In anticipation, you could do some kind of resistance training high intensity training to give your metabolism a boost before you kind of go off for the holiday season, and indulge a little bit more keep to a 12 hour fast every single day. So whenever you finish your meal, just track forward and go 12 hour. So if you have a late meal, you're just gonna push that breakfast a little bit later.
Welcome to the high performance health podcast with your host, Angela Foster, the show where we talk about everything you need to break through limits and achieve a high performance, mind, body and lifestyle.
Hi, friends, In this episode, I thought I'd do a little solo episode to really give you some tips on how to navigate Christmas effectively. And still have fun, but stay on track. So you go completely derail any of the kind of gains you've been making in terms of optimising your metabolism over the last year. And I think it's a common concern people have is, how can I indulge and still have fun, but not completely derail myself? And also how can I like, avoid the cabin fever that sent can so often happen on Boxing Day, and just that kind of yuck feeling that you can get. So I thought in this episode, I'd share some of my top tips to help you do that. So I think firstly, we all want to have fun, that's the first thing to say. And we should be letting our hair down a little bit. We should be relaxing. You know, you don't have to be working out really hard. And all these things for permission to enjoy Christmas and spend time with your family and friends. Because I think that's so so super important. It's an opportunity once a year that we do have to just slow the pace down. And I do think that's important. And just to reassure you, you're not going to dramatically adversely change your health in the space of what's really kind of, I don't know, a week to 10 days between Christmas Eve through to new year. So I know there's a bit of a lead up. And there are definitely some things that you can do that will help you to feel better and less lethargic, and also help to avoid that kind of cabin fever. So first of all, what I would say is the biggest things are there some daily practices that you can do that will help you not just over the Christmas period, but also help you stay on track year round. And the first one I would say is you're going to feel a lot better, regardless of how much you're eating. If you're sticking to a 12 hour overnight, fast 12 hours, generally an eating three hours, ideally before bedtime. Although that may not be possible with Christmas entertaining, but generally across the year, that's what we're going for, is going to help you sleep much better and get into those lovely deep levels of sleep that you need to really rejuvenate and prepare your mind and body. But what I would say is regardless of when you're eating over this festive period, is to try and introduce or maintain should I say that 12 hour fasting window. So let's say for example, you are late and you're eating late, then just try and push that breakfast a little bit. And the ideal thing would do be say, for example you've been eating till 910 o'clock at night is then the next morning to wake up and maybe go for like a gentle fasted, walk, go and get some fresh air, get some light into your eyes, which really helped with your circadian alignment. And then just have a later breakfast to have something like brunch, for example. Because you're feel so much better, because a lot of the way we feel comes from sort of pushing our bodies too hard because we eat a lot more rich food than we would customarily eat at this time of year. And you might be having some alcohol, for example, maybe you're having a bit more alcohol than you're used to eating and eating more calories than you're used to. Now, you're not going to suddenly balloon up overnight. But you can end up feeling quite uncomfortable and quite lethargic and groggy. And so by the time we get to Boxing Day, that's how a lot of people feel. So I would say a couple of things you can do is stick to that 12 hour overnight fast, just enforce that regardless. So when you stop eating, just say right, I'm not going to eat for another 12 hours from that evening meal, and then go and get some early light, hopefully the sun will be shining and go and do a fasted water, something really gentle. So one, you don't need to be pushing yourself, but just to really get the blood flow going. And then the other thing you want to do is to help improve insulin sensitivity as much as you can. So the likelihood is you're going to be eating more carbohydrates than you would normally be eating. And if we can improve that insulin sensitivity as much as possible. That will help to see us through. So one thing you can do is some form of pre meal exercise. And again, it doesn't have to be that intense. Likelihood is your gym like mine is going to be closed over Christmas Day and Boxing Day. And to be honest, you really don't want to go to the gym on Christmas day anyway, but what you can do is a small amount of exercise. So walking, like I've mentioned is a good thing, but you could even just do a Tabata workout, for example, which is just four minutes long, where you do 20 seconds of exercise with 10 seconds of recovery. And you repeat that through eight times super effective You could do any form of body weight weight training, something like the New York Times seven minute workout, any of these things are super easy to do. And when you do them correctly, they help to deplete muscle glycogen. Sorry, muscle glycogen should I say. And that means that when you're having all those carbs, that glucose from the meal is going to be shunted better into your muscle cells rather than going anywhere else. And so that's one of the things that I found to be really helpful. And if you have something like the lumen device, you can actually see whether you're burning carbs, and whether you're effectively transitioning into more of a fat burning mode by for example, doing some exercise or using that 12 hour overnight fast. But one of the things I found is really when you've had a big meal is to make sure you deplete that muscle glycogen, so that you move into that fat burning state more quickly. And by fasting for a period and doing some form of exercise. They're both really good ways to do that. And as I say, it doesn't have to be really intense. So you could do something as simple as you know, if you've had quite a big Christmas day you wake up on Boxing Day and you do half an hour's yoga, for example, before breakfast, or, as I mentioned earlier, if it's sunny, go outside, get a lovely sunshine walk, you're gonna feel a lot better. And it actually improves your postprandial glucose tolerance. So that's your post meal glucose after your meal. And it doesn't need to be intense. What you don't want to do is what some people do and go wow, it's Christmas, screw it, you know, I blew it and then just carry on for the whole 10 days because that's when you can actually feel quite grotty. Now pre breakfast, gentle cardio works really, really well, I wouldn't do you've listened to my podcasts over the last 12 months where I've talked to various hormone experts. And for women in particular, going and doing something really intense in a fasted state may not be ideal. But doing something around zone one, early Zone Two is really, really effective. And Yoga is a great thing for that, you know, that whole kind of mind body alignment is really good. The other thing you can think about doing is in the lead up if you're listening to this podcast in the lead up towards Christmas is to do some high intensity training, sprint interval training, for example, because this again, can really help to boost your metabolism. Now high intensity often gets really confused, because a lot of classes say that they're high intensity, when in fact, they're actually just sort of more vigorous exercise. True high intensity is more like sprint interval training, and it was actually originally created for cyclists. So it's basically your warmup while and then you get on a bike and you go full pelt all out for 30 seconds, and then you recover. And then you repeat that through. So each session of intensity is somewhere between 20 and 30 seconds. And it's great for mitochondrial health, it also pushes your metabolic rate up for quite a long time afterwards. So for up to three days, and so it will help to improve blood sugar control and sensitivity. And you don't have to do it for that long, just three to six rounds can be enough. So that's something you could do maybe on the lead up on the 23rd or 24th. In anticipation of the fact that you may be going to be doing less exercise and indulging a little bit more over Christmas. And that will just help to push your metabolic rate up a little bit, you can also feel a lot better. high intensity exercise and resistance training have also been shown to help activate a transport protein called glute four, which helps to move glucose into muscle tissue without activating insulin. And that's a bonus because when we keep activating insulin too much it can promote fat storage. So high intensity exercise for the win.
And the other thing is I've mentioned is going for postprandial walks after Christmas lunch, for example, even pre Christmas lunch, or lunch both have been shown to improve blood sugar control as well. And this can be for as short as 20 minutes. And so none of these things really need to be particularly long or disruptive. It's just a case of kind of integrating them. And you'll feel quite a lot better. Now when you deplete muscle glycogen, this can be a really good strategy. Because just generally across the year, because it helps you have better glucose tolerance. And so it gives you a little bit more flexibility in terms of what you can eat, particularly if you have lots of muscle mass. And you've heard me talk about that on numerous podcasts with Dr. Carl gilliat with Dr. Stacey Sims, and other guests about how important it is to really work on improving that muscle mass. And so if you haven't done that this year, maybe that's a goal you can set for 2023 because it really will give you more freedom and flexibility with your metabolism and also in helping optimise longevity. The other thing that can happen over Christmas through just over indulging different more processed foods, perhaps more sugar and drinking alcohol is that you can end up causing quite a bit of oxidative stress on the body. And so if you have been doing that, then that's when I would caution about doing high intensity exercise, particularly if you're hungover because you're just going to be increasing the allostatic load a little bit too high. Whereas if you've just done a little bit of indulgence, you know a bit of overeating, then actually some form of high intensity activity or heavy strength session can be a really good strategy for depleting that muscle glycogen, and helping you get back into more of a fat burning mode. And if you're doing it in a fasted state, for example, because you feel like you're really replete with carbs from the evening before then just maybe have something like some essential aminos alongside just because as women, we don't want to be triggering that production of cortisol too much. And so just that I can help with the nutrient sensors, if you're going to go and do a fasted strength training session. If you've been drinking alcohol and you feel a bit hungover, then be careful about going doing something really intense. Even things like sauna you want to make sure you've got good mineral balance. Alcohol itself significantly interrupts your ability to burn fat and burn calories from food, because your liver is prioritising the alcohol first and it can also mess with your mineral balance. So if you're feeling a bit hungover, for example, then waking up and having some electrolytes can be helpful or putting something like Redmond sea salt, for example, into a glass of water will be helpful and not having too much caffeine, it's as easy isn't it to go and reach for the caffeine. But it's not necessarily going to make you feel a lot better. So I would just recommend rehydrating with some electrolytes first, maybe some lemon water that helps you detoxify or some apple cider vinegar, anything that really helps to get your digestion going and just replace those lost minerals. The other thing is, if you aren't drinking alcohol, just bear in mind that this is where the calories can kind of really add up. And it's often from the mixes in the cocktail, some of them can actually be really, really high in sugar, and things like mulled wine as well, for example, and then we're probably having more carbs with our food, and then layering dessert. And that's when you can start to put on quite a load. And it's often why people just suddenly feel, you know, really sluggish afterwards. But there are certain supplements, interestingly, which impact immunity also help with your ability to detoxify and prevent things like a hangover. And one of those actually, interestingly is zinc. And many people are actually a bit deficient in zinc and zinc has got some good evidence, as I say around immunity. It also helps you to detoxify acetaldehyde, which is the toxic compound that's produced after consuming in alcohol. So it's interesting because some of the things that affect your liver detoxification also affect your immunity as well. And if you have a greens powder, or something like athletic greens, you might be taking, for example, the greens in there can also help you detoxify. And they're very alkalizing on the system and contain high levels of chlorophyll. And chlorophyll is something that can actually help you to reduce the damage to DNA that's done by alcohol. And chlorophyll basically binds to toxins and can decrease cellular damage. So that's quite useful. You might be thinking about taking some activated charcoal, activated charcoal tends to work better if you're taking it with the food that you're eating. And it seems to work a bit better in many respects with food rather than alcohol. So if you're kind of over indulging, let's say, for example, you're out and you're having quite a lot of fight fried foods that you don't normally eat. That's a situation where activated charcoal might help. But you just want to be careful, because the way it works is it's basically going to bind up and remove toxins from the body. But it's also going to sweep up anything else. So if you're on medication, for example, you wouldn't want to be taking activated charcoal, anywhere close to the medication. The other thing if you're not someone that's taking already is turmeric is also good because it's really anti inflammatory. And if we're eating out and having things like fried foods that can cause more inflammation, and spirulina is also another one. So including lots and lots of greens is really important, eating plenty of cruciferous vegetables that can really help with liver function and help with detoxification. So lots of things like cabbage and kale and broccoli can really help and things like brussel sprouts, because if you're kind of loading up your liver, what you want to do is really support it with the sulphur containing compounds and leafy greens that can really help. So on Christmas Day, make sure you're eating your sprouts, because they're actually really good for you. And then some other things that can help as you can take an acetyl cysteine.
In a lot of people cysteine is the limiting factor in glutathione production. And so this will be relevant in particular, if you've looked at your DNA, for example, and you have a raised antioxidant need because that would indicate that you're not quite as good at creating endogenous antioxidants. So we have exogenous ones that we take, and we can consume those through food, and also through antioxidant supplements. And then we have endogenous ones that our body creates. And glutathione is one of those. It's like the kind of master antioxidant and taking something like an acetyl cysteine can help you to produce more glutathione if it's cysteine that is the limiting factor. So quite a good one to find to take at night if you're using a sleep stack because it will help you produce more glutathione and that helps you detoxify things overnight. Sometimes when I look at individuals organic acid reports, what we'll see as well is that they're low in something called Alpha Lipoic Acid. And this works well as an antioxidant in the body can also help with blood sugar control. So that's something you can also take as well, especially if you're someone who again, genetically has a raised antioxidant need. And if you're someone like myself, who's has a higher sensitivity to carbohydrates that can be quite useful. We'll also talk about some supplements and compounds that you can use to improve glucose sensitivity as well. But while we're on the topic of antioxidants, vitamin C is also really important, particularly if you've been drinking alcohol because if you've been drinking alcohol, you're going to be using that vitamin C a lot more quickly, so you can take up to kind of three grammes per day, you'd split that into three doses of 1000 milligrammes. Vitamin C is water soluble, so you will excrete out the excess, generally unless you're taking it in liposomal form. But you will really want to take it only to bowel tolerance. So some people find there on the toilet quite quickly, and may not need as much as that. But generally, one to two grammes. Most people can tolerate Peter pretty well. You can also get vitamin C from natural sources very easily, and clementines, for example, which we have quite a few of in our house at the moment at Christmas. They're very seasonal, are also a good source of vitamin C alongside other citrus fruits, and even things like broccoli. And then another one would be magnesium. So if you're drinking alcohol, you're going to be depleting magnesium more quickly. Magnesium also gets depleted quite quickly if you're under a lot of stress. So for example, if you've had a really stressful year, you probably need more magnesium. There's also some evidence that some of the hangover effects that we get come from the depletion of magnesium. So alcohol itself is obviously toxic, but I think it's also the way that it's depleting a lot of these minerals and vitamins alongside dehydration that can have an effect. As I've already mentioned, you want to be having cruciferous vegetables and also they contain sulphur. Foods like onions, garlic, leeks are also really good choices as well because they help improve liver detoxification. And then a supplement that a lot of people buy at this time of year is milk thistle and with good reason because milk thistle really helps protect the liver and enhance functioning. So it sort of helps to prevent things like glutathione depletion, so you're not using it quite so much, because when you're drinking alcohol, you will be depleting glutathione quite readily. So taking an acetyl cysteine. Taking antioxidants taking things like milk thistle, alongside things like vitamin C and E can really help. But it's not just the kind of headline antioxidants as well. You also want to make sure you're getting enough polyphenols. So really choosing dark, vibrantly colourful foods, like berries, and bell peppers and things like that which are high in antioxidants and vitamins A, C and E is going to be really helpful. Vitamin A you can find of the most notably in high levels through organ meats. So through liver, you might be thinking, oh my god, I just I can't I can't stomach liver. Maybe like liver Patty beef liver pate has been shown to have really high levels. If you're vegetarian or vegan, or you just don't like organ meats, then getting it from a vegetable source, what you'll be getting is beta carotene from things like carrots and sweet potatoes, for example. And then and then your body will convert some of that into vitamin A. If you're not vegan or vegetarian, you can also take organ meat capsules, which can be quite helpful. So those are kind of the main ones when we think about liver detoxification and enhancing antioxidants, which is really, really important when we're kind of depleting these things. The other thing I want to mention now is things that can help you control your blood glucose a bit better. And one really good one that my children actually love, and I sprinkle on their porridge in the morning is cinnamon. And Cinnamon has really good evidence behind it in terms of controlling blood sugar, and so you're getting less of these insulin spikes. And in the research, it's about two teaspoons a day. And so as I say it's not just for the holiday season, you can sprinkle it onto your porridge if that's something you enjoy having for breakfast, and the effects of actually lasts up to 12 hours. So it's quite interesting because when you're having a couple of teaspoons of cinnamon, you won't just be improving your insulin sensitivity around that meal for example your porridge but also for the next 12 hours. So pretty much for the whole day if you're eating within that 12 hour window. So that's another one you can add in.
The other thing I like to use is the blood sugar breakthrough by by optimizers that contains some specific compounds that can really help you stabilise your blood sugar and I've actually tested this I've worn a glucose monitor and then I've eaten the same meal with and without it and I've noticed a better blood sugar response. They work best if you want to take about 30 minutes or so before the meal and I've definitely found it reduces blood glucose and my friends at by optimizers have given 10% off to listeners if they as podcasts in terms of their supplement range, I love blood sugar breakthrough and I also love their magnesium breakthrough, as you know, alongside their collagen supplement and so if you go to bio optimizers.com, forward slash Angela and enter code, Angela 10, you can get 10% off. If you're in the UK go to bio optimizers.uk forward slash Angela. And again, the same code Angela 10 will get you 10% off. But the kind of overarching points that I would make sure you do over this period is however much you're enjoying yourself and indulging focus on eating as many leafy greens cruciferous vegetables, fruits and vegetables that are high in antioxidants as you can because that will go a long way to helping you feel better. So that will be my first thing. Load up on your greens do something like Athletic Greens if you're having it in the morning. And again, Athletic Greens have partnered with the show to give you a whole year supply of vitamin D with five free travel packs if you go to athletic greens.com forward slash Angela foster that's athletic greens.com forward slash Angela Foster and then really eating as I say lots of those cruciferous vegetables so broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, they all help. And they're so important for female hormone health, as you've heard me talk about probably a lot of times over the course of the last year. One last kind of category of supplements, they're not really supplements, they're adaptogens because of the way they work in the body to help support our adrenal function and minimise stress and certainly the way you feel stress or ashwaganda and Schisandra. Now ashwaganda can help again with blood glucose control can also help with relaxation and sleep work super while at nighttime, I found in combination with magnesium. So I tend to take magnesium breakthrough with about 500 milligrammes of ashwaganda, and that just kind of really lulls me into this a lovely relaxed sleep she has Sandra is one that you would take in the morning, it's an adaptogen, that's actually quite energy stimulating. So it's a nice one for that. But it's also interestingly been shown to protect the liver as well from toxic damage. And it can help you feel a little bit like rhodiola, it can help you feel more upbeat and just support your adrenal function as well. So let's have a bit of a recap then on the things you can do. The first one would be in anticipation, you could do some kind of resistance training, high intensity training to give your metabolism a boost before you kind of go off for the holiday season and indulge a little bit more. And then the second one would be to keep to a 12 hour fast every single day. So whenever you finish your meal, just track forward and go 12 hours. So if you have a late meal, you're just going to push that breakfast a little bit later. The third one is focus as much as you can on antioxidant intake and leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables, so really, really upping your vegetables or fruit intake over this period. And then if you want to you can supplement with some antioxidants, things like an acetyl cysteine, and milk thistle and vitamin C can be really, really helpful. The next one is getting outside as much as you possibly can. So going for that pre breakfast fasted walk or even at post a Christmas lunch walk, doing some yoga in the morning, just a really nice opportunity to focus on gentle activities and pair things back and get that recovery. If you feel like you want something more sense stimulating, then you could definitely like roll in at a battle workout for example, or a little bit of sprint training. As long as you're not recovering from something like a really bad hangover, then you'll just be putting too much pressure in my view on your body. If you feel a bit depleted if you've been having some alcohol and rehydrating with some trace minerals and some water, even just adding a little bit of Redmond Real Salt can be really, really helpful. And then if you want to improve your glucose sensitivity in and around meals, as I say, going out for a walk before or even doing some squats at the counter while you're preparing the food can help. Going free postprandial walk can be really, really helpful. Just doing interestingly 60 seconds of bodyweight squats before a meal has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity, as has a 20 minute walk post meal. So these are really good things. You can also take some glucose disposal agents if you want to things like Cinnamon, cinnamon, or amazing bitter melon extract and also something like by optimizers blood sugar breakthrough. And then one thing I haven't mentioned is maybe you can get into the cold shower if he did. I'm sure many of you listening actually have been doing that across the year. But if not now could be a good time to start. And the way I would recommend actually because cold exposure has been shown to improve brown fat production, which is helps us contains many more mitochondria, which is why it's brown. And it also helps us burn more fat for fuel. So that is a good thing. And what you want to do as you're gonna get into cold exposure is to really start by gently exposing yourself to the cold. So one thing you can do is to alternate in the shower between hot and cold. So you could do for example 20 seconds of warm and then 10 seconds of cold and just repeat that eight times. Interestingly that has been shown to help with blood vessels and blood circulation, that transitioning between the hot and the cold. So that's actually a really good thing you can do as well. And then over time, what you can do is build up to cold. So you could do like a 32nd finish on cold at the end building up to one minute, and then eventually to two minutes or more. So those are kind of my top tips. But really, apart from that, why I would say is I just want to, first of all, thank you for listening to this show. I am super grateful to have you as my listeners. I've really enjoyed 2022 and also to wish you a very happy and healthy holiday season and I'm very much looking forward to getting back in contact with you all and 2020
Thanks for listening. Remember to review and subscribe. You can grab the show notes, the resources and highlights of everything Angela mentioned over at Angela Foster performance.com You can also snatch up plenty of other goodies, including the highly helpful Angela recommends page which is a list of everything she personally recommends to optimise your mind, body and lifestyle
