Happy holidays! I hope you are getting some positive vibes and downtime – you deserve it!

For most of us, the Christmas break is the perfect time to catch up with family and friends, let your hair down, and rewind after a busy year. However, with all the celebrations and big family feasts, it can be difficult to keep your health goals on track!

With this in mind, here are a few tips, tricks, and a recipe or two to keep the party-vibe going without disastrous health consequences!

Start off RIGHT!

Regardless of how your belly feels after last night’s indulges, make yourself a super smoothie to start the day. This sets you up for more balanced blood sugars, minimises sugar binging, and will help you resist temptations.

Add some water into the mix to get your preferred consistency, and you’re ready to go! (If you had a few alcoholic beverages use coconut water to hydrate!)

Party Time!

Everyone enjoys catching up with friends, especially around the holidays! However, often these get-togethers can result in some serious over-indulging on the snack plates!

A good way to circumvent the cycle of chips and cheese is to take a healthy share plate that you can stick to if the rest of the food offerings aren’t diet-conscious.

Here are a few healthy alternatives for more traditional snacks:

Some other healthy platter additions could be:

• Fruit! Grapes, kiwi fruit, strawberries, blueberries, cherries and apricots are all great additions to any platter.
• Opt for olives; try to source olives in olive oil, avoiding canola where possible.

Food to take the heat out of Christmas

Ayurvedic Medicine teaches that foods can be divided into ‘Heating’ and ‘Cooling’ groups based on the effect they have on our body temperature as we digest them. Regardless of the actual temperature the foods are served at, heating foods make your body temp go up; cooling foods make it go down.

Simple! Here are some examples to help get you through the summer months.

Heating food

These food types will raise your body temperature, so they are best to eat only in moderation on hot days.

Fruit:
Mangoes, apples and oranges are best to avoid in excessive quantities because of the effect they have on the body. However, sucking on the mango seed is considered cooling!

Veges:
Onions, garlic, black pepper, ginger, and other spicy foods are also heating to the body. Again, moderation is the key point here, as these also assist digestion.

Cooling foods

These foods will lower your body temperature, so they’re perfect for these steamy summer days!

Fruit:
Bananas, strawberries, watermelon, kiwi fruit, and apricots.

Veges:
Mushrooms, tomatoes, asparagus, lettuce, and eggplant.

Ideal beverages:
Green tea, watermelon juice, fresh cucumber juice, lettuce juice, kefir, and coconut milk.

Strawberry Santas

These little guys are both appropriately dressed and deliciously healthy!

Ingredients

500g strawberries, base sliced evenly (level cuts ensure that the little Santas can stand upright)

1 large banana, sliced into thin discs.

1 can coconut cream: chilled in fridge for 1-3 days beforehand

1 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp maple syrup (optional)

You can use an edible gel pen to add eyes, but they’re cute either way!

Method

1 Open the can of coconut cream, being careful not to turn it over. Gently scoop out the solidified cream, separating the coconut water into a chilled bowl (you can use the water later in your morning smoothie).

2 Add the vanilla and maple syrup to the coconut cream.

3 Using hand beaters or a standing mixer, whip the coconut cream on high speed until soft peaks form.

4 Set aside the cream for a moment (it’s a good idea to place it back into the fridge while you cut the fruit).

5 Slice a disc off the end of each strawberry, about 3⁄4 of the way down from the tip.

6 Using a butter knife (or pallet knife if you have one), ice the bottom disc of the strawberries (not the tip) with the whipped coconut cream. You want this layer to be about the same thickness as the banana slice.

7 Place the banana slice on top of the coconut cream and replace the tip of the strawberry on top of the banana, using a tiny dollop of the whipped coconut cream to make them stick! If you’d like, pipe a small tip of coconut cream onto the top of the strawberry to resemble the pompom on Santa’s hat.

8 Enjoy!

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