Far 2 Fabulous

How to Feel Good in December Without Rules, Guilt or Starting Again in January

• Julie Clark & Catherine Chapman • Episode 101

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Episode 101: How to Feel Good in December Without Rules, Guilt or Starting Again in January 

December can feel like a relay race with no finish line, which is why we slowed things down to build a flexible, human approach to the holidays. We talk candidly about keeping energy high without rigid rules: water on the table, sleep that stays sacred, five quiet minutes that change your digestion, and an 80–20 food strategy that lets you enjoy parties without wrecking your week. It’s the practical, guilt-free guide to feeling good when schedules and snacks start multiplying.

We start with the foundations that do the heavy lifting: hydration habits that actually stick (yes, alternating drinks matters), and sleep boundaries that survive party season by shifting meetups and winding down with low lights and warm drinks. Then we move into nervous system care—micro-rituals like a two-minute breathing pause before meals to switch into rest-and-digest, plus simple evening cues that help you fall asleep faster. On the nutrition side, we explain why protein at breakfast steadies blood sugar and cravings all day, how batch cooking soups and dals makes healthy the easy choice, and why the microbiome loves fibre but hates sugar. Expect clear advice on supplements too: vitamin C and zinc for immunity, magnesium for stress and sleep, probiotics for gut support, digestive enzymes for heavy meals, and milk thistle to help the liver when alcohol shows up.

Movement stays joyful and bite-sized. Think kitchen discos, stair sprints, power minutes in your walk, and short home workouts that keep your rhythm when the gym closes. We also give permission to let go of food perfection and enjoy genuinely special seasonal treats without judgment. Along the way, we share green flags and red flags—like feeling inexplicably cold or becoming decision-paralysed—that signal when it’s time to pull back and reset.

If you want a calmer holiday that still feels festive, this is your playbook: protect the basics, add tiny rituals, and choose habits over hype. If it helps, share it with a friend who needs a gentler December. And if you enjoy the show, subscribe, leave a review, and tell us your non-negotiables for the season—we’d love to hear them.

Got a question or comment? Send us a text message here!

Thank you for listening.

You can continue the conversation with us in the Far 2 Fabulous Facebook group. Come and connect with other women on a journey to empowered health.

For more information about Julie Clark Nutrition, click HERE
For more information about Catherine Chapman, click HERE

We look forward to you joining us on the next episode.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Foxy Fabulous and join us on a mission to break your fabulousness and reading find out this. Get ready for fightingness, inspiration, and cat and humour as we journey together towards empowered well being let's go. Hello, hello, and welcome to the very last episode of the far too fabulous podcast of 2025. Ha ha we were like, that's it, hundred and done. Festive chat with Catherine and Julie. Now turned into radio too.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So as this is our last podcast of the year, because we are giving you Christmas and New Year off out of the kindness of our hearts. Got nothing to do with the fact that we can't find any more time to record any more podcasts now. We thought genuinely the whole point of this podcast is to empower busy women like ourselves and giving you something extra to do over Christmas and New Year when it is busy enough as it is, was completely on its head, wasn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And also because we always release the episodes on Thursday, and Christmas Day and New Year's Day are on Thursdays, aren't they?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So we uh we are taking a little two-week break. So just before we go off, we thought that we would look at festive flexibility. How we can get through this crazy, crazy time with some of our marbles left at the end.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, basically, marbles left. But I think there are things that we both do by default in order to support our health so that we don't, you know, we we obviously want to let go of certain things to enjoy the festive period, but we don't want to lose our foundations of health, do we? So we just don't do that. And there are certain things, and we thought we'd share them with you so that it might help you.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. And this could be translated into any kind of holiday period, like literally going on holiday, all those sorts of things when your routine changes from the norm, but you don't want to let go of the things that that give you energy, that give you ability to enjoy the joy and the pleasure of the most wonderful time of the year. Which which actually really irritates me because I am a Grinch. I I am I am a Grinch. You don't wear the right colour for Grinch. I'm the colour of the woman. Oh I know you should have the green eye. I I just don't think it's the most wonderful time of the year because I want to be able to enjoy every part of the year. I mean, I am a bit of a summer lover as well. Yeah. But don't it's like putting all your eggs in one basket and waiting for like waiting for everything to happen in December. The miracle, the miracle of Christmas. I mean, yeah, we're all that lated that baby Jesus was born in September. I mean, poor baby Jesus, he was born months ago. He's had to wait this long for his birthday. It's really unfair. Anyway, anyway, so yes. So we thought that we would talk about really easy, manageable ways for you to keep that energy, keep that vava voom, yeah, going without beating yourself over the head with the with the same well-being stick that you've probably been doing all the way through the year.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, exactly. And we don't want guilt, we don't want burnout, um, yeah, we don't want to lose that balance and we don't want to really ruin or undo everything that we've done.

SPEAKER_00:

No, absolutely not. And it's what's really interesting is that lots of the things that we're gonna talk about, we talk about on a very regular basis. My plan for the new year within my membership is to spend, I haven't quite nailed it down, but roughly a month on each of these things, like the legs of a chair. And so maybe by next Christmas, all of these things for my members are going to be habit, are going to be normal. And actually, then you get to things like holidays, Christmas, and that you can't let them go. There isn't any pleasure in letting them go, there isn't any pleasure in doing all these naughty quote unquote things. Yeah, because they know that this keeps them fit and healthy, and it almost feels wrong to break.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. So let's talk about some of the things that we will keep doing in December, yeah, and then we talk about some of the things that we may just let go and be a bit more flexible. So the first one for me is hydration. I know I bang on about this and I do. Actually, I was going to apologise there. No, no, don't apologize. It's the most powerful thing because your system is so dependent on it. Yeah, you know, there's a reason why you can go without eating for weeks, but you can't go without water for days, you die. Isn't that a big enough message?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. You are how what percentage? What 60-70% made up of water? It oils nearly every single one, or in fact, probably every single system in your body. It's totally, totally essential.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's so easy. I think it's easy, but people really struggle with this, and again, it is it literally is a habit. You have to put that habit right in front of your face to make sure you do it. Like I and you I reckon you do this as well. If I'm going out anywhere, I've always got a bottle of water with me.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, always right next to me now.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, because if you go, for example, Christmas shopping, you know what it's like, you're rushing around, you've you're gonna skip a meal, right, most of the time. Yeah, because you've got to get all this done. But you can at least drink your water. If you stop off at a lovely coffee shop and have one of them festive coffees with you know 20 nice red teaspoons of sugar in it, like fine, but please drink, yeah, please just drink your water.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, because you'll get to the end of the that shopping trip and you'll be like, oh my god, I am absolutely wrung out. Whereas if you've been sipping water all the way through, it's definitely better. Yeah, it's yeah, markably different. Marathon training really helped me with this habit because I was very aware that I needed to be hydrated and running just made me thirsty anyway. What I've been doing recently is I've been um been using chia water, so making it a bit more frog spawny. Yeah. But it's a it's been making it an event kind of thing. Oh, yeah. Rather than just like, oh I've oh I've just got to drink a glass of water. It's been oh I've I've got to drink that bottle of water with the chia seeds in. And so, and it's and I haven't had to like add squash to it or something like that, but it's it's made it an event. So that's another thing that's that's kind of kind of helped, and I I think, oh, I'm doing something really good for my body.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, because chia seeds are are helping, like they are really high in omega-3, so you're helping yourself there, anti-inflammatory, so important for hormones, and then the way that they absorb the water is so good for your digestive system.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so yeah, so that's been so that's been fun as well. It's just made it a bit uh made it a bit different, really.

SPEAKER_01:

And the other thing that my little tip here is when we're drinking more at Christmas, I'm talking alcohol here, we we our need for water increases. Yes. So we must when we're laying the table and things, make sure that you put water on the table because otherwise it gets forgotten and you end up just drinking, you know, your bottle of wine or whatever you've got on the table. And then for every alcoholic drink you have, just make a deal with yourself that you'll have a glass of water in between. Yes, that's so important.

SPEAKER_00:

That's often what I do on night hours that I'll if I'm having alcohol, I will alternate them. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And then that supports your liver as well. So how you detoxify that, you need water to do that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, your future self the next morning will thank you for that. And actually, not even the next morning, overnight, right? The less less night sweat, slightly better sleep if you haven't had as much alcohol or you've just helped your body to rinse it all out.

SPEAKER_01:

I think you definitely know that you've made an error if you wake up in the morning and your tongue is like sandpaper. You know at that point, oh dear, don't you? Oh yeah, we went too far.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. I hate that feeling in the morning when I just I wake up and I don't have to drink very much now, almost just one or two, and I know that I've drunk already, and you're just like, oh, there's that there's that feeling again. And I do, I don't know, I do wonder why I do it. One is nice. We've all been there, we've all been there. So oh my nemesis. What's number two? It's sleep.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that was that was mainly like my it's my my thing really is hydration and the sleep are really my thing. Your your things are coming up, but sleep, oh my goodness me, I you know that I prioritise my sleep. It is such a big deal for me, and it is a non-negotiable, yeah. And it doesn't matter what time of year it is, what day of the week it is, yeah, I'm still prioritising my sleep. Unless, of course, you know, I'm out at a function or something, yeah, I just will not I I just won't budge from that, yeah. That particular like the health benefits are too are too high for me to let that go.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, no, I I mean I absolutely agree. And when I nail it, I know how much better I feel for that for a decent amount of sleep. And not forgetting the importance, I know I mean I know that we have got parties and stuff going on, and it is it's getting towards the end of the year, it gets really bonkers, doesn't it? Because for some reason we want to meet up with everybody in December, whether we've seen them all year or not, we want to meet up with them in December. Yeah. I do, don't meet. I don't know why this happens. It's insane, it's completely insane. But anyway, I don't know if I'm gonna I won't change that in one podcast. However, do you have to meet up with them in December? Could you meet up with them for a coffee in the second week of January? When there's nothing going on. When there's nothing going on, or could they perhaps they could come round to your house because you've got no money left as well. So they can come round and see you then. Do you need to keep jamming in all of these things? I'm going to have a get together with my members in January at my house. I'm gonna have I'm gonna have a little play with things because most people will be doing dry January or you know, they will have given up the world in January. Yeah, we'll talk about that in our January episode. Let's do that. Uh, if I have it after the uh what is it, the 19th or 21st of January, they will all have given up that anyway, and we can be back to the day. It's a free-for-all. Yeah. Yeah, so see if you can spread these things out and try and keep your going-to-bed times and your getting up times about the same. Like we're gonna go into for those of you that are kids, we're gonna go into school holidays, and it's really tempting to get very excited about the fact that there's no school run or you don't have to get any kids up or anything, and to stay there, but actually, those hours past where you normally get up create this jet lag feeling in your body. So if you can roughly stick to the same bedtime and the same getting up time, it will help with your overall energy.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it impacts the circadian rhythm, so yeah, it is a key one. And it doesn't mean that you have to get up like when we're in that kind of school cycle and we get up, we go, go, go, you know, there's so much to do, get people out the door, etc. You don't have that, so you can get up, but you can still be calm. And what's quite nice is if you do get up at that time, but the rest of the house is decided that they're not getting up, then you can have that nice quiet time, you know, when you're just sat in the kitchen by yourself, yeah, you know, or with the dog, and you're just like it's lovely, it's nice and peaceful.

SPEAKER_00:

It's heavenly. I love it when it feels like the house is myself. I was uh my my mum's staying with me at the moment, and she went on to a physio appointment with my daughter. Mart was fishing, Kitty and Mikey were out of school, and I was dancing in the front door in my pyjamas, uh, singing something. I can't remember what tune I sang it to, but basically that I had I had the whole house to myself, that's what I was singing. Nice, and my neighbour across the road said, Catherine, you're very cheerful this morning. I said, I can't remember the last time I had the house to myself, and it was just lovely.

SPEAKER_01:

It is nice, it is nice having that quiet time. And remember when we had that chat with Pauline and we asked her what was one thing, and she said, five minutes of quiet time. Yeah, it's very difficult to get quiet time when you have got a house full and it's busy, yeah. Yeah, so five or ten or fifteen minutes, you said exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, the other lovely thing about this time of year is that you could practice. Is it hoog or the um the practice of kind of like really hunkering down?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh yes, yes, it is something like that. Yeah, I can't think of the exact word now either.

SPEAKER_00:

But you could do that as part of your sort of routine about getting ready to go to sleep, putting the lights down low, getting all snuggly. Maybe you have like early on in the evening a nice warm drink and just get super, super cozy and actually give your body that natural chance to sort of really calm down from the day. So you've not got the blaring lights, and it would make going off to sleep much, much easier.

SPEAKER_01:

Because it has an impact on the nervous system, so you're switching into parasympathetic, aren't you?

SPEAKER_00:

So Which is not like normally I just kind of like run upstairs and throw myself into bed and go, right, sleep, go. And then you wonder why. I mean, actually, I do. I literally I'm asleep before I hit the pillow, but I know that people that don't fall asleep very easily, it's often because you've just like go, go, go, go, go, and then you lay there in bed and expect your body to just go switch off.

SPEAKER_01:

It's like, no, I've got loads of processing to do now because you've done a lot today. We are busy. Okay, so those kind of like hydration and sleep are definitely the ones that I will tend to just like really focus on. I don't let those drop, even though it's Christmas and everything.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. Now, these few things kind of bracketed them as nervous system rituals, things like meditation, breath work, just these little tiny bits to yourself, I think are really easy to brush aside because you think that they're so simple that they can't have the profound effects that we say that they do, and they really, really do. So, like you just said about Pauline and that five minutes of time, giving yourself a chance to just let go or process some of the stress that you are going through just on a day-to-day basis. And I don't necessarily mean like big, you know, big tea trauma stuff. I mean just like your everyday I've got to get the kids out of the door, I've you know, I've got to walk the dog, I've got to do my work, like where the hell am I gonna fit all this in? Oh my god, have I got to feed you again? Kind of thing. Give yourself those five minutes of time just to just to put the bags down and just breathe, just to walk out in nature, get your eyeballs out. If there is any sunshine, get your eyeballs out into the sunshine. I know it's a bit chilly, but you could get your feet out on the grass. Something just to ground you, like I was talking about your rituals about going to bed. So perhaps it is something like having a hot shot. I like making cacao not very late at night. I don't have it like just before I go to bed, but I'll make it perhaps just after dinner, and I will put a date in it, I will put a little bit of chili in it, I'll put some I love it, I'll put some cinnamon in it, and it's it's a ritual because it takes a little while to to make it, and and to be able to just sort of sit there and really enjoy the moment is really important.

SPEAKER_01:

I I have a ritual with a hot drink on a daily basis. So around about quarter to nine, nine o'clock, I will tend to make myself a nighttime tea. My favourite one is pucker, the blue one, not the red one, because I do two. And that is that's pretty much something I do every every evening. Yeah. Before I go to bed, I gotta have my tea. And then most of the time I'm just the one that's because everybody else is upstairs doing whatever, I'm the one that sat downstairs, normally with the dog right laying on me, which is nice. Yeah, and then I have my bedtime tea, and then I'll go to bed.

SPEAKER_00:

Nice. It's and it's a real punctuation, isn't it? It's like the day is ending.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Breathe.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, I'm ready to go to sleep. Yeah, it's really nice. It's also, I heard this is a good idea for if you are someone that picks at food in the evening, or there's that maybe that few hours, yeah, in between your dinner and going to bed, and you start going, oh, what's in the cupboards? Yeah, yeah. I can hear you, Doritos. Um, is to is to have that have that tea. And often things like the herbal teas are even better for this, like a chamomile or a peppermint or something like that, as your punctuation between this is where I'm going to stop putting food in my mouth, or I'm going to stop putting anything other than water in my mouth right now, and to help that kind of natural fasting, if you like, overnight. And it's it's like you're you're saying to yourself, This is it, this is the end of me eating today, and you're gonna have that drink, and it's just another way of helping you not go and uh and pick out the cupboards, as long as you're not someone who associates a hot drink with biscuits.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, you see, this is the good thing about the herbal tea, because I I just I don't have no, there's no connection.

SPEAKER_00:

Dunk rich tea in a herbal tea. Not really, no. But no, I agree. That's it is a bit of a downfall. I think this, and maybe we'll touch on this about um about our new things we're gonna we'll do in January. But when people give up alcohol and don't drink alcohol in the evening at home, they'll tend to go and go, Oh, I'll have a cup of tea then. Yeah, and then they'll go and search for the for the biscuits. For biscuits, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I've got a quick win for you with regards to talking about rituals. I put this out in one of my recent newsletters and Talking about taking a bit of a moment, give this a try. I promise you, it will really make a difference. You'll be shocked. So a lot of people will struggle with their digestion, especially at this time of year, because we tend to eat more things that are sugary or higher in fat, etc. If you're the person that cooks the dinner, you know that moment where you've served everything up and then you yell to everyone, dinner's ready. Yeah. Right. Set yourself a timer from you dishing up two minutes. It's not going to make a difference to the temperature. It's all good. Right? Two minutes and do breathe, breathe in for four, hold for four, out for six. Do that for two minutes. Then call everyone down, have your dinner as normal. Do that for a few days and see what difference it makes. Huge.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that's really interesting. That's really interesting.

SPEAKER_01:

So that's going to switch you from your sympathetic nervous system because the chances are you've rushed around, you're the person that has to get the dinner on the table, you're probably running late.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00:

No one else is coming down to dinner.

SPEAKER_01:

No one else is helping, yeah. And you're in that rush and you haven't got your digestive system ready for the food. Then you sit down and then you eat it as quickly as possible, don't you? And then whatever happens after that. But if you do two minutes, and two minutes is not that long. So dish up, put your timer on for two minutes, do your breathing. What has happened is you've put yourself into rest and digest. Now you can digest that food better. When you digest the food better, everything inside is acting in a different way. So you don't have the same response to sugar, you don't have the same response to the way that that food is processed through your body. Therefore, you can absorb the nutrients better.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It helps your digestive system. It's so huge.

SPEAKER_00:

Try it. So we had a conversation last month, I think it was about not what you eat but how you eat. Yes. And we talked about when people would sit down and say grace. Yeah. And it was that moment of like and that has stuck with me so hard. I just I genuinely can't believe. And so every time I go to eat now, I take those those breaths. Love it. Before I sit down and eat most of the time. I mean, occasionally there's me upstairs to eat my porridge and do my makeup all at the same time. But most of the time now I take those breaths and I just calm myself back down, just sort of tap back into myself. And but I love that because I mean so many people suffer with digestive problems. Yeah. And it's not, yeah, everything's a bit richer at Christmas, isn't it? And everything, there's just so much more stuff. So what a simple win. I love that so much. So much.

SPEAKER_01:

So on the nutrition side, because you know, I am a nutritionist, I can't help myself putting a nutrition thing in. There again, there are a few things that I will always do. So even if I've you know had what I would call a an unhealthy lunch because I've been out or whatever, I'm you know, I'm doing uh Christmas stuff, always, always ensure that I've got a pro protein at breakfast because it's gonna make a huge difference. How you what you do in the morning has a knock-on effect for the rest of the day. So if I'm gone out for lunch and I'm eating chips or whatever, and and having a having the Christmas dessert, and then drinking a bit of alcohol, I've had my protein at breakfast. Again, that's gonna make a difference to how my body works later on, and then my rule is that I have to have my vegetables or colourful things, not Skittles, not MMs, colourful foods, in at least one of those meals.

SPEAKER_00:

So, this is a really interesting point what you've just said about eating your protein and eating your breakfast, because often I think we have been taught over time that if we skip a breakfast because we think we're gonna be eating extra calories later on, that this is of benefit to us. And shocking, Julie's telling us the opposite.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep, here we go again. Yeah, yeah. So, oh, the amount of people that I've spoken to, especially this year, I think on the back of the fasting, how you know how popular that got, just looking at people's lack of nutrition because of fasting, or just putting their systems in stress, and then them asking, like, why am I so tired? What's going on? I mean, I had a conversation with a lady this week, and she she came because she said, I've got perimenopausal symptoms, I'm struggling to, you know, carry on as normal. One of her biggest issues was energy in the afternoon, and she's got a job where energy is really, really important, but she wasn't eating sufficiently from the moment she got up to the time that she was dropping off to sleep, she was mostly existing on coffee and biscuits and chocolate, and it wasn't until we were having an open discussion about it that the penny dropped. Yeah. I suppose you if you've been doing it for that long, you don't even realise, do you? It sounds really obvious, but she's like, Well, I don't have breakfast because I'm fasting, and then I'm busy, so I I miss lunch, but that's still good because I'm still fasting, so I've extended my fast. Yeah, yep, yeah. But then I'm I'm having coffee and chocolate and biscuits to keep me going, and then I feel so tired at three o'clock, and then I'm getting brain fog, and then I'm and then she said, But I eat healthy because our evening meal was very good, yeah, but that's all she was having that was any good.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, no, that's really, really interesting. And it is a false economy, isn't it, to be not having the breakfast, not having the lunch, because then by the time you get to the afternoon, you just want to eat everything. Yeah, you can't make good decisions for yourself, and you want the like your body is gonna make you go probably for those processed foods because that's where quick and easy, get it in there, quick. Bang for your buck's gonna be, yeah, isn't it? Yeah, so it is an absolute false economy. Yeah, make sure that and you just feel fuller for longer. I sound like an advert, don't I? Yeah, but with that protein based at the beginning of the day, yeah, much, much better.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so just make a promise to yourself have breath first with protein, don't skip that, and then at some point in the day at least have something colourful.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

Keep your fibre up.

SPEAKER_00:

My plan to keep in December, because I've been doing this now for almost four weeks, is that 80-20 rule, roughly. Basically, everything that I have control over, i.e., the the meals that I eat at home, yeah, I'm going to keep clean. I'm vegetarian. They've actually I've been virtually vegan. Um, I've taken out quite a lot of dairy, not purposefully actually, but it's been quite it's been quite nice. And so then when I go out in the evening or a party or something, then it doesn't matter. Then it doesn't matter. And what's really interesting is that because I've put this much effort into into looking after myself and I've probably had a really good breakfast, I don't feel like I actually want to stuff my face full of absolutely everything.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And also because I've been eating so well, but I haven't been overeating, I don't want to feel really, really full. And I actually feeling isn't it? Yeah. And it stops. Like if you're in if you're out for the evening and you have this massive meal, all you want to do is go to sleep after that, don't you? You don't want to get up and move the tables and dance. No, whereas if you've been been a bit more reasonable with with what you're eating and drinking, it's you enjoy yourself much, much more. You feel much better. So that is my plan all the way over Christmas. Any meals that I am I am in charge of are just really good, wholesome, nice meals. Yeah, and and easy.

SPEAKER_01:

It's pretty simple to do, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, so making it easy for me, every time I make something, I'm turning into a bit of a batch queen at the moment. Every time I make something, I double it. My fridge and my freezer are full of containers.

SPEAKER_01:

Leftover lunch is the best lunch, isn't it? Well, and doesn't it make life easy for lunch? Because a lot of people struggle with lunch. So if you've just made an extra portion and that's what you have the next day, it's just so easy.

SPEAKER_00:

It's no brainer. No, exactly. Or just I've just made like massive batches of soup or mashes, massive batches of dal that are just yeah, they're so and they're so they're filling, and you I don't know, it's just it's perfect. You just and you feel a little bit smug as well. Yeah, it's nice to feel smug when you when you've batch cooked and stuff, absolutely, definitely. And obviously, I'm going to tell you to keep moving, people. I know that your routines are going to be out of whack and sort of nothing is where it's where it used to be. But just every day, if you can create some way of moving, something, yeah. Kitchen disco, three songs, dancing round you, dancing round your kitchen is just perfect. If you're cold, I don't know, in the middle of the day when you start getting cold. I don't know if health and safety dab a word about this, but I run up and down the stairs.

SPEAKER_01:

I was gonna say about the stairs because I was reading some research that Stacy Sims had done about when you go all out for third, I think it was 30 seconds, and then you have like three minutes break, and then you do another 30 seconds. You only need to do it three times to get the benefits. And one of them was on the bottom step, just stepping up and down, up and down, up and down as fast as you can for 30 seconds, yeah, and then go off and you know, do whatever you've got to do, tidy up the kitchen a bit, put the kettle on, make pat lunches, come back, do it again. Yeah, and then yeah, and you only have to do that three times, and the benefits were huge.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that's amazing. I love it. But you know how you feel when you run up the stairs and you get to the top of the stairs and you're all out of breath and your legs are burning. Yeah, so yeah, it's a good way to warm up, it's a good way to get your movement in. Get out into nature, use that, go for a walk, go for a run. If you're going for a walk, get some little power bits in it. Don't just dawdle along, meander along, yeah, like you're walking along Harbour Street looking at all the pretty windows. Get some actual like, get warm, get your heart pumping. Maybe don't go out with all of the layers on if you're gonna try and get yourself moving. Go out as a bit of an exercise. Find some joy in it. There is also a million and one, million gazillion billion, I think that's number, exercises on whatever your social media platform is, whether it's a YouTube, whether it's a TikTok, whether it's a Facebook, whether it's an Instagram, there are so many home workout things. So you don't have to go off and spend hours in the gym. I mean, you might like to. Everybody might be staying at your house and you're going off to the gym. I think it's a blinding idea. Yeah, that might be a really good excuse. But if you haven't got time, you don't have to spend hours. Find 20 minutes in your day, and I promise you that the effort that you're gonna put in, it's gonna be more effort to find that 20 minutes and start than it is to actually do the workout, but the benefits will be just huge, so yeah, hold on to it.

SPEAKER_01:

I think this is a really key one because a lot of classes will stop. Like, I can't do gymnastics over this period because the gym is shut. Imagine that. What the gym is actually shut, yeah. So I can't go to the gym for a couple of weeks, and when you do gymnastics and you don't go for a couple of weeks, boy do you know. Yeah, and you can't replicate what you do at the gym at home, to be fair. No, you can't, but what I will my aim always to do is that the times that I would have gone to the gym, I still try and do something in that time. Yeah, if it happens to fall on Christmas morning, then of course that's not gonna work, but I will, you know, inevitably attempt to keep to my schedule. Well, you're not coming to do part run with me on Christmas morning, then.

SPEAKER_00:

I never come to part run. I know this. I really thought I was gonna get to do part run this year, and then Anya said that she was working at I think 10 or 11 o'clock, so that nine to ten period is going to be like prime present opening time that I don't think I'd be forgiven for. No. I near I think I'm nearly there. I'll get every year. I'll be I'll do it, we do it on uh New Year's Day as well. So, and actually, Adam has promised me that I could do a warm-up for the adults. Oh, how fun is that! Because I always do it for the kids and I get them to jump around and pretend they're rockets and stars and things. So I've always wanted to make the adults do the same.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and it's fun to do those things. I love you know, that's one of the reasons why I love gymnastics, is that you just feel like a child. Yeah, you do, and I think it's important to feel like a child. What's happening with your classes?

SPEAKER_00:

So, well, I am actually sit down, everybody. I am actually going to take some time off. Good, you need to. My goodness. Yeah. However, vitality rooms, ladies, do not think that you are getting away with anything. I asked them what would be really helpful for them, like what's missing from the membership. And this is here's it is an advert. This is the wonderful thing about vitality rooms is that I get to create it from what you need. Yep. And so what they said was, and actually, this fits very nicely in what we've just been talking about, they want short and sweet things. That's what I was thinking the same. Yeah, they want like bite-sized 15-20 minutes activities that they can that they can do. So I am in the process of recording those at the moment, and they will be very pleased to know I'm gonna email them one a day. Love it. Yeah, so I don't expect them to do one a day. It would be lovely if they did. I don't expect them to do it. However, I'm gonna be just there, just reminding them every day that this is something simple that you can do for yourself. In your pajamas, you can do it in your pajamas, get it done first, boom. Exactly. Pilates in pajamas, that is, we definitely advocate I think it's the best workout gear pajamas. Oh, I think so. Yeah, yeah, definitely, especially when it's just you, you and a Matt and nobody else. But it's so I've this period at the moment. Uh I've got my my mum staying with me, I'm sure I've mentioned that already. And the, you know, the children are all over the place. We're super, super busy. I've I really I've felt very, very stretched, and it's even more important to give yourself those moments because I I do feel like I'm giving more of me out than is almost physically possible at the moment. So be able to have those moments, and exercise is one of those moments, is an absolute gift. It's a gift if you can do it, and it's a gift to yourself and your body. It's not a punishment, it's absolutely a celebration of your body. So that's very important. Very important and very nicely said. Thanks very much. Supplementation, Julie, is another really it's a simple, it's a simple thing.

SPEAKER_01:

I think it's simple, but you know, lots of people again struggle with this, but maybe it's confusing. I don't know. I think it's just it's not having the habit of taking them again. Okay. But there are certain things that I will do in the lead up to Christmas that in order to make sure that I support my system. So I take supplements anyway.

SPEAKER_00:

So this is something you do on top of what you'd normally do on the lead up to Christmas.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Okay. So we are very more we are vulnerable to picking up illness at Christmas because we are stressed, there's a lot of stuff going around, yeah. We're not we're we're often lacking in sleep, we've got more sugar going in that you know has an impact on the immune system. Yeah. So I will make sure that I've got some form of immune support in there. So it's mostly for me personally, is additional zinc and vitamin C. Okay. That's what that's what I do. Then I make sure that I'm I'm caning my magnesium. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Because because the stress is higher.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And and magnesium and zinc both get depleted when we're stressed. Yeah. So we've got that side of things. Um, digestive enzymes are always my friend, especially Christmas dinner. Christmas dinner. Do you take them regularly or do you take them when the sort of thing? I take them ad hoc when I know, for example, that if I'm eating out, I know that the the amount of salt in there is going to be more than I use. The amount, the different fats in there, there's going to be way more flavour that my system's probably not used to. I'll use digestive enzymes. If I know that there's a lot coming in, like Christmas dinner. Watch out below. Just to support myself. But again, when we're under stress, what gets switched off? Digestive enzymes don't come in, our digestive function's not working. So if we do the two minutes, yeah, and then we just take an enzyme at the point where we eat, yeah, then it just helps support the system.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that. That's I mean, it's that's so simple, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and a probiotic, that's the other thing that I will tend to do at this time of the year. I just take it with breakfast. Okay. Yeah, just a broad spectrum. Uh, I'm using an Optibat one at the moment, which you can get in most places, most health food shops, and yeah, it's just another way to support my system.

SPEAKER_00:

Another thing that I've really noticed since I've been I don't really just clean eating, just just constantly. Always food first. Clean eating, yeah. Yeah. Is the lack of bloatedness that I have from no sugar. I would I would imagine maybe the lack of dairy as well, but I think probably the main thing is the that there hasn't been any sugar. And it's been it's been really noticeable. Like the the lack of bloating has been really noticeable. It's so nice to be able to go to bed and not feel uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So I'll tell you something interesting about the gut microbiome with sugar. So you know that we've I've spoken about this garden, you've got flowers and weeds, and if we think about the weeds as being the bad bacteria, no, they're not really that bad. We need a you know a variety, but we don't want too many bad bacteria. The food that the bad bacteria like the most is sugar. And then when they digest it, what they produce is methane gas. Yeah. So the more sugar we consume, the more we feed the bad bacteria, and a lot of these. Tend to be on that yeast side of things, so yeasty bacterias, and we know what happens when we have too much yeast. That's not pleasant, is it? No, absolutely not. But if we've got too much bad bacteria because we've been feeding them sugar and they become strong, they digest the sugar, produce methane, we get bloatin, and then we crave more sugar because they are basically signalling to you, I really would like to be fed again. Thank you. I really enjoyed that sugar rush. Yeah. And you get those sugar crackers. Again, again, again.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah. And that has definitely dropped back down. I'm not, I'm not raiding the cupboards at all. Nope. I've got no interest in it at all. It's lovely. Oh my goodness. And when no one wants to add methane to the uh to the world, that's not environmentally friendly at all, is it?

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly. So yeah, we don't want to be, you know, producing unnecessary levels of gas because it does make us uncomfortable and bloated.

SPEAKER_00:

So it really does. It really does.

SPEAKER_01:

So those are the some of the things that we are we will continue with, and we won't let go. But there are some things that we will speak about gas, what we're gonna let go. Yeah, I think like have like giving yourself permission to just relax a bit, I think is really, really important. And food perfection, oh, it's uh like perfection is not a thing, there's nothing and no one that can be perfect. So being so obsessed with food is not healthy. So just let go of that. If you're a calorie counter, if you log stuff and track stuff, it's just give yourself a break.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. And I mean that's the the way that I've been eating at the moment has been really nice because I don't have to count calories or log anything because I know that it's that it's it's all good. That's the good thing about the batching as well. So if that yeah, so if that helps to know that the like the the breakfast or the or the lunch is minimal and decent, and then you go out for dinner and you have a massive dinner, away you go.

SPEAKER_01:

Is there any food that you only eat in December and you you know you and you love it, but you you know it's not the best thing for you and you don't have it for the rest of the year?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh mince pies. I do not like mince pies. I like I like the pastry. I mean, if to be honest, if I could just eat the pastry, I'd be more than happy because I'm not a fan of currants actually. But in a mince pie, I will I will tolerate the minus five. But I prefer the little tiny ones. I don't like I don't like the big ones.

SPEAKER_01:

But then if you have the little tiny ones, you could literally eat 20 of them, couldn't you? I could, yeah, yeah. Just pop them in, pop them in.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you know what I love? Is all the veggies. I love all the veggies.

SPEAKER_01:

But you eat them, but you eat them the rest of the year as well, don't you?

SPEAKER_00:

I do. I don't eat Brussels sprouts as much the rest of the year. Uh, but I do eat it with the this is when the I don't often buy, I think this is probably one of the one of the things that came from that episode when we were talking about like what food is. And when I look at things like veggie bacon, and I look at that and I think I don't I don't know where you originated from. You originated from a lab. I don't think you originated from from anything that was from the ground or anywhere. However, when I'm having Brussels sprouts, it has to be mixed up and stir fried with some shredded veggie bacon. Yeah, I do like Brussels sprouts with bacon actually. That's the only way I can eat Brussels sprouts. I can't eat them whole. They still look like snotty bear. Really aren't. Um but yeah, no, all the all the vegetables. Not I don't think that there's much more that I that I add in at at Christmas, to be honest. I've made my nut loaf ready for Christmas Day.

SPEAKER_01:

I like Marzi pan fruits. Oh the only time I will eat them is at Christmas.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, you've got me. One thing those little German biscuits with the icing around the outside of them.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I haven't had any of those yet. And I don't I try not to, there's that dance between I need to get them early because they're gonna run out in oldie, or don't buy them early because I'm gonna eat the lot. Oh yeah. Yeah. Marzi pan fruit though.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I like marzipan fruits. I like marzi pan. Oh generally. So, you know, I will be I I remember being a child and the Christmas cake that my mum made with the marzi pan and the icing. I just used to eat the marzi pan and icing. Luckily for me, my dad doesn't like the marzi pan and icing. What's it? And I didn't like the fruit cake, so I would have the marzi pan and icing off of his Christmas cake, and I love marsi pan. Yeah, absolutely love it.

SPEAKER_00:

It's so funny. I could I think I could tolerate it on a on a cake. Up until a few years ago, I would have said I don't like Christmas cake, but one of my uh friends and clients, Sharon, who makes the most amazing cakes, made me a Christmas cake. And I initially, I don't know if I should admit, I don't know if she listens, so I'm gonna admit this out loud. Initially, I had a bit just out of politeness, and it was so amazing. So nice, yeah, so amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

But yeah, other than those, other than those ginger like biscuity things, I don't think there's anything else that I the other thing I always do, and it's a bit of a tradition in our house, and we only ever do this at Christmas, is I make Rocky Road, and I make it with like obviously it's got marshmallows in it, it's got Brazil nuts. I've got to make it differently this year because my daughter who loves Rocky Road has got braces and can't eat it. So she's asked me, can I have can I do a different spin and make it softer? So I use amaretti biscuits in my Rocky Road. Yes, it is so nice, but it has got a ton of chocolate and golden syrup in it. Yeah, it is a massive sugar fest. Oh and the cherry cherries. No way! Yep, it is delicious, but it is so indulgent, but it is a Christmas thing in our house, and that's the the only time that we would have that is at Christmas, and I will make it myself so I know what's gone into it. But it is, although my chocolate is really good quality, I do mix dark with milk chocolate, and I make sure I get the good quality one and the good biscuits and everything else, but it is that is a ton of sugar, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But at least you have a control over it as well, don't you? Like you you know that there's not a load of preservatives and god knows what in it, that you're using the dark chocolate.

SPEAKER_01:

It's got Brazil nuts in it, so it's healthy, right? Well, there you go.

SPEAKER_00:

That's I I hear that frequently. Oh, I am because I I'm vegetarian, I don't eat marshmallows, so in general, I can't have Rocky Roads because that is that's right on my street.

SPEAKER_01:

You can't have it without marshmallows. No, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I did find some nice ones in the one of the health food shops down in the town, so perhaps uh perhaps I'll look at that. I'd like I like trying all these different things at Christmas. Often it's savoury stuff that I that I cook, but uh it's nice to be able to to try some of the sweet stuff. And I I think you know, like you said, you're if you're you're in control of what's going in it, and it's and I don't suppose you're able to eat very much if it's that that sweet and and chocolatey. You'll probably only have a bit of it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it is really nice though, and everybody like everybody in in the house is is will be waiting. When is mum gonna make the rocky road?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh and they am ready to biscuits nice. I made Oh, what are the Italian biscuits called that are quite hard that you get with like coffee and stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, I know. I can't think of the name either, but I know what you mean. Biscotti.

SPEAKER_00:

Is that then? Like those, yeah. Yeah. I made those for Christmas presents once. They were a bit more ish. Yes, very good. And we made everybody really hungry now, haven't we? So alcohol is a a huge thing at this time of the year. And we've talked about having a drink of water in between. I think so, even people that perhaps don't drink at home will often have alcohol floating around at home as well. Yeah, it's a tough one, isn't it? Because especially for women of our age, of a certain age, it really doesn't agree with us.

SPEAKER_01:

No.

SPEAKER_00:

So it is about finding that balance between having what you want and not feeling like you are like missing out and not making yourself feel so dreadful that you don't get to enjoy everything.

SPEAKER_01:

I think just let go of any judgment judgment around it. You know, if you want to have a drink at Christmas, there's nothing wrong with it. What you don't want to do is drink more than makes you feel good about yourself. So you don't want to be having those conversations where you do that thing in the middle of the night where you're like, I'm such an idiot. Why did I do that? I'm never doing that again, here we are again, all of that. You don't want that, but if you, you know, have a we normally have like a glass of bubbly for breakfast on Christmas Day with the orange juice in, you know, that kind of stuff. Yeah, I mean, I don't I wouldn't normally do that, but it's just something we do and it's nice, yeah. So yeah, I think just let go of any judgment. And if there are people around you that don't want to drink, then let them not drink. If you want to drink, it's okay. Yeah, but yeah, drink your water, so important. And actually, a supplement that I do have in the cupboard ready is the milk thistle. Oh, it really, really helps. Yes, yeah, because it supports the liver, and that alcohol's got to go through the liver, and a lot of the time the reason why we can't deal with it as we get older is that there's so much demand on that liver route, it gets it's like the M25, there's too much traffic on it, yeah, and then things are slow, and the alcohol gets converted into a hideous substance which is way more toxic before it gets detoxified properly, and that's the bit that makes you feel awful. That's the bit that gives you the hangover.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so before you're drinking, is that when we take milk thistle?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So if you know, yeah, if you know, I'm going to my work Christmas party, I'm gonna get absolutely hammered.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Take the milk thistle, take the milk thistle.

SPEAKER_01:

Also, do not drink your January's allowance of alcohol in your and don't eat your you know your chocolate equivalent either. I mean, enjoy the chocolates, but you don't need to put so much in because you know that come 1st of January you're you're taking everything away from yourself. Don't do that.

SPEAKER_00:

No, that's that's so true. Things that are not to do with eating, drinking, or movement is is just to give you these, give yourself these moments of downtime. Maybe you're having a a duvet day in front of every terrible Christmas movie. Nativity 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. And please don't ever make any more of those. An entire day of Harry Potter's. I quite like that actually. Oh yes, yeah, that would be fab. We're doing uh we've just done The Hobbit and we're going through Lord of the Rings. Oh, yeah, nice. Yeah, that's a good one too. Yeah, enjoy those. Make like make them an event, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's okay to feel tired because you know it is that time, it is that time of year when naturally we do need more sleep and rest, and it is darker and colder, and we will want more comfort food. So that's completely natural and normal. This is not the time to restrict yourself, so yeah, just take the guilt away and just chill out.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think that's chill out, people, chill out, people. That is a big thing, isn't it? Especially women a bit very guilty about and maybe guilty about what they have or haven't done, like throughout the whole blooming year. Just let it go. Yeah, be more like Elsa and let it go. Yeah, being like Elsa, love that. So, Julie, what's one healthy habit that genuinely makes December feel better for you?

SPEAKER_01:

So, because I do a lot of these things anyway, yeah. I think giving myself the extra supplement support actually definitely helps with this Christmas time because I will be more relaxed about my food intake. My access to going to the gym is compromised, and although I do other things, it's not quite the same. Yeah. But my system doesn't like the fact that I may disrupt some of these routines, yeah, and it will especially my um yeah, my digestive system is a bit of a weak point for me. I have to support it, and so if I do that, it makes a huge difference. What about you?

SPEAKER_00:

No, that's really good. I am gonna keep moving, yeah. But you do that anyway, yeah, and actually I'm gonna have I feel like I'm gonna have a bit more time.

SPEAKER_01:

What about your dip in the sea that you do at Christmas?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah, 100% in the sea. Yeah, and again, I've got a bit more time. I don't know you don't feel so stressed like work-wise, or I will be and for me, actually, it's a really creative time. I get to you get a bit of space and you start to think about the new year, and I get yeah, I get to create the new like new things that I'm gonna plan for everybody for the new year. So it's a it's a lovely time, yeah. Bit more movement. I get to go and spend some time in the gym for myself. I get to get in the sea probably a lot more. I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, no, that sounds good. What what are you gonna drop? Especially something you have absolutely no shame about. What am I gonna drop?

SPEAKER_00:

I actually found it very hard to drop work. Yeah, it is hard. That I've got probably about 10 days, and of that 10 days, actually one class I've already snuck back in. I can't do it, I can't do it. I love the movement so much, and I want to encourage other people to do it. That said, if I go to if I go and do a class and there's not very many people there, and maybe I've maybe I'm not spending the time with the family instead. I am like that was silly. I should have just you know given everybody the time off and spent the time with the family and you know, snuggled in front of the hobbit.

SPEAKER_01:

They could choose to turn up at the time that you would normally do it and use all of the amazing videos you got in your membership anyway. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

So you shouldn't feel guilty.

SPEAKER_01:

So drop the word.

SPEAKER_00:

Drop that one. What is the first sign your nervous system is done for the year?

SPEAKER_01:

This is a really easy one for me, and I'm so aware of it. If I feel cold when it shouldn't be cold, like if the heating's on or if I'm dressed appropriately and I feel cold, I know that something is off with my self-care. That's a really good sign. Yeah. What about you? Have you got anything that you know?

SPEAKER_00:

I think it's just when I get to the point that I'm like a deer in headlights, and you're I'm almost like stood in the middle of the day. Is it when you can't make a decision about anything? Spinning around, yeah. And it's not even like where's my keys, where's my phone? It's like I just I can't make a make a decision. And you just feel like you are just spread out all across the world. There's a really nice meditation about basically thinking about collecting all of your energy back from literally all over the world. Oh, yeah, that is nice. Bringing it right back into you, like sort of like chucking that net out and dragging it all.

SPEAKER_01:

Because we scatter our energy all the places we go. I spent some of mine's in Japan at the moment. I need to call that back in. Yeah, you need to bring that back in. Well, that's it.

SPEAKER_00:

And we look we watch the news and all that stuff, and we just you know, our energy is just out there, and um, quite frankly, I need it back.

SPEAKER_01:

So uh yeah, that sounds really good. What about festive self-care green flag for you or red flag?

SPEAKER_00:

Festive self-care green flag. I th again I think because you've got a I think you've got a little bit more time. I know it's busy, especially that bit in between Christmas and New Year when everything goes like down. Those are the times where you could get your self-care in and be quite introspective. And I think the danger, maybe we'll touch on this later. The danger of in that time is that you start to look forward into the new year and actually sort of opportunity to to kind of look into the present, present moment, yeah, as well. I mean, yeah, absolutely. And I think maybe the red flag is just booking too much, it's just like trying to fit too much into December. There is absolutely no need to do it. You've got the entire rest of the year, like Christmas is one day, and it's just I know again I sound like a cringe, but it's just insane.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think if my energy is good, it's all going well, and if I feel cold, that's like red flag again for me.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's really interesting about the cold. That's yeah, I mean, I I don't know, I feel cold quite a lot of the time, but I've got very good at um very good at layering up now after after cold water swimming. Oh there are so many takeaways in this today that yeah I I'd be hard pushed. There are so many good takeaways, so many things that you could do, especially with the supplements and the two-minute timer. Do the two-minute timer when you when you've dished up the food, give it a try. It's just absolutely brilliant. So I think that uh I think we've given them enough food for thought for for two weeks at least.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, definitely. And we appreciate that this is quite a long episode. So thank you for listening. Have an amazing Christmas. Yeah, and you can always find us in the far too fabulous Facebook group. Yeah, tell us what your non-negotiables are and what you're doing, and um and even like where you know that it all goes wrong.

SPEAKER_00:

You can send us a picture with your with your the most unhealthy treat if you want to, because we are available for that too. Yeah, well, like I said, rocky road full of sugar. Amazing. I'm right, I'm coming round for that, even if I have to pick out the marshmallows. Okay, so good. We wish you a very Merry Christmas and an extremely happy new year, and we will see you in the new year. We are super excited to be back in the new year. Lots of love. Bye. Thank you so much for joining us today. We love creating this for you. We'll be back next week with another great episode.

SPEAKER_01:

Until then, we'd be beyond grateful if you'd subscribe to the podcast and leave us a glowing review. If you've already done this, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00:

Please do share the podcast with friends and family. You never know which tiny piece of information could be life-changing for someone you care about.

SPEAKER_01:

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SPEAKER_00:

And if you haven't already, come and join us in our free Facebook group where we can ticket conversation and you get to connect with like-minded women. We'd love to welcome you in. Until next time, stay fabulous!