It can be the most wonderful, but also the most unhealthy time of the year. Welcome to the holidays where more food, less exercise and an extra helping of stress are served. We'd like you to have a joyous season without the worries, so we're bringing back a fabulous holistic health coach with hacks to help us enjoy all the holidays have to offer AND stay fit while doing it.
If you listened to our last episode, you met Jennifer Oknin, a Certified Integrative Health Practitioner. She joined us for: From Exhausted to Energized. This time she shares her top 5 tips for enjoying all the holiday festivities while staying on track with our fitness goals. Whether we’re trying to avoid weight gain, not get off track with our exercise routine, stop stress, or just have the energy to deal with the extras that the holidays throw on our calendars; Jennifer comes prepared with proven strategies.
Got 10 minutes? Click play for tips you can use during the holidays and beyond.
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Sandy Kovach [00:00:01]:
It may be the most wonderful, but also the most unhealthy time of the year. Welcome to the holidays where more food, less exercise, and an extra extra helping of stress are served. I'm Sandy here with Lanee, bringing back a fabulous holistic health coach with hacks to help us enjoy all the holidays have to offer while we stay fit at the same time. If you listened to our last episode, You met Jennifer Ogden, a certified integrative health practitioner. This time, she's bringing us tips for getting through the holiday season. She's got 5 tips, but I've got a 6th, lay off the Reese's. Avoid those Reese's trees.
Jennifer Oknin [00:00:39]:
That's right. That's never before. No. Thank you so much for having me back. So, Yes. I'm happy to share with you today. I've got 5 tips for getting through the holiday season, and I am going to use Thanksgiving dinner As an example here, though this could equally apply to Halloween, you know, your company holiday party, whatever it is. But let's talk Thanksgiving because people Come to me and they say, Jen, what am I gonna do? We got Thanksgiving coming up, and I'm I'm I'm eating someplace else.
Jennifer Oknin [00:01:06]:
Blah blah blah blah. Okay. Do we have a strategy? So the first thing that you wanna think about and this is if your goal I'm just saying right now. If your goal is to stay on plan, Whatever that means for you. Whatever current plan that you have. So your 1st tip really, if you wanna stay on plan, is to go in with a strategy. You wanna go in and say, okay. Is this going to be a flex meal? Because that's part of my plan.
Jennifer Oknin [00:01:32]:
You could have a flex meal. You can go in and just say, you know what? I'm just gonna go in, and I'm gonna enjoy myself. And then I'll get up the next morning, and I'll start again. But, like, that's fantastic. Do that. Enjoy yourself. It's a holiday. Right? And Yes.
Jennifer Oknin [00:01:44]:
Favorite stuffing. It's totally fine. Or you go on with a strategy and says, you know what? I'm going to do this, but I always overeat on a holiday. I always feel bad about myself. I wanna do something different this year. I'd be like, okay. Good. You've made that decision.
Jennifer Oknin [00:02:00]:
Okay? So the first tip is just make the decision. How do you want the meal to go? How do you want the event to go? Is it gonna be a flex, or are you going to try and stay on plan? K? The second thing I would say is Each darn breakfast. Uh-huh. See one of those people where I'm saving up my calories with a big deal. Right? No. Eat your breakfast. It's so important. 1st, number 1, if you're gonna manage your cortisol levels, your blood sugar management, it's always stressful dealing with relatives no matter how much we love them.
Jennifer Oknin [00:02:32]:
It happens. Right? So eat your breakfast to help you get your protein in that you need, because we it's always about pro consistent protein throughout the day. So have your protein, have your breakfast in the morning, enjoy it. Right? Super important. Don't skip your meals. The 3rd tip, I would say, is, again, related to blood sugar management because you want your The goal for good health is to have what I'd like to call, metabolic flex flexibility. Meaning, your blood sugar is going to rise when you eat, And then you wanted to go back down after. When your blood sugar doesn't have that nice natural rise and fall, that's when you cravings hit us.
Jennifer Oknin [00:03:09]:
Right? Blood sugar is rising, rising, rising. You have more cravings. So eating your breakfast helps you manage blood sugar. Another thing that helps you manage blood sugar is exercise. So in our family, it was always a tradition. We had we'd always have our Thanksgiving meal around 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and everybody would be Cleaning up the kitchen together, and then we'd all get dressed and we'd go outside, and we just have this amazing walk. And we would walk for hour, hour and a half stuff. It's not like a sprint walk.
Jennifer Oknin [00:03:35]:
It's not a runner walk, but we're outside. It's crisp. I grew up in Maine, so it was just a really great time to just get outside and move your body. When you exercise, that really helps with blood sugar stabilization, so you bring that back down again, and you're feeling more normal. Plus you're burning off some of those extra calories that you just had. So there we go. Make your decision, eat your breakfast, And definitely get an exercise. You could do it in the morning too, but definitely after that big meal.
Lanée Blaise [00:04:06]:
Walk it off. Yeah.
Jennifer Oknin [00:04:07]:
Yeah. Walk that off. Wash that off. For sure. Tip number 4, look. Thanksgiving is a special meal. There's things on that table that you have maybe once a year. So if you wanna stay on plan, you can still enjoy your favorites.
Jennifer Oknin [00:04:31]:
Stepping down south or the more traditional stuffing that I grew up with, the sage stuffing up north. So have some, but just have a smaller portion. Right? That would be some conversation for the table, wouldn't it? Yeah. Thanksgiving. You know? When they drop that food scale Yep.
Lanée Blaise [00:04:56]:
In front of everybody. Yes.
Jennifer Oknin [00:04:58]:
But think about it in terms of, visual portion sizes. The palm of your hand or your fist, right, that's a good portion size for safe protein Or for something, like stuffing. If you wanna have vegetables and if they're, how do I say, clean vegetables versus, like, say, sweet potato casserole with all the marshmallows and things. Right? Yeah. Then you want a double fist serving of the clean vegetables. So just keep your portions right and make sure that you do have that beautiful pop of color, which means you are getting some vitamins and minerals from your vegetables. And then the rest, Enjoy it. Just don't have a huge portion of it.
Jennifer Oknin [00:05:33]:
So you wanna be balanced in that. And oftentimes, you know, it's enough to taste it, savor your taste, Put your fork down, have a little bit of conversation, take the bite again. So you're eating those favorites. You're doing them in strategic portions, and you're kind of Stretching that meal out a little bit so you can really, really enjoy it. And, really, my 4th tip would be to watch the alcohol intake. Okay? It's great to have we have wine at dinner. We might start with some champagne. That's all good.
Jennifer Oknin [00:06:07]:
But Alcohol is number 1. It's a source of empty calories. So you're getting calories, but you're not getting in any nutrients. So if you are trying to watch your calories for the day, it's like a whammy that way. Plus, when you're having the alcohol, what happens? Inhibitions get lower. You're more likely to say yes when the food pusher aunt Mary comes along, and she's got this, you know, 2nd 2nd slice of pie that she wants you to have. So it just makes us a little bit more mellow. And, again, you're trying to stay on track.
Jennifer Oknin [00:06:38]:
So you wanna just watch the alcohol. What I like to do is I like to do 1 for 1. Like, if I'm gonna have some alcohol, then I'll have a glass water. Then I can have another alcohol, have another glass of water. A lot of people like to do that. I also tend to tell people to stay away from cocktails that have a lot of sugary mixes in them. Maybe there's just 1 special cocktail that everybody makes that you have, but you limit it to that one. And then go to something more clear like some white wine, Oregon bubbles.
Jennifer Oknin [00:07:07]:
Clear alcohol is really best in terms of calorie intake. Then after that, it's more of the the the darker, the brown liquor. And then there's a lot of great options now, though, with all these cocktails in a can that are very, very low calorie and low sugar, so those can be fun too. And then we kinda go to wine. So if you're talking about from the best, to the least best. Yes. So right? So so alcohol is Alcohol is fun if you know? So if you wanna have that as part of your day, just be smart about it. Try and keep track of how many drinks you are having.
Jennifer Oknin [00:07:41]:
If you are tracking your food somewhere, like in a MyFitnessPal, I'll have my clients just go in and in their notes and write, okay. I had 1 drink. I had this. I had that. That way they know, and it gives them that little bit of extra awareness. And it's just another decision point where they might get to a point and say, you know what? I am gonna have the other one. That's okay. But at least you're making the decision mindfully, and you're owning it.
Jennifer Oknin [00:08:01]:
That's the important part. So this is really and within these five tips is kind of what I tell my clients to think about it was they're going into a big meal like Thanksgiving.
Lanée Blaise [00:08:12]:
This is perfect. We thank you so much for Helping us in our whole lives, in our holiday lives, for our best selves. We just hope that other people will take a look at Everything that you've got to offer with in the show notes, of course, we mentioned your website, how to find you on LinkedIn. That's how we found you. We just are so grateful that you are here for us at Imagine Yourself podcast.
Sandy Kovach [00:08:35]:
And could you run by all your contact information one more time?
Jennifer Oknin [00:08:39]:
Yeah. Sure. So, jennauchmann.com is the shortest website address that I've got. I did also actually through my little YouTube my little, LinkedIn extras. I did broadcast into YouTube for the first time. So I actually have a YouTube channel. So if you go into YouTube, you can type in Jennifer Oknin, and it will show up. And I would say if you really wanted to get a hold of me the fastest, I would go to LinkedIn and send me a DM there, and we can talk about if you're willing to set up a free consultation and have that chat and, dig into what's going on in your life and see if you're a good candidate for fatigue to fabulous.
Jennifer Oknin [00:09:19]:
Again, it's a fantastic program if you're ready. And, and I'll be honest with you. I'll tell you if you're ready or not.
Sandy Kovach [00:09:26]:
Jen, o k n I n. Correct?
Jennifer Oknin [00:09:30]:
Absolutely. That's it. Okay. Perfect. Alright. Well, thank you so much.
Lanée Blaise [00:09:36]:
Thank you also. So, Everyone, based on what we've just heard with those wonderful tips, we just want to say, imagine yourself making it through All the holidays and sailing into the new year fit, fabulous, Fine. And we just wish you all happy holidays.