8 Tips To Keep You Flowing in the Holiday Spirit

December 2013

Greetings

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!  

It’s that time of year!  There may not be snow (yet!) but plenty of cold weather to remind us that winter is just right around the corner.  December 21st marks the winter solstice, the longest night/ darkest day of the whole year.  After this we will begin moving in the opposite direction, with days becoming longer, and the sun setting later.  

Winter is a time to slow down and focus on self-care, to spend more time being quiet and resting, and less time running around pushing yourself to the max. As the most yin season, winter offers us a natural space for reflection and rejuvenation if we choose to take the opportunity. 

Due to the contrast between our instinct to want to be more yin (do less, rest and restore ourselves) and our holiday culture that wants us to be more yang (do more, buy more, stress more), this season can really start to lose it’s HO HO HO.  Don’t lose yours!  This issue of Malibu Acupuncture and Herbs Online is about just this.  Read 8 Tips to Keep You Flowing in the Holiday Spirit. Looking for ideas to get you inspired for the new year?  Check out one of my favorites in Create a New Year Vision Board.  There’s lots more goodies in store– enjoy!

Wishing you and your loved ones a holiday season full of joy, peace and good health~

With Love,

Malibu Acupuncture & Herbs

News

Holiday Hours

We will be open during the holidays, with regular hours through Friday December 20th. Our holiday schedule is as follows:

Monday Dec 23rd Regular hours
Tuesday Dec 24th Regular hours
Thursday Dec 26th CLOSED
Friday Dec 27th Regular hours

Monday Dec 30th Regular hours
Tuesday Dec 31st CLOSED
Thursday Jan 2nd CLOSED
Friday Jan 3rd OPEN, regular hours resume

 Special Points

8 Tips to Keep You Flowing in the Holiday Spirit

Holiday parties, endless to-do lists, overeating, over drinking…  the holidays can be a recipe for a less than spunky start to the new year. If the holidays usually throw you out of balance, try these tips to flow through this time gracefully. 

Listen to your body Your body has a wisdom all it’s own. Don’t ignore it: listen. If your body says rest, rest. If your body says it’s not up for holiday parties three nights in a row, maybe compromise and spend a shorter time at each. And so on..

Take some YOU-TIME  This can be one of the hardest tasks to accomplish during the holidays. The kids are home from school, relatives are visiting or you’re traveling… whatever your story is, make it a priority to take some time just for you. It doesn’t need to be a lot. Sometimes just 15 minutes to read your favorite book, journal or meditate is all that you need to keep yourself in balance.   

Alkalize Eat your greens!  Greens are one of the quickest ways to re-alkalize your body.  Eating foods like sugar, alcohol, meat, flour, grains, and coffee cause the body to become acidic. Did you ever notice how once you start eating poorly, you start craving more bad foods? This is one reason why. Eat leafy greens raw or cooked, or try vegetable juices to counteract a night of holiday partying. 


Drink water Drinking your 8 glasses a day can be even harder to remember in winter.  But well worth it!  With a constant flow of water, your body is best able to flush out any toxins it may come into contact with.  Drinking water is also likely to slow any holiday overeating and will keep you well hydrated.

Sweat it out Whether at the gym, your favorite workout class or in an infrared sauna, make sure you are getting a good sweat regularly. The skin is the largest organ in the body. Sweating opens the pores, allows toxins to be released from the body, improves cell health and strengthens the immune system.

Drink or Take Green tea Green tea has been proven to increase antigens, which help ward off  bacteria and viruses.  Green tea also contains powerful antioxidants which strengthen the immune system.  Drink 2-3 cups a day for maximum benefit, or try a daily dose of Nanized Green Tea Extract (my personal favorite).

Sunshine and Vitamin D Most of us do not get enough sunshine during winter.  In addition to vitamin D, sun exposure has many benefits including regulating melatonin production that helps with sleep and enhancing mood and energy through the release of endorphins. Try to get at least 20 minutes of sun exposure a day. Take vitamin D if you are low. Recommended dosage depends on individual levels. Standard dosage is 2,000 IU per day.

Stay one step ahead of the latest cold/flu 

Be proactive. Cold and flu season is just ahead. Use preventative medicine to protect your immune system.  Taking a daily dose of Zinc and Vitamin C (preferably lipospheric C), along with immune strengthening herbs like Reishi and Astragalus will help tremendously to ward off any colds and flu going around. No one wants to be sick for the holidays.

Ask Lauren

Can acupuncture help with overeating? 

Absolutely. All overeating is stress-induced or emotional eating, and it’s important to be aware of this. Next time you find yourself systematically going through a bag of chips or making sure you finish all the food on the dinner table, stop and pay attention. Don’t indulge yourself in being unconsciousness.  Rather ask, why I am doing this? What’s really going on here? You may find some very interesting answers.

By activating the parasympathetic nervous system, HPA axis (Hypothalamus- Pituitary- Adrenal), and release of serotonin and endorphins, acupuncture helps to regulate stress and emotions* that are the cause of overeating. As these are being treated, your acupuncturist can work with you to make dietary changes, and find healthier ways to navigate through difficult emotions and triggers.

If you have any questions call or stop by the office. 

*Read the recent study from Georgetown University on the physiological mechanisms of acupuncture for treating stress.

Recommendations

Create a New Year Vision board

Make next year a time of new beginnings. Before this year comes to a close, reflect on the past year (or years) and think about what you would like to change in your life. Change is generally hard to create (why so many people can’t keep their resolutions), but during major transitions like a new year, it comes much easier. Take advantage.   

A vision board is a board/poster/wallpaper/drawing/collage where you place your goals and aspirations for the new year. These actually work (no joke)!  Your goals and aspirations can be professional, personal, spiritual, family or relationship-related, health-related or anything else you can think of. Maybe there’s a quality you would like to better embody, like peace, balance or fulfillment. Creating a vision board can help focus your intent to determine how you plan to make this shift.  

Have fun with this!  You can make it part of a new year’s gathering with friends, a family activity with kids, or a personal ritual by yourself.

Here’s some guidelines. Please just use this as a guide and be creative, imaginative, and listen to your intuition as the process unfolds.  

Gather your materials. You’ll need:
 Poster board, or any sheet of paper (white or color), a bunch of magazines on subjects that interest you or you feel connected to
, markers, crayons or colored pencils, glue
, scissors, anything else you’d like to put on the board
. Fun or inspiring music to set the mood (optional)

Find Your Vision 
Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths.  At this point you can set an intention for your board, generate a focus, or an overall feeling tone if you like. Words, phrases or pictures may come to mind.  You can write your intention or focus on your board or just keep it strong in your mind as you proceed.

Ready, Set, Go
  Flip through the magazines and tear or cut out pictures or words that inspire you, you feel connected to and/or relate to your intention. Have fun with it.  This should feel spontaneous and free.  Generate a big pile of words and images.

Make it stick 
Lay out all that you have collected (magazine tear outs and/or anything else). Discard any images that no longer feel right.  Arrange the images on your poster board, draw pictures or write your own words. Once everything is placed as you want it, glue away.



Keep your vision alive
 Place your vision board somewhere you will see it every day. You may find yourself focusing on one or two images or words, or just taking a glance at the whole.  The fact that you see it regularly is the most important.

Recipe of the Month

GF Almond Flour Blueberry Muffins
Original recipe courtesy of Gluten- Free Goddess

Truth be told. I have a new love- These GF Almond Flour Blueberry Muffins. You will never know these are gluten free. They are perfectly moist and fluffy, not like those compacted GF breads you see in the frozen section of the supermarket.

You will never know these are made with Xylitol, and though they are plenty sweet, will not spike your blood sugar to keep you craving more carbs.

Maybe the best news is that these muffins freeze really well so you don’t have to worry about eating them all at once. Anytime you can pull one out of the freezer, warm it up, and have an delicious, healthy start to your day.  

For extra protein, slather these muffins in almond butter. 

Ingredients

Whisk together:

11/3 cups almond meal
1 cup sorghum
1/2 cup tapioca starch or potato starch (not potato flour!)
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp xanthum gum
1/2 tsp organic vanilla extract 

Beat in:

11/3 cups Xylitol
2 TBS light olive oil
2 free range eggs, beaten
1/2 cup warm water, or more as needed, up to 3/4 cup
1 tsp fresh lemon juice

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Beat the batter until it is smooth, like a slightly thickened cake batter.

Add in:

1 pint fresh blueberries, washed and patted dry

Stir gently and briefly.

Baking instructions

Plop the muffin batter into twelve lined muffin cups.  Bake in the center of a pre-heated oven for 23-25 minutes, until golden and firm to the touch.  A wooden pick inserted to the center should emerge clean.

Cool muffins for 5 minutes.  Then remove muffins from muffin pan (or else they’ll get soggy).

Enjoy!