4 Ways Holiday Stress Impacts Your Diet

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Let’s face it: the holidays are not all glowing and perfect like the picture found on the front of a Hallmark card. They are packed with last-minute gift giving, scrambling for your child who “forgot” to tell you they need a crimson collared shirt for their holiday concert, and well, just trying to keep up. Whether it’s because you’re too busy to get to the supermarket or craving less healthful foods, holiday stress reaches all aspects of your food choices. The good news is you’re not alone, and there are solutions to these common problems.

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How Not To Be A Victim of Holiday Stress Eating

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It seems like most people either fall into one of two camps when it comes to stress: it either prompts you to eat more than you usually would (science shows that’s about 40% of the population), or it completely takes away your appetite (another 40% fall here; the other 20% don’t change their food intake at all in the face of stress). Add in all the holiday “joy” that’s around right now and it’s not difficult to see that lots of us use food and alcohol to assuage our seasonal stress. And yet, there are ways around it, thank goodness. For the sake of your health and sanity, you owe it to yourself to try and manage your stress in non-food ways.

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Holiday Eggspectations

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With the unveiling of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines earlier this year, came new recommendations designed to encourage better food choices and eating patterns to improve health. For those of us who work closely with the Guiding Stars algorithm, the guidance related to dietary cholesterol was of particular interest… and frankly kind of exciting. In case you missed it, the new dietary guidelines don’t offer a specific guideline on cholesterol, but rather recommend that we seek to limit our intake of it and focus on a healthful, balanced diet. At Guiding Stars, we knew all along that there was nutritional benefit to some foods that contain cholesterol like eggs and shrimp, and having the Dietary Guidelines back us up meant we could incorporate these foods into our rating and therefore our recommendations, recipes and suggested foods. What better time to do this than during the holiday season? Cheers!

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How to Practice Hygge for Meaningful Holidays

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Gulping sandwiches while standing at the sink so that you can rush out to mail those last holiday packages. Ordering pizza (again) because you’re just too exhausted and time-pressed to think about—let alone concoct—a healthy meal from scratch. If either of these scenarios sounds familiar to you, you’re not alone. This time of year is crazy-busy for most people, for various reasons. I wrote about mindful eating last year. This blog post is different because it’s not about nutrition as much as its about enjoying special meals at this special time of year. It’s unfortunate that all of our holiday-related activities seem to take our minds and hearts away from the spirit of the holidays. With all the rushing around, wrapping, mailing, card-writing, party-going, cookie-baking (and oh yes, going to work in between all of that), it’s no wonder that many of us feel on the brink of losing what we are seeking during this season: peace, reflection, family and friends, generosity and joy.

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Not So Sweet

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Whether you’re one of those folks who is still working your way through leftover Halloween candy you bought (or pilfered from your kid’s stash) or have already begun laying in a supply of seasonal candies selected from the massive display of treats at your local retailer, chances are this time of year brings more than the usual amount of sugar into your life. How much sugar is too much? It depends on whom you ask.

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