Christmas the festive season, New Year and Wellness

This is such a memorable time of the year. I grew up in Australia so Christmas was always hot. It consisted of swimmers, shorts, t shirts, sunburn and nights with the sound of insects chirping. In my very early days, I do remember a heavy traditional roast lunch with Christmas pudding. Thank goodness, we moved away from that type of cooking as it became much lighter with salads and cool deserts.

One year I had a friend who asked me to help cook what she referred to as a full traditional lunch, from her Scottish background. Dressed in swimmers and a very light cotton dress we cooked a hot lunch with roast vegetables plus the pudding and custard. No air conditioning in the house that we rented so at 40C outside it must have been 50C in our kitchen.

When it was cooked I was too hot to eat it! After people had finished their lunch, everyone went to sleep. They woke up grumpy and tired and feeling quite out of sorts.

These were all the experiences that I was collecting long before I had discovered my path of nutrition and helping others with their health. The foundation as I look back had been born. Many, many years later I moved to Chicago where my festive season was now full of snow, dark early evenings, overcoats, warm clothing and a roaring fire in the lounge.

With the fire burning away, it seemed so fitting to have meals that were prepared to keep everyone warm, content, feeling nourished and relaxed. The oven would be on for hours. This time everyone enjoyed the warmth from the kitchen.

From Chicago it was time to live in Dubai for many years and again I was back to a warm festive time. The energies between the two are so different and so is the food, the cooking styles and preparation.

At present I am in the UK and here it is damp and cold at this time of the year. As the weather is similar to Chicago it is time to prepare food with the intention of love, nourishment and contentment.

No matter where we live, stop for a moment, think, feel and be where you are, right now. This festive season in Thailand is going to be warm to hot. It is so easy to create your Christmas lunch or festive plate with what is around you.

If your body is healthy and you are feeling in great shape, one day having something small and outside your healthy regime of food can also be a time of nurturing and nourishing. No need to convince yourself that you can eat all the cake or sugary desserts just because its Christmas. It is the next day when you wake up that will decide what you ate the day before and how you feel.

If you are experiencing health challenges at the moment, stay with local healthy food choices and enjoy your festive season for the coming together of family and friends. Food traditions have been carried around the world. People coming from a cold climate to Thailand bringing their heavy roast meats, baked vegetables, heavy desserts will find their health struggles for a few days afterwards. They will feel tired, sluggish and have a foggy head.

This also has the potential to flip emotions and cause anger and frustration due to the heaviness and intense cooking style of roasting. The energy is forced inwards with roasting and baking, and the body is doing everything it can to cool down naturally because of its surroundings in a warm climate.

Start your new tradition of Christmas being in a warm climate with lighter cooking styles and lighter fare. Curries that are not hot, but flavoursome, salads, seafood, fish dishes or vegetarian options are endless in Thailand. The produce is so wonderful.

A week later and it’s New Year. Everyone is now in party mode. What to wear, who will be there, are you taking the children or are they staying home. There is so much going on and then someone is going to say, I will start a New Years resolution. Stop, right now and take a deep breath. New Year is not the time to be thinking of your new exercise programme or giving up something because you heard it through social media.

Your greatest wellness gift is to let the New Year arrive, enjoy the moment, write a list the next day of what you would like the year to look like and what goals you would like to achieve. Now wait for a few days and come back to your list with a clear mind and find a quiet place to sit and see what is on the list that you “really” want to achieve. The first step to wellness it to make the goal realistic. Have an end in sight of what you want to achieve and then break it down into pieces that you can get excited about achieving.If planned right and executed properly 2018 has the

potential to be one of your best years. Making decisions in a state of anxiety or stress due to the excitement of the New Year as we all know, falls away very quickly. Usually by day 3 or 4 if you are lucky. Some exceptional people may go 10 days.

May your festive season first bring you joy. May you and those around you enjoy the delights of Christmas. With the newness of another extraordinary year, find time to be with yourself to ask within the depths of your being what you want the new year to be for you.

I wish you all no matter what your religion or belief a wonderful festive season and may the new year bring you all your dreams.

Health and happiness

Karla