Christmas can be a tricky season to navigate.

For many people who are trying to eat better, it’s downright treacherous. It’s like the season consists of one dietary pitfall after another.

Since when does Christmas = sugar? 

Perhaps, once upon a time, Christmas was the only time of year people got to eat sugar. My husband’s grandmother talked about her childhood Christmas in Finland. She would get one orange for Christmas.

And that’s it. That’s all she would get. One orange.

And you can be sure she almost never got to eat candy. She was probably lucky if she got to eat a turnip once in a while.

Seems very strange to us affluent, modern types.

So I challenge you to avoid ALL sugar this Christmas.

Make Christmas about something else other than gaining 10 lbs and shooting your blood sugar through the roof.

I know.

You’re asking, how do I do that?!?!

It’s not complicated.

Here are 5 steps to avoiding sugar this Holiday Season:

1. Don’t bring it in your house. That’s right, just don’t buy any! It’s bad enough sugar is everywhere ELSE you go. Don’t make matters worse by actually purchasing it.
2. When you go to a holiday party, bake something that doesn’t have sugar. And just eat that instead of the rest of the garbage that’s there. There are lots of delicious sugar-free baked treats at alldayidreamaboutfood.com
3. Better yet, make some savory treats like gluten-free biscuits or kale chips.  Instead of eating the sugary poison everybody else brought, gorge on your healthy snacks instead!
4. Try this exercise to learn to resist the temptation. Pick up a cookie from the tray your co-worker brought in to work. Hold it in your hands for a moment. Feel the weight of it. Observe the shape of it. Cup it in your hands and bring it up to your face.  Take a deep breath. Let the scent of the cookie penetrate to the deepest recesses of your lungs. Then, slowly and calmly, walk over and drop the cookie in the garbage can. If you can do this you will know you are starting to break your sugar addiction. Do not, however, start eating the cookies that are left!
5. Ask me or Dr. Sheehan about Gymnema herbal liquid next time you come into the office. This is like the antidote to sugar. Instead of eating sugar, put a few drops of this on your tongue. You won’t even be able to look at the powdered sugar-covered delectables after that!

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