The Holiday Season

A Time to Feast on Nourishment for the Soul

This holiday season I encourage you to partake of all the food you can embrace. That’s right! No guilt or vigilance is needed to experience the most nourishing season ever. I wish for you to be reckless in your consumption of family, food and friends. This time of year has much to offer in the way of sustenance that may not be readily available January through mid-November. Beginning on Thanksgiving and thru New Years Day is the easiest time to satisfy a yearlong hunger for life. By indulging in all of the food options this season has to offer, you can accept the gifts of eating well, feeling full and losing weight all at the same time.

A holistic health perspective may be useful in observing food and the function it performs in our lives. Classifications including calories, fat grams, carbohydrates and protein are subsets recognized easily by the general public. Fit For Life, The Zone, Weight Watchers, Dr. Atkins and Dr. Ornish, identify and manipulate these categories to determine their theory on health and weight. This is one mainstream way to determine what is contributing to our health but another point of view is to designate food into two alternative groups labeled primary food and secondary food. Secondary food includes vegetables, meat, grains and fruits along with any else that can be placed in the mouth. Substances like alcohol, cigarettes even prescription drugs, vitamins and supplements go in this category. Primary food is not found on a plate but by ingesting nourishment from life experiences. We hunger for play, love, companionship, adventure, meaningful work, health, and satisfying relationships with family, friends, lovers, even God.

Subcategories of primary food include spirituality, career, relationships and physical activity.

Primary food is the most important food. This is what determines if our life is worthwhile. Joshua Rosenthal author of The Energy Balance Diet describes the upside of primary food with this analogy, “Remember when you were a child, playing outside with friends. Your mother would cry out, “It’s dinner time! Come in and eat!” No, Mommy, I’m not hungry yet,” you’d respond. Once at the table your mother had to convince you to eat the requisite number of bites to ensure good nutrition (remember Children are starving in Africa?). You’d force down the minimum acceptable, and rush out again to play. At the end of the day, you’d come in exhausted and go to sleep with no thoughts of food at all.” Conversely think of a time when you were depressed, sad or feeling lonely. No matter how much you ate you were never satisfied. No amount of secondary food can substitute for a lack of primary food but that is what people try to do using food as medication in order to not feel the hurt, anger, pain and frustration of primary food deprivation. Finding a way to get enough primary food is the only way to reduce an excessive appetite for secondary food.

Repeatedly during this time of year the holiday season presents opportunities to socialize. Social interaction is primary food. Hugs, kisses, laughter, dancing and singing are great opportunities to increase our primary food supply. Office parties, Christmas caroling, church functions, family gatherings are all chances to get full. Remember the song lyrics, “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the ones you’re with”? Small acts of kindness can reap big rewards for both giver and receiver. If your family is not available and someone invites you to dinner or a party at their home accept. You both obtain a high-quality dosage of secondary and primary food. They feel good you feel good. It’s a win win. If you just don’t have access to a lot of social interaction the effects of massage are the next best thing. The benefits of therapeutic touch cannot be over emphasized. Physical contact is an integral part of healing. Not only will a skilled practitioner relax your body and relieve stress but he/she can also release stored tension and increase circulation to different parts of the body that have been habitually stiff or energy blocked. This can have a dramatic impact on physical, mental and emotional outlook.

Continuing an exercise program is significant in remaining satisfied throughout the holiday season. Stress reduction, increased energy plus an allowance to indulge in secondary food without reprisals are just a few of the benefits. For the sedentary population physical activity is increased by the hustle and bustle of shopping, dancing at parties and generally staying awake longer. Do you notice less sleep is desired? Metabolism is increased by excitement. More sex! This is definitely my favorite way to increase pleasure and physical activity. Along with physical delights engaging in sexual activity releases endorphins and opiates in the brain that can provide an overall sense of wellness.

This is a good time of year to forgive and forget. Make your friend your enemy or touch base with someone you haven’t spoken to in a while. Eliminating people from our life is akin to severing a limb of cutting away a piece of ourselves. Trying to fill the void that is left in our lives will lead to over eating. Making amends, asking forgiveness for past wrong doings and sending a season’s greeting card to an old friend are all activities that will the void permanently which is more satisfying than eating any piece of cake or candy.

Spirituality is defined as whatever brings meaning to your existence on this planet. It may be religion, meditation, reading, yoga, philosophy or none of these. For some this period is a much-welcomed spiritual reminder. Celebrating Kwanzaa, Hanukkah or Christmas is a wonderful way to unite or re-connect with spirituality in your life. There are paths to a divine attitude that do not incorporate religion. As little as five minutes sitting still quietly and breathing deeply can maintain centered and grounded thoughts. Allowing traffic to pass in front of you on the freeway, assembling a healthy snack for the office personnel to share and taking the time to listen to a loved one are all examples of spirituality in action. Caught up in the frenzy of everyday existence it is easy to lose touch with this very important aspect of being alive.

Countless people have adopted a ritual at the end of each calendar to review the past twelve months and establish guidelines for the upcoming year. This year create a plan that includes balance in all aspects of primary and secondary food. Along with healthy dietary goals focus on a career that nurtures, avoiding stress, adding a moderate exercise program, giving and receiving pleasure, friendship, love, touch, sex, creating good relationships, developing a spiritual practice that includes stillness and maybe most important clearing up the past.

Secondary food intake is much easier to control when primary food needs are being met. Not only is less alcohol, sugar, drugs and caffeine needed but the overall volume of food ingested will be reduced. This is a true wholistic approach to nutrition. The more we take care of our primary food needs the less we will rely on secondary food to make us feel full. The opposite is also true: the more we fill ourselves with secondary food, the less we are able to receive the primary foods of life.

Nutrition is more than consuming the correct combination of vegetables. This holiday soak up all the season has to offer. Accept all the gifts of life by way of hugs, laughter, prayer, music, intimacy, and fun. When you are truly fed by the primary food, the rest of your food will take care of itself. And come January, you'll be feeling satisfied, refreshed and fully nourished to start the new year.

Rose Payne is the founder and Director of High Level Wellness a holistic health and nutrition center in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. She is an AADP certified Holistic Nutrition Counselor and National Educator with a private practice that offers assistance countrywide. She is also the Director of the Immersion Graduate Program at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in NYC. Her passion is helping clients transform their lives through the power of nutrition. You can contact Rose at info@high-level-wellness-online.com

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