ended up being the heaviest meal which we generally got from a cafe or restaurant nearby. Then back at our Air BnB, I would make some dal and rice for dinner, or roast up some veggies in the oven. Maintain routine while on holiday: we often love to see holidays as a time to let loose - eat whatever we want, sleep whenever we want, wake up whenever we want. But the truth is that our bodies don't know we're on holiday, and so when we do things that throw off our normal routine (in terms of our eating, sleeping and waking times) our bodies get confused. We thrive on routine, and letting this go in the name of relaxing can do us more harm than good. So stick to similar eating, sleeping and waking times - no matter where you travel to. Foods to help keep you regular 💩 new places and new foods can sometimes throw your digestion off track a little and result in constipation. Remember to use these foods as medicine to help keep everything moving smoothly. Try one remedy at a time: 4-5 prunes as a snack anytime during the day 9-10 raisins soaked in water and kept overnight, to be consumed first thing in the morning. Local and seasonal fruit as a snack during the day. Especially: bananas, prunes, pears, apples, papaya, soaked figs and raisins. 1 teaspoon ghee in half cup of warm water at bedtime. 1 teaspoon triphala in half cup of warm water at bedtime. Lots of water and movement during the day. Do your food research before you travel: we visited a few small French towns that were very limited in their vegetarian options. So we travelled with provisions to cook our own meals a few times while we were away. I packed all the spices I would need for one dish in a small container, some dried lentils and rice, ghee and my trusty pressure cooker. And these few things helped us have healthy, delicious and quick meals while we relaxed in our Air BnB. Another night we bought some local veggies and roasted them with olive oil and a herb blend for a lighter dinner. If food options are limited where you're going, think of these foods that you can quickly make in your accommodation: dal + rice, kichdi, soups, roasted veggies, pasta or stir-fries.

How you can harness the transition period between seasons to give your body the boost it needs. A cleaner, lighter and more energetic you!