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How to stay healthy during the holidays · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

0:00
As God intended.
0:02
Let's go.
0:19
Welcome back to looking for healing radio.
0:21
I'm your host, Dr.
0:22
Benjamin Benulis.
0:23
And this week on Looking for Healing Radio, we are talking thriving during the holidays, not just surviving during the holidays, but how to stay healthy during the holidays and not fall for all the stuff that is out there to make you unhealthy.
0:39
So then you wake up on January 1st, you go, Oh, maybe I should get my life together.
0:44
No, now is the time to go on offense and not play defense.
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Okay.
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And we're going to get into that that uh this week, we're going to get into basically how to stay healthy over the holidays.
0:57
And I think it's a really important topic because so many people let things slide and uh then find themselves in a pretty bad space spot come January.
1:07
But it doesn't have to be that way.
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If you take heed to the words I'm about to say, and you follow through on at least some of the advice I'm going to give on this episode.
1:19
So, as always, looking for healing radio is a production of the America Out Loud Talk Radio Network, and it airs every weekday at 11 a.m.
1:26
Eastern, 8 a.m.
1:28
Pacific here with replays going up the next day.
1:31
My episodes go up on Wednesdays, replays come out on Thursdays, but check back every weekday for another great looking for healing natural health practitioner here on looking for healing radio.
1:42
As always, show notes and anything I talk about, links to anything I can talk about can be found at America Outloud.news.
1:49
And of course, you can check out the other great radio shows that we have there.
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Well, let's get into the show.
3:25
So, today we are talking the holidays, right?
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And um, this is a time when a lot of people fall for the trap, right?
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Because what do we have?
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Well, we just had Halloween, and what's that holiday about eating a bunch of candy and junk food?
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And if you're an adult, maybe drinking, then we've got Thanksgiving this month, which is what is that eating a ton of unhealthy food and drinking, and then we've got Christmas.
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What's that what happens during that holiday food wise?
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Well, eating a ton of uh Christmas cookies and unhealthy food and drinking, right?
4:00
And then we've got New Year's Eve, and that's not so much focused on the food, but it is focused on the drinking, right?
4:06
And then people wake up on New Year's Day and they think, oh man, I really let myself go.
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Things need to change.
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I'm making a new year's resolution, I'm gonna get my health on track.
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And how does that go for people?
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Usually pretty bad.
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And why is that?
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That's because they're waiting for the conditions of life to give them the opportunity to make a change.
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And it's always easy to say, okay, once the new year starts, once next week, once next month, once the kids are finished, you know, are on break or out of school, or once you know my job settles down, there's a bunch of conditions you can put on once these these outside conditions of my outer world get filled, then I will make a change, then I will start eating healthier, then I will start exercising.
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And if you've been saying that for a while, you know, maybe months, maybe years, you may have noticed that that perfect day, that perfect time, it never comes, right?
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So why not start when it's actually the hardest?
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Because if you can get dialed in on your health habits now, in like the October, November in Q4.
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Oh man, you're you're gonna be golden year round, right?
5:23
Lean into the adversity.
5:25
So we're gonna talk about that now.
5:28
Okay, and so I'm gonna share with you my top tips for staying healthy, and for some of you, this is getting healthy during the holidays because it can be done.
5:37
And these are things I often forget because I've been doing them for so long that they come natural to me, but a lot of these things are gonna push you necessarily out of your comfort zone, but we're gonna get into it because this is all doable stuff.
5:51
Okay, and when we talk about eating healthy, you guys know that I recommend a whole food plant-based diet, primarily raw fruits, and vegetables, emphasis on the fruit.
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If you haven't caught, I did recent episodes on the three foods that cause autoimmune disease and the three foods that heal autoimmune disease, two separate back-to-back episodes.
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If you want to learn more about eating for optimal health, learn uh listen to those episodes.
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We're gonna get more into the what not to eat today.
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Um, but um as you guys, as you guys hopefully know, my emphasis is on the whole plant foods, especially the stuff that grows off of a tree and out of the ground.
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That's gonna be the healthiest.
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Okay.
6:34
And one other thing is that of course, you know, um, after this barrage of unhealthiness, uh, at the end of Q4, we get into Q1, and everybody uh is doing their new year's resolutions after, you know, basically just eroding their health of the last previous three months.
6:53
Becomes flu season.
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Flu flu, a disease as a season, that's pretty interesting.
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As if you're supposed to get sick, well, if you follow the standard American diet, you're gonna get the standard American results, and that includes um getting the flu every year or getting the COVID, right?
7:09
And then what do you got to do?
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You gotta get juiced up at the CVS, right, by the pharmacist, because that's gonna somehow them shooting you up with uh worm cells and egg cells and mercury and a few dead virus particles is gonna somehow keep you from getting the flu.
7:25
Okay, well, if you don't think that that idea is, you know, holds a lot of water, you may want to heed the next things I'm gonna talk about.
7:33
So, how do we handle the holidays, right?
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Because you can't just hermit up and go to nothing, right?
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Um, maybe a little bit, and we'll talk about that.
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But how do you handle the social situations?
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How do you handle you know turning down the unhealthy food or the alcohol or whatever?
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How you know, maybe maybe you really want to, but you always give in, right?
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Or maybe you don't want to and you have no problem saying no, but it makes the social situations awkward, and how do you handle that, right?
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And how do you not upset the family?
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Well, I'm here first off to tell you that um if upsetting other people's perception of you because you choose not to partake in unhealthy activities, like that that's more important to you than you being well, you're gonna have a really hard time staying well.
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Um, because yeah, if you don't make your own health your first priority, other things are gonna want to be that first priority, right?
8:32
And then how are you gonna do those things that you care about, whether it's you know, parenting your kids or your business or your job or your hobbies or whatever it is you're excited about, how are you gonna do that to its fullest potential if you aren't well, if you aren't have physical energy if you're if your weight isn't where it should be, if you don't have mental energy, if you don't have mental clarity, if you don't feel emotionally well most of the time, how are you gonna do those things that you actually are excited about?
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Probably not too well, if at all.
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So let's get into it.
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Top tips for handling the holiday gatherings.
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Okay, so top tip number one is just being willing to say no.
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Okay.
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Chances are there may be more social events out there than you really have the bandwidth to realistically handle.
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You don't have to go to everything, and you don't have to get there at the beginning and stay to the end every time.
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You can pick and choose.
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You can realize that things are already stressful.
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It's already the holidays, the days are shorter, you're getting less sunlight.
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Chances are if you work for a company that's got financial deadlines to hit the numbers, that it's the end of the year and there's more stress on you, right?
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And so realize that you have a limited amount of bandwidth to go out and party and be social without it beginning to negatively impact your physical and mental health.
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So please.
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Plan accordingly, be willing to say no.
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People will forget that you weren't there.
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They're probably drunk anyway.
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And so just know that you don't, you don't have to go to everything, right?
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And what events are going to be the ones that have the people that you really want to see that you really want to hang out with?
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What are the events that are going to have the healthy food versus the unhealthy food?
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You can be strategic in where you go.
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You can be strategic in how much time you spend there.
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You can be strategic in whom you hang out with when you're there.
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Okay.
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And if you're feeling this crushing sense of obligation that I have to go to everything, all right.
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Or there's anything that you don't really want to go to, but you're feeling obligated to go to your physical and mental well-being are worth more than that.
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Okay, than being obliged to harm yourself for the sake of someone else's happiness, right?
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Because chances are they'd be a lot happier if they weren't harming themselves.
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But that's not your job to make them healthy.
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Your job is to keep you healthy and be the example.
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Okay.
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So be willing to say no.
11:09
Okay.
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This is this is huge.
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Uh so I see so many people overcommit themselves and really get in trouble because of it.
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And then feel a bunch of guilt and shame when they can't even make it to everything, right?
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It's that's may just be that you're so popular that there are more things you're invited to than you can realistically handle, and that's a good place to be.
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Then you can be selective and choose.
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If anybody takes it personally, that's on them.
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Because you are looking out for your own health and well-being.
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Because that's the whole point of this is to enjoy yourself, and it becomes overtaxing on you.
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Well, you're not enjoying yourself.
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And who's gonna want to be around you or who's gonna have fun with you if you're stressed out and not feeling physically and mentally well.
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What's the point of even going to the thing?
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Okay.
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So some of you really need to learn how to say no.
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So this is your permission.
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You can say no.
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Okay.
12:08
Okay.
12:08
Especially if you know you're gonna go to a holiday gathering where there's food that you don't want to eat, and we can get into what that is, whether it's the pizza, whether it's the cookies, whether it's the I don't.
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You know that most of these gatherings are not gonna have healthy food, right?
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But it's gonna be there and it's gonna be tempting.
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So the best thing to do is to eat beforehand.
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Eat before you go.
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Um, whatever healthy is to you.
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On my podcast, I talk a lot about the fresh fruits and the veg, the whole plant foods, filling up on those foods before you go is gonna make it.
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First off, you're just gonna feel better, right?
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And second off, you the chances of you eating something you don't want to eat or overeating in general go way down because you're already full.
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Because here's the thing.
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As you the hungrier you get, the harder it is to make good decisions.
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Okay, especially about food, right?
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Because when you're starving in the desert, you know, and somebody comes along with pizza.
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Are you gonna say no?
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Are you really gonna say no?
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No, you're not.
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And so the more you've eaten, the more level headed you are, the easier it becomes to say no to the unhealthy food, right?
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So eat beforehand.
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No one's keeping track of how much food you eat.
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And I would say very few people are keeping track of if you're eating anything at all.
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Right.
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And I gotta question those people.
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Like, why is it your business what everybody else is eating?
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Like if you're listening to this and you're thinking, man, I'm gonna keep my eye on everybody else at this party and see what they're eating and monitor it and police it and judge it.
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Get out of here.
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Get out of here.
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Let people make their own decisions, right?
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And if you're worried about what those kinds of people are gonna think about you and say about you.
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Is it more important what these busybodies think of you than how you actually feel and what's important to you?
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Really, is it?
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Really?
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Um, and and and furthermore, like, you know, these people are only wanting you to indulge in unhealthy foods so they can feel less shame and guilt about them doing it themselves, right?
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Because if there's conformity and other people are doing it, or quote unquote everybody's doing it, it makes it easier to rationalize their own bad behavior, right?
14:39
Well, everybody else is doing a bunch of other people were eating it too.
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And that, so I couldn't say no, right?
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And so they have these this weird gent mental gymnastics that they put themselves through to justify their own bad eating habits, right?
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Don't fall for that nonsense.
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Be you, do you, show up, okay?
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Eat your own food beforehand.
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It'll make it easier to avoid temptation.
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Okay.
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Here's another thing I love to do.
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Tip number three is bring your own.
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Okay.
15:15
Bring your own healthy food.
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I'm the guy who brings a salad to the Christmas party, right?
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And I bring my own food.
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And here's the thing.
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I also bring enough to share, right?
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So I'll bring my own, I'll eat my own food there.
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I'll eat my own food beforehand often too.
15:30
Um, and I'll bring enough to eat for myself, plus more to share, right?
15:34
And this is important for a couple of reasons.
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Number one, you bring enough food to eat on your own and you're just full and you're satisfied.
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The other food there isn't gonna be as tempting, or if at all, right?
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It's gonna be a lot easier to say no to that.
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And then also like you bring extra to share, it's not as weird socially, right?
15:55
Because we're all about the like, you know, what you're gonna bring this food and not eat any of the other food, and then it looks like you're not being social and reciprocating, right?
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But if you're like, oh hey, I brought some and I brought more.
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If anybody wants to, you know, I brought um brought these pomegranates, they're really good, right?
16:13
Um you bring stuff to share, it just it it greases the social skids, so to speak.
16:20
Now, when we watch eating grease, right?
16:22
But like it makes it less weird.
16:24
Because I've done it, I've done it in the past when I was, you know, in the middle of a really bad autoimmune flair, and I had to stay super dialed in with my diet, and then I brought my own food, and I didn't share with anybody, and I was super awkward about it, and it made the whole situation kind of weird, right?
16:41
But when you bring your own food, and that food tastes really good, and people are curious about what you're eating, you can share it with them, and it just makes the whole situation a lot less socially isolating, right?
16:55
And it doesn't, it also makes people other people feel it doesn't trigger that guilt or shame that they might feel because it's like, oh, you know, Shelby over here is eating healthy and it's making me look bad, so I'm gonna say something mean.
17:11
It's like, oh no, Shelby brought this food and she's sharing and it tasted good, and that was cool that she did that, right?
17:17
And it doesn't rock the boat as much, because I know a lot of you guys are scared to rock the boat, but sometimes you have to, but it makes the whole thing easier, and we're gonna get into in the next segment how not to rock the boat.
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All right, welcome back to looking for healing radio.
23:46
And so we are talking thriving during the holidays.
23:50
How to stay healthy during the holidays when everybody else is eating a ton of unhealthy food, drinking a ton of booze, and probably overworking and under sleeping and overspending and just generally wearing themselves down so that when January rolls around, they try to make a New Year's resolution, it doesn't go too well, or quote unquote flu season hits them, really, when they just did three months of damage to their immune system with all the unhealthy food and booze and candy.
24:21
But you're not falling for that trap.
24:23
You're not falling for that trap.
24:24
You know better, and I'm here to teach you.
24:27
I'm here to give you tips on how to actually execute better.
24:30
Okay.
24:31
And so we're talking about bringing your own food.
24:34
Okay.
24:35
This is clutch, right?
24:38
Eating beforehand, we talked about.
24:40
Um just when you're there and when you've had a bunch of healthy food and you're full and you're satisfied, it just makes it so much easier to say no to the unhealthy stuff or not even look at it or not even consider it, right?
24:52
But if you're showing up hungry and you're just like gonna try to use sheer willpower to avoid eating the unhealthy foods, and then maybe when you're even more hungry, come home and maybe make yourself something healthy when you're already like oh stressed out and hungry and you know, depleted from the social encounter, somehow the delusion that you're gonna no, don't know.
25:14
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
25:16
Get a jump on it, get ahead of it, eat beforehand, bring your own food and bring enough to share that will make you feel less socially isolated and will make the whole event go easier.
25:27
Everybody gets along, you have your unhealthy food, you have your healthy food.
25:32
Sorry, you uh avoid the unhealthy food, right?
25:35
Because what's more healthy than bringing your own, making your own, right?
25:39
You're really gonna count on, you know, Aunt Sally to like um, you know, not make not fry the food this year, like no, not happening, right?
25:52
Okay.
25:53
So here's the thing.
25:56
Tip number four is act like it's no big deal.
26:00
Okay.
26:02
Because um whether that's bringing your own food, whether that's declining the alcohol, declining the cookies, declining the you know, honey-baked ham or whatever it is, or the or the or the vegetables that are just like fried in grease.
26:19
Um the more you can act like it's no big deal, the more other people will also think it's not a big deal.
26:27
Okay, but if you act like it's a big deal, oh my god, I can't eat that.
26:31
That has gluten in it.
26:32
That's fried.
26:34
A cookie, you think I'm gonna have sugar?
26:37
Oh my god, do you know what's in this?
26:40
Coca-Cola, there's GMO, corn wheat and soy in there.
26:45
Corn syrup, you think I'm gonna eat that, right?
26:47
That's making a big deal about it, right?
26:49
What does that do when you make a big deal?
26:52
Is that that puts people on the defense?
26:55
Okay.
26:56
And all of a sudden, if you're acting like it's a big deal, and you're judging them, right?
27:02
They're just gonna judge you right back.
27:04
They're gonna find some ways to poke holes and like you're just eating vegetables.
27:08
That can't be that can't be good for you.
27:10
Here, have some pie.
27:12
Right?
27:13
And then you create all this social conflict, right?
27:16
But you actually didn't need to, right?
27:19
If you refuse alcohol, you don't have to be like, oh, I'm not drinking, you know, you know how bad that is for you, and I don't want to hang over you're really gonna screw yourself over doing that, right?
27:30
No one wants to hang out with the buzzkill, right?
27:33
But if you just politely decline, you know, hey, you know what?
27:35
Not tonight, no, I'm not interested, right?
27:38
Oh, do you want a cookie?
27:39
Oh no, thanks, I'm good.
27:41
Right.
27:42
Oh, yeah, I I brought my own food.
27:44
Yeah, you want to try some?
27:45
Okay, cool.
27:46
Right?
27:46
But if it's like I brought this food because your food sucks and is unhealthy.
27:50
You need to create this conflict, you're gonna make it a big deal.
27:54
And then other people are gonna think it's a big deal, and you're gonna have conflict, right?
27:58
But if you just act like it's no big deal, like act like it's totally normal that you decline the drink, act like it's totally normal that you ate beforehand, act like it's totally normal that you brought your own food and you're sharing it.
28:09
Act like it's totally normal that you avoid all this unhealthy crap and only eat healthy, right?
28:15
Um, and act like it's it's it's totally normal, it's not a big deal, and it's not a big deal what they eat, right?
28:21
It's definitely not a big deal.
28:22
Whatever they want to eat is cool, right?
28:25
Then all of a sudden, people's guard comes down and they realize you're not judging them.
28:31
And they don't have to judge you, and there doesn't have to be conflict, and we can all get along with our lives.
28:37
And and uh paradoxically, the people other people will feel less guilt and shame, right?
28:41
So they'll have a better time.
28:42
We'll all have a better time.
28:43
We'll all get what we want, and it'll be magic.
28:48
And I'll tell you, I used to break this rule.
28:51
I didn't know this was a rule.
28:52
I kind of had to realize this over time, right?
28:55
Because when I first got on my healing journey, and I knew that I couldn't eat this stuff anymore, that it was killing me, it was causing all this massive inflammation that was affecting like um my skin and my energy levels and my pain and like my digestion terribly, that I was I was I was the evangelical.
29:14
Oh my god, I can't believe you're gonna eat that.
29:16
That you know, that's gluten in it.
29:17
You know, you know what that dairy's doing to you.
29:20
I was that guy.
29:21
I was that guy for a while.
29:24
Nobody liked that guy.
29:26
And guess what?
29:27
That guy had no influence on anybody because he was obnoxious and he was judgmental, and he was abrasive.
29:36
And he was effectively antisocial, right?
29:40
Well, I stopped acting like it was a big deal.
29:42
Something magic happened was that people were actually interested in what I was doing.
29:47
People wanted the food that I was gonna share.
29:49
People asked me questions and not in a judgmental way.
29:53
People got back to me, you know, days, weeks, months later, telling me about the changes they'd made in their life.
30:00
Right?
30:00
Because I even though I acted like it wasn't a big deal, it had an impact on them, right?
30:06
Because their guard comes down, right?
30:09
And you can be the lighthouse, you can be the example of the person without making a big deal about being the example, right?
30:16
Because if you make a big deal about being the example, well then people are just going to crucify you, right?
30:21
But if you just act like it's totally normal and you're just like them, you just happen to be eating healthy and not drinking and avoiding all that stuff.
30:32
Gives permission to other people to do it too.
30:35
Right.
30:36
When they see that it's not a big deal, that they don't have to wait till January 1st, they don't have to wait till Monday.
30:42
They don't have to wait till next month, next year, when the kids go on vacation, when the kids get out of school, when the when the job gets less stressful, you know, when um their husband or wife, you know, is is less of a handful that they can finally make the change and eat healthier and exercise.
31:01
They they realize, like, no, I I could do it today, right?
31:05
You know, Derek's doing it, Jimmy's doing it.
31:10
Emily's doing it, why can't I?
31:12
Right?
31:13
And so this is like the magic sauce, right?
31:16
Because you're chances are you're gonna be on guard.
31:19
You're gonna show up there, your nervous systems be on red alert.
31:22
Oh, people are people gonna notice that I'm not drinking.
31:26
People gonna notice that I'm not eating the food, or that I when I decline food, people gonna see the food I'm eating and judge it, right?
31:36
If you go in there with that energy, you're gonna get that energy reflected back to you, right?
31:40
You're gonna get those reactions.
31:41
But if you just go in there, like, hey, I brought a salad and it's got pomegranate and avocados on it, and it's super bomb, and oh, you want to try some?
31:48
Oh, yeah, it's so good.
31:49
Yeah, give it a shot.
31:50
Okay, cool.
31:51
Yeah.
31:51
Oh no.
31:52
A beer, no, thanks, man.
31:54
I'm good.
31:54
I'm good.
31:55
Yeah, how you doing?
31:56
Right.
31:57
If you come at it with that energy, you're gonna be met with that energy.
32:02
So of all the things, acting like it's no big deal, right?
32:07
And same goes when you when you decline the invitation to the event, that isn't right for you, right?
32:12
You don't have the bandwidth to handle.
32:13
You act like it's no big deal, right?
32:15
Like, hey, it's the holidays, got a lot going on, I can't make it to everything.
32:19
Um, I'm gonna have to sit this one out, right?
32:21
You don't have to say, Oh, I've got something else going on that night, and you have to tell this person that they were second best, because maybe they're second best to you just staying home and going to bed early, right?
32:32
And they don't need to know that, right?
32:34
You can just politely decline, say, hey, you know, maybe I'll make it next year.
32:38
And let people know that you like appreciate the invit, excuse me, the invitation, right?
32:43
Like, hey, I'm really excited that you invited me.
32:46
It sounds like a really cool event.
32:48
I I'm I'm not gonna be able to make it, which I'm bummed about, but just you know, it's the holidays, there's a lot going on.
32:54
I just not gonna be able to handle swinging by, but I really hope you have a good event, and please invite me to the next one, right?
33:00
Then people aren't gonna take it personally that you don't want to be there, right?
33:03
They're gonna realize that the realistic thing is like you have a limited amount of bandwidth, right?
33:08
And for whatever reason, you've chosen not to go to their event.
33:11
And they can feel good about it, right?
33:14
And you can feel good about it, and you can preserve the relationship.
33:18
So this has been my episode on how to handle the holidays, uh, how to stay healthy through the holidays.
33:29
So maybe what we can do next is um just go into some some tips of like what to actually eat, what to actually bring.
33:38
So right now it's November, heading into December.
33:42
What's in season?
33:44
Well, um, probably some fruits you haven't heard of, and probably some ones that you have.
33:49
Right now, pomegranates are the thing.
33:51
Man, I forage pomegranates from someone's tree.
33:54
They grow here locally in in Phoenix, Arizona, where I am.
33:57
They are delicious.
33:59
One of my favorite sauces to make, and you can use this um as like a salad dressing, is you take just about 50-50 pomegranate arrows and avocado, and you just blend it in the blender, and it makes this pink goop that's like sweet and creamy and a little bit sour, and uh it just goes great with everything.
34:20
You can pour it as a salad dressing, you can eat it on its own because it's just pomegranate and avocado, it's fruit, it's good for you.
34:26
You can use it as a veggie dip.
34:28
Um, it's it's just like this magical pink currency that just I make it almost every day, almost every day.
34:38
Um, so avocados, uh, generally we can get avocados year-round, but they happen to be in season more so in the winter.
34:45
Um, what else?
34:47
Dates, okay.
34:48
If you haven't had real dates, medule dates, or if you can get the more rare varieties, like the bar hees and the goodrawe and the halalis, oh my god, are they delicious, right?
34:59
And then you can like food process them up into bricks and just make like you know, it's it's it is the probably the highest sugar fruit.
35:09
But remember, if you listen to my episodes on fruit, as long as it's got the fiber intact, it's healthy for you, right?
35:17
So you can make all kinds of desserts out of it.
35:19
Um, you can there's so many ways to combine it with things like apples that are in season and also persimmons.
35:26
And oh my god, you guys.
35:29
If you are not hip to the persimmons, you are missing out.
35:32
If you live in the northern hemisphere of the United States, you have to try persimmons.
35:37
They are a fruit.
35:39
If you're Chinese or Asian, you probably know about them because their fruits are very popular over there, and you could probably get them at an Asian market over here.
35:46
But if you haven't heard of a persimmon, what is a persimmon?
35:48
And I think maybe we did an episode on this in the past, but it bears repeating.
35:53
A persimmon is a fruit, and it kind of looks like an orange tomato, but rest assured, for those of you who hate tomatoes, it tastes nothing like a tomato.
36:03
What it tastes like is a cross between, well, it kind of tastes like the holidays that are around it.
36:07
It tastes like a cross between pumpkin pie and candy corn.
36:12
Okay.
36:13
And the thing about persimmons is they can take a long time to ripen.
36:17
You can buy them in September, October, and they may not be ready.
36:21
They end up might not, they might take two, three months to ripen.
36:24
It might be November, might be December, might be January before they get squishy.
36:28
But once they get squishy, oh my god, are they good?
36:31
And you can blend them into like a goop that makes um like a persimmon pudding that you can just drink it, you can eat it with a spoon, you can throw in some dates there, blend those in two, make it even sweeter.
36:44
You can make all kinds of great healthy desserts that way.
36:47
Um just eating these things for a meal, but man, uh, there's nothing quite like just mowing down a plate of uh of ripe persimmons, all you gotta do is pull the stem off of each one and throw the rest of it in your mouth.
37:00
Some of them have seeds, but most of them don't.
37:03
And so if you haven't gone to your grocery store and gotten persimmons, and I recommend going to like an Asian market or uh or some kind of ethnic grocery store, like a Hispanic grocery store, or what is it?
37:16
Let I don't know.
37:18
I hope that was ethnically correct, politically correct, but you know what I'm talking about.
37:24
Um a Latinx grocery store.
37:29
Oh my god, I can't keep up with the colloquialisms.
37:32
I'm 44 years old.
37:33
I'm sorry.
37:35
Uh so if you whatever it is, some kind of non-traditional grocery store of a of a foreign ethnicity, chances are you will find persimmons there, and it's gonna take some time for them to right and up.
37:45
So I would get them now, but uh you're gonna be loving them by the time they ripen up now.
37:50
Some of them, the foo you variety, which are the ones that you know are pretty much just are so in cylindrical shaped, like a really big fat coin.
37:59
Um, those ones can be eaten before they're squishy.
38:02
They're a little bit chalky.
38:03
I wouldn't recommend it.
38:05
Some people like them that way.
38:06
I don't like them that way.
38:07
I think it's best to let them get squishy, but oh man, those are so good.
38:13
Okay.
38:13
You bring just a plate of those to the party, right?
38:19
And everyone's like, what is that?
38:20
What are those things, right?
38:22
And if they're really good tasting, right, and they're really ripe, everybody gets to try them and they're like blown away of like, oh my god, I didn't even know this existed, right?
38:30
And now you're sharing healthy food, you're like bringing novelty, you're um, you know, uh like a social interaction, it gets the conversation going, right?
38:40
And all of a sudden you're this good influence, you're winning all around.
38:45
Persimmons are the bomb, okay?
38:47
And dates are the bomb too.
38:49
My God, those of you guys who hadn't had haven't had real dates.
38:54
You know the dried ones are good, but if you can get the wet ones from like sevenhotdates.com, oh my god.
39:02
Those are really, really good, right?
39:05
It's gonna because what's the Christmas cookie gonna do to everybody?
39:09
It's gonna make them feel sick to their stomach, right?
39:11
And just foggy and inflamed the next day, right?
39:14
But they eat some dates, they eat some gooey persimmons, right?
39:19
Packed full of natural sugar that doesn't cause an inflammation issue because it's also got natural fiber as well.
39:26
It slows the absorption of sugar in the bloodstream, which you will learn about if you watch my three foods to eat to heal autoimmune disease, and let me tell you, fruit is number one on the list, as it should be, okay, because there is no upper limit on fruit.
39:41
Um you bring that kind of stuff to the holiday party, it's it's gonna go well.
39:47
It's I I've done it many times, it's gonna go well, it's gonna work out.
39:51
Um so those are some more tips on what to actually eat, what to actually bring.
39:56
Hi, I'm Dr.
39:56
James Bragman, board certified EO in internal in geriatric medicine.
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43:09
When I was a small boy in Vin Sands, Indiana, I heard, I think one of the most outstanding speeches I ever heard in my life.
43:18
I think it compares with a Sermon on the Mound, Lincoln's Gettingsburg Add, and Socrates' speech to the students.
43:28
We had just finished reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
43:32
And he called us all together.
43:35
And he says, Boys and girls.
43:45
And it seems that it has become monotonous to you.
43:50
Or could it be you do not understand the meaning of each word.
43:56
If I may, I would like to recite the pledge, and give you a definition for each word.
44:07
I mean, an individual, a committee of one.
44:13
Pledge.
44:15
Dedicate all of my worldly good to give without self-pity.
44:21
Allegiance.
44:26
To the flag.
44:27
Our standard.
44:28
Oh glory.
44:30
A symbol of courage.
44:32
And wherever she waves, there is respect.
44:36
Because your loyalty has given her a dignity that shouts freedom is everybody's job.
44:44
Of the united.
44:45
That means we have all come together.
44:49
States.
44:51
Individual communities that have united into 48 great states.
44:56
48 individual communities with pride and dignity and purpose.
45:03
All divided by imaginary boundaries, yet united to a common cause.
45:10
And that's love of country of America.
45:15
And to the Republic.
45:17
A republic.
45:18
A sovereign state in which power is invested into the representatives chosen by the people to govern.
45:26
And the government is the people.
45:29
And it's from the people to the leaders, not from the leaders to the people.
45:38
One nation, meaning so blessed by God, indivisible, incapable of being divided with liberty, which is freedom, the right of power for one to live his own life without fears, threats, or any sort of retaliation.
45:59
And justice.
46:02
The principle and qualities of dealing fairly with others for all.
46:10
For all.
46:37
Since I was a small boy.
46:41
Two states have been added to our country.
46:44
And two words have been added to the pledge of allegiance under God.
46:51
Wouldn't it be a pity?
46:53
If someone said that is a prayer, and that be eliminated from our schools, too.
47:07
Welcome back to looking for healing radio.
47:10
So we are talking surviving the holidays.
47:14
And two other things I want to really emphasize are super important.
47:19
Are rest and exercise.
47:21
It can be so easy and so tempting to stay up late, partying, doing stuff, socializing, and then you're already working a lot.
47:32
The pressure from Q4 and year end is there.
47:35
You're stressed.
47:37
You're not sleeping.
47:38
All of a sudden, your immune system gets compromised.
47:41
It gets easier to get sick.
47:43
So rest is super important during these times.
47:47
The days are shorter.
47:49
It can be easy to become a night owl because it's dark for so much longer.
47:56
Prioritizing sleep is going to help your immune system tremendously.
48:10
On the days that you aren't staying out and socializing, try to get to bed earlier.
48:15
Try to get to bed an hour earlier.
48:18
Last night I went to bed at 8 p.m.
48:21
Not saying that you need to.
48:24
But take advantage of this time to get rest.
48:29
When there is less daylight, right?
48:31
And you can sleep, go to bed earlier, and you can sleep later because the sun isn't waking you up.
48:40
Last thing you want to do is burn yourself out.
48:44
So maybe, like we said, saying no to events, and maybe that means going to bed early, like knowing when your body's had enough, right?
48:53
Not pushing it and pushing it and pushing it and pushing it until you get to the place where like you gotta get sick because your body's like, oh, I saw this coming.
49:01
I've been, you know.
49:05
Over stressed and overworking and under sleeping and over partying all month.
49:09
Of course I was gonna get sick.
49:10
Of course I was gonna get quote unquote the flu, right?
49:14
Or the COVID or whatever it is.
49:22
Maybe that means leaving the party to go home early, go to sleep.
49:27
Right?
49:28
Maybe it means not staying out to eleven or twelve.
49:30
Maybe it means going home at 8 30 or 9.
49:33
Right?
49:34
Don't feel like you gotta be obligated to stick around for the whole thing.
49:38
Especially if you're tired, especially if you're stressed out, especially if you're worn down.
49:44
Make yourself a priority.
49:46
Get the rest.
49:54
And along with that, it can be very easy to make to deprioritize exercise.
50:00
Right.
50:00
Especially if you're waking up hung over, you're waking up not feeling good, right?
50:06
To let it slide.
50:07
You got, oh, I got family in town.
50:10
Oh, I'm traveling.
50:11
I can't exercise now.
50:14
Right.
50:15
The excuses can pile up very, very fast, right?
50:19
The excuses of why you can't, right?
50:21
And sometimes that means making time, right?
50:24
I've just had my mom visit.
50:26
It'd be very easy to say, oh, I'll skip my workout, you know, I'll spend more time with my mom.
50:31
I still had to be in the morning saying, hey, um, I'm gonna go outside for 30 minutes, get my workout in, and I'll be back, right?
50:41
And um people deserve the best version of you.
50:46
You deserve the best version of you, right?
50:49
And there are so many opportunities to compromise.
50:52
There are so many opportunities to let things go, let things slide, wait till January, right?
50:58
But chances are you've done that before, right?
51:02
You've let things slide until January, and then is it easy or hard at that point to pick it back up?
51:09
It's usually pretty hard, right?
51:12
But the more consistent you can be, the easier it is to stay on the top of the habits, right?
51:19
So build that consistency now so that when New Year's comes along, you're already on cruise control, right?
51:27
Because I'm telling you, you know, let things slide.
51:30
January is gonna be difficult.
51:33
And, you know, it's easy to project in the future.
51:36
Oh, well, it'll just be easier.
51:38
Look, there will be a million other things trying to grab your attention, trying to take your time, a million more opportunities to eat unhealthy, a million more opportunities to skip exercise, a million more opportunities to go to bed late, right?
51:52
Um, realize what those are.
51:56
I mean, those are distractions, those are illusions, right?
51:59
And if you can if you can say no to them now, right?
52:04
It's gonna be so much easier the rest of the year.
52:07
You're gonna set yourself up for so much success.
52:13
So that's my advice for this episode.
52:20
Say strong.
52:21
Look, do the hard work now, right?
52:24
When it's harder to say no, and then the rest of the year is going to be easier.
52:27
You're gonna set yourself up.
52:28
So much success blow past everybody else, right?
52:33
Because if you do this thing where you give in, right, and you give in to the eating the unhealthy food and the drinking and the not sleeping enough and the and the let the stress that you're already experiencing pile up on you and letting exercise fall off the wayside, right?
52:50
You're gonna do it every year, and every year you're gonna be in this cycle of like boom and bust, right?
52:57
And January 1st is gonna be a giant bust, and then you're gonna try to boom it, right?
53:02
And and it's gonna be difficult, right?
53:05
And you're gonna get caught in this constant cycle, right?
53:08
So break the cycle this year.
53:10
Let 2025 be the year that you don't wait till January 1st.
53:16
That you don't just let things slide with your health, but this under this magical assumption that somehow things will be easier.
53:23
No, it might be a little bit easier, but they're still gonna be hard.
53:27
So why not do it at when it's it's hardest, right?
53:30
When it's the hardest to say no, because then you'll find out that it's actually not that much harder, right?
53:36
And then if you do it then, well, now what are your excuses when dawn holidays are happening, right?
53:43
Like it's it's those are those are you know, much smaller, right?
53:48
Much easier to say no to, right?
53:50
Now you've built this stability, you've built these habits that are gonna serve you through the rest of the year.
53:56
And then what you've done in 2025 and Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas, holiday times rolls around in 2026.
54:06
Well, you know that you did it the year before, and you can do it again, right?
54:10
You've built what we call reference experience.
54:14
That you build enough reference experience with things, you know that you've done them before, you've seen the results that you've gotten, right?
54:21
It becomes easier to go back and do it again versus like, man, every year I do this, every year I do this stupid thing, right?
54:28
Then it becomes the program that that becomes the program that runs the show.
54:31
So what program are you gonna let run the show, right?
54:34
But imagine what's possible for you if you build the reference experience of taking good care of yourself through the holidays, saying no to the things that don't serve you, right?
54:44
Refusing the unhealthy food, bringing your own healthy food, eating beforehand, right?
54:50
Not letting yourself get sleep deprived, staying on top of the exercise, right?
54:56
Not making the excuses of, well, come January 1st, all is gonna change, right?
55:00
And then you actually navigate the holidays and you actually feel good the whole time, and you wake up January 1st feeling like ready to crush it while everyone else is falling apart.
55:09
That serves you not just for then, that serves you not just for the next three months.
55:16
That serves you not just for the next year, the next holiday season, but the rest of your life, right?
55:23
Like this is crucial clutch cargo time.
55:27
So I just want to remind you to not sell yourself short to to make it count because this has so much positive impact on your life.
55:40
And look, if you screw up and you blow it all this year, look, there's always another chance to try.
55:45
It's not like you're one missed opportunity, but here is really an opportunity to make a major shift in your life because if you can navigate the holidays and you can stay out of the standard American diet vortex and all the crap that that everyone is consent consensually doing together, right?
56:04
That's like, well, if everybody does it, it makes it okay, right?
56:08
Um, I can I I can excuse myself because everybody else was doing it, right?
56:14
Um, if you cannot fall for that trap, man, you're gonna set yourself up for so much success with your habits.
56:22
So hope you guys found found that valuable.
56:25
Hope you have a fantastic uh holiday with your family.
56:30
Remember that it's more about the being together than it is about the eating together or the drinking together or any of the bad habits together.
56:37
It's the conversations that you have, right?
56:39
It's the interactions that you have.
56:41
That's the most important thing.
56:43
Keep that the most important thing, and don't let all this like food and drinking nonsense get in the way of that.
56:52
With that, I'm out.
56:53
I'll catch you guys next time.