Welcome to sugar season!... also known as the holidays. From Halloween through New Year’s Eve, the sugar around us is relentless. And that sugar isn’t just ruining your diet, it’s ruining your health. It is possible to make it through the holidays in a healthful, happy way! It just involves understanding your brain and your body and being willing to try a different approach.

How much sugar do you eat between Halloween and New Years?

Think about how much sugar you consume during the last two months of the year. You’ve got piles of candy on Halloween, the pie that comes at the end of the biggest meal of the year on Thanksgiving, and non-stop cookies, candy, and eggnog on Christmas. And then we end it all on New Year’s Eve where everyone is drinking every sugary, alcoholic cocktail they’re given.

The holidays are the hardest time of the year to stay healthy. And a lot of people give up. They don’t even try to make healthy choices and just resolve to change their diets on January 1st.

But it doesn’t have to be that way! You just have to change your approach.

It’s not that you lack self-control. It’s that you don’t understand your brain chemistry. When you understand your brain chemistry, you can understand your body and how it works. And then you can give your body what it really needs and avoid the madness.

Your body is programmed to survive. It’s programmed to find energy, and in the caveman days, sweet things had a lot of energy. So our brains instinctively look for sweet things. In fact, right before you eat something sweet, your brain knows something good is coming, gets excited, and releases dopamine.

Sugar is killing us!

How do you fight that instinct? The best thing to do is avoid all the processed stuff. Have sugar in its natural form. Fruit is probably the most sugary thing we have, but it doesn’t affect your body the way processed sugar does because of its fiber content. Fiber changes the way your body breaks down and absorbs sugar. Your body knows what to do with fruit, it doesn’t know what to do with high fructose corn syrup.

The next thing to understand is why excess sugar is so bad for you. When you eat too much of anything, you store the excess as fat. Excess fructose, especially, gets stored as belly fat. Belly fat releases something called cytokines which are your body’s messengers that tell your immune system what to do. When there are too many cytokines, it causes your inflammation to go off the charts. Heart disease and diabetes come along with that. 

It’s integral to your health and wellbeing that you learn how to eliminate excessive processed sugar from your diet! But how do you do it?

3 steps to start eliminating sugar

“Just stop eating sugar.” I know that’s easier said than done. Especially this time of year. But there are a few things you can start doing right now to make it a little easier.

First, start consciously reprogramming the way you talk to yourself about sugar. When you see a plate of cookies, what’s your first thought? Is it “I can’t eat that” or “I shouldn’t eat that”? That subconsciously puts you in a passive mindframe. A subtle correction to “I don’t eat that” or “I’m choosing not to eat that” is so small. But it puts you in the driver’s seat. 

Next. choose different ways to celebrate. Create new, healthier traditions for the holidays that still involve you and your loved ones enjoying each others’ company. Halloween is fun because you’re dressed up and spending time with your kids. You can do that in a parking lot trunk-or-treat or you can do that while walking around your entire neighborhood. Thanksgiving is fun because you’re enjoying a meal with your family. You can do that with fat and carbs and sugar or you can do that with fruit and vegetables. Don’t be afraid to try something different! You don’t have to how love through sugar.

Finally, maintain your routine. Don’t let your gym time, meal-prep time, and meditation go to the wayside just because it’s the holiday season. You come first today, tomorrow, and on Christmas Day. So keep your routine. Keep going to the gym, keep buying healthy food, and keep cooking your meals.

I have so many blogs on how to stay healthy during the holidays. I also have healthier snack options and a cookbook for delicious, healthful holiday meals. Check them out let me know what you’re worried about this holiday season. I can help you navigate the holidays in a healthy, happy way!