The question isn’t IF you’ll indulge, because what is Christmas without some festive food and drink? The question is HOW MUCH you’ll indulge. It is really up to you! Here are some tips to help you stay a little healthier than you otherwise might.

Don’t skip breakfast
On the day of any feast meals, don’t skip breakfast. Ideally, get in some protein and vegetables (try these flourless egg muffins). If you are absolutely ravenous, you’ll think it’s appropriate to have several servings which will far outweigh in calorie the healthy breakfast you skipped. Skipping meals is really counter-productive. Focus on healthier non-feast meals instead.

Be thoughtful about indulgences
Choose what your favourite indulgences are and be more careful with the others that you aren’t so fussed about anyway. You don’t get a calorie refund for what you didn’t really love so think through beforehand. For example, If dessert is your weakness, skip the savoury canapés (which may be filled with hidden sugars) and eat a healthier main course. If you don’t really like Christmas pudding, don’t eat it just because it is Christmas. Make a festive plate of these raw cacao brownies instead! The coconut sugar/coconut oil hits the “I need dessert” (sugar and fat) craving  with many added health benefits, one being that coconut is full of medium chain triglycerides, a type of fat that is more easily burned than others. If you over-indulge, don’t worry about it – we are all human! Just make an extra effort to be healthier the next day. One aspect of human behaviour I don’t understand is the “I’ve eaten one cookie, might as well eat the whole packet” mentality. No, no, no! If you scratched your phone, would you think: “oh well, I might as well just jump on it and smash it to pieces now…?” No.

Be extra healthy afterwards
Why not make a huge pot of soup for Christmas evening if you eat your main meal at lunch or otherwise for Boxing Day? I make a big bone broth from my turkey carcass and add lots of adrenal healing vegetables and herbs which help the liver process the toxins from alcohol as well excess sugar so that it can be burned as fuel. Here is my recipe!  The more parsley you can handle, the better. Parsley is extremely nutritionally dense in multiple vitamins and minerals, including inulin, which regulates the exchange of glucose in the blood.

Ingredients

• 350g leftover turkey meat or if you have none, 2 poached chicken breasts
• 1 thumb sized piece of ginger (finely grated)
• 3 cloves of garlic (finely grated)
• 1 teaspoon coconut oil
• 1L turkey/chicken stock (bone broth)
• 1 cup carrots (chopped or grated as you prefer)
• 1 cup celery (chopped as you prefer)
• 1 onion (chopped)
• 1 bunch of parsley (roughly torn)
• Salt and pepper

Method

Put your turkey carcass in a large saucepan with one garlic clove and a little salt and pepper. Add as much water as it needs to cover it. Bring to the boil and then simmer on the lowest heat for as long as possible (2 hours minimum).

Drain and discard the bones/garlic, leaving the stock aside.

Put the now empty saucepan back on the heat with the coconut oil and fry the onions and grated garlic. Add carrots and celery to fry off for a few minutes.

Add stock/bone broth to the pan, leaving the vegetables simmering until they reach your desired softness.

Add torn cooked turkey/chicken and parsley to soup just before serving.

Wishing you all a delicious Christmas!