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Christmas is a very exciting time for nearly all of the community, not only can it be costly financially, but it can also be costly lifestyle wise, as people can gain up to 7 pounds (half a stone). This article will explain how we can enjoy Christmas without gaining excess weight. The first and the most important part of Christmas is planning as it can support any possibility of problems, but also it can save money in the long term. An example of this is purchasing the Christmas Turkey. Make sure when purchasing them that there is at least 70% breast in them, as turkey contains less fat than goose and duck. Don’t forget the vegetables, including Brussels sprouts, carrots, cauliflower, as these not only can be counted towards the five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, but vegetables are high in Non Starch Polysaccharides (also called Fibre), and are a great source of vitamins and minerals. The food has been purchased, presents have been wrapped, and the wait is now over and Christmas has arrived.

Start the day with a healthy breakfast. People tend not to bother with breakfast, as they feel that they can composite this with extra portions during the Christmas dinner. It is very important to have breakfast as it kicks starts the metabolism but also there is a less chance of unhealthy snacking during the rest of the day. Start the day with a bowl of low sugar cereal, or maybe get in the festive mood with a mixture of unsalted nuts including Brazils, walnuts, and almonds, with semi skimmed milk. Why not have a light snack beforehand? i.e. making low fat dips with low fat yoghurt or hummus? This can also reduce the chances of over eating during the Christmas dinner. Christmas dinner is serving so what should we do to try not to over indulge? Here are more tips that may be useful Eat slowly, as this can help the brain signal you that the body is full.

Take a break before the next mouthful .

Why not go for a walk afterwards to burn off the calories after the Christmas dinner?

Play with the children, after the dinner as this can help burn of the excess calories as well.

It is now time for Christmas desert so what can we do to keep up with the healthy eating? Maybe serve a platter of different types of fruit .

Fruit salad with fromage frais or a low fat yoghurt.

Serve the food on smaller plates rather than large plates, as this can reduce the amount of calories. Don’t forget that any food that is leftover can be used another time, as long as:

The food is consumed within two days.

The food is cooled quickly and kept in the fridge.

The food is reheated properly Overall we can have a healthy and tasty Christmas, so eat, drink and be merry Have a good Christmas.

Francesca is a registered associate nutritionist. She can advice on healthy eating, portion control, weight loss, and other healthy lifestyle issues. She has created the programme called livelongrocks, which advises groups and individuals on weight management. The programme has a blog, and a website, which you can follow below:

What are saturated fats?

Fat that we consume through our diet, and the fat stored in our body in the form of body fat, is in a form called triglycerides, which are 3 fatty acids linked to a glycerol molecule. Saturated fatty acids have carbon-carbon double bonds, and are therefore saturated with hydrogen while the unsaturated ones aren’t and contain double bonds. Polyunsaturated fatty acids contain multiple double bonds.

It is much better to cook with saturated fats than any unsaturated ones, because the lack of double bonds makes the molecules very tolerant to heat, reducing the chances of them becoming damaged by oxidation while cooking. Saturated fatty acids are found in such things as coconuts, high-fat dairy, meat and eggs. They can be in several forms, including short-chain, medium-chain and long-chain.

These fats have for a long time been considered unhealthy, but recent research has shown this to be completely false and largely based on conventional wisdom rather than true science. This new research is showing that there do clearly exist healthy saturated fats.

Are saturated fats harmful?

The main studies that have in the past been quoted to prove that saturated fatty acids cause harm, have been largely discredited in recent times. The reason why people still believe they’re unhealthy is because this myth has been kept alive by conventional wisdom. The truth is, that there is plenty of evidence showing how saturated fatty acids have no effect on heart disease, and other studies showing how a diet low in carbohydrates and high in fat can have a really good influence on health, and this includes lipid profiles.

Other types of fatty acids

Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are believed to be healthy, but it is not a good idea to consume too much Omega-6 fatty acids since the ratio of Omega-6/Omega-3 is important. The lower the ratio the better, with about 2:1 to 3:1 being considered optimal. If you don’t eat a lot of processed vegetable oils then the ratio should be good automatically.

It is a good idea to try to eat some fish, omega-3 enriched eggs or grass-fed meat. If you don’t eat any of those foods then taking a fish oil supplement to increase your Omega-3 intake would be a good idea. Trans fats should be avoided at all costs, they are extremely unhealthy.

Hydrogenated fats (trans fats) should be avoided, these are extremely unhealthy. In fact some of the studies who have shown saturated fats to be harmful in the past were really using hydrogenated fats, which are chemically modified to behave like saturated fats.

Who to believe, me or nutritionists and doctors?

If you would ask a nutritionist or a doctor about healthy saturated fats then a lot of them would tell you that they are bad for you. But the fact is, doctors don’t know much about healthy eating (diseases are their expertise) and nutritionists don’t seem to keep up with the latest research studies, they still keep repeating the same old knowledge that they learned in school. The saturated fat phobia has also been kept alive by people repeating it to each other, a form of “common knowledge” that has no scientific basis.

Saturated fats are often claimed to cause a rise in LDL (the bad) cholesterol, but this is not the whole story. There are several forms of LDL, including the large, fluffy kind and the small, dense kind. The small, dense kind is harmful and does in fact increase heart disease risk, but the large, fluffy kind is completely benign. Healthy saturated fats cause an increase in the large, fluffy, benign type.

Healthy saturated fats also cause an increase in HDL (the good) cholesterol, and they massively lower triglycerides. HDL and Triglycerides are considered a much better indicator of heart disease risk than LDL or total cholesterol. A diet low in carbohydrate and high in saturated fat has been shown in scientific research to greatly improve blood lipid profiles and therefore heart disease risk.

Banishing healthy saturated fats doesn’t make any evolutionary sense either, since human beings evolved eating a diet high in meat, which is rich in saturated fats. What is important is to eat real meat, since processed meat has in some studies been shown to be harmful.

So my tip to you is to not limit healthy saturated fats in your diet, rather try to cut down on all junk foods and processed foods, and try to eat food in the form that nature provided us with. This is the key to good health.

Clean-up of your mat can be a ceremony in and of itself that you can set right into your day by day or weekly yoga sessions. Yoga need not be just about working out, it can be about a way of life.

Before you clean your yoga mat, it is imperative to note the kind of fabric or material that it is constructed from. Diverse materials are going to need different washing methods, and so you need to understand what you are dealing with prior to cleaning your mat and potentially ruining it. Knowledge of how to clean a yoga mat means beginning with the correct knowledge about what your mat is constructed of and consequently keeping yourself from having to purchase a new one. In addition, this straightforward knowledge can vastly improve your sense of purpose as you bring the cleaning of your yoga mat into your general yoga practice. Normally, the best way to go is to follow the manufacture’s information on cleaning the mat, but you can frequently just spray the mat lightly with a cleaning solution, and when it is extremely unclean you can sink it in warm, soapy water for a bit of time.

One of the themes of yoga is the notion of simplicity. In simplicity, one can often discover a sense of calm and even illumination. There are a lot of ways to live a yoga-like lifestyle when not at the yoga studio for physical yoga. This can be through things like switching to a healthy, vegetarian pattern of eating, or it can be through learning how to clean a yoga mat. Altering your nutritional regime can have a massive impact on your life in all areas. When we eat right, we frequently feel right. This sentiment of wellness translates into our energy levels as well as frame of mind. The idea of simplicity present in yoga can be vastly made obvious in a vegetarian diet.

There is a proverb that “cleanliness is next to godliness.” In yoga, learning how to clean a your mat is going to really be a main part of your path in yoga. It has to do with integrating ceremony and purging from material things to the physical. In other words, a filthy yoga mat can represent the toxins and other radicals in the body, which yoga helps to conquer. In this way, knowing how to clean a yoga mat can become a ceremony that you carry out after every yoga session. You can think of it as part of the ceremony that you have experienced bodily, and which now you are bringing into your material environment.

Yoga gives a wonderful way to center and ground oneself through cadenced breathing and stretching. It is a structure of habit and routine that enhances both the mind and the body. To go even deeper, into the sacred territory, it also enriches the soul. It is said that the body contains points of energy referred to as chakras, and these points of energy come into configuration when one is practicing yoga. What is motivating and attractive about yoga is that it is layered in practice. In other words, it is not just about breathing and stretching, but also about a lifestyle.