Cooking May Be The Most Important Thing You Can Do For Your Health

As the holidays approach, one of the hardest things to do is stay healthy. It starts with Halloween candy and colder temperatures. Continues through Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Eve celebrations. Throw in a few holiday parties, some travel, dealing with families both good and bad and the end of the financial year for most people. 

This is by far one of the most stressful time of the year! With this in mind over the next few weeks we are going to talk about thing you can do to make it through this holiday season with your health and waistline intact. 

Cook at home as often as possible during the season. When I was going through my Chiropractic program, I valet parked cars nights and weekends. The busiest time and when I would make the most money by far was the holiday season. We would double some cars that we parked from November to Christmas; it wasn’t because it was colder outside, it was because the restaurant would seat twice as many people. 


This increase in our desire to eat out during the holiday season is understandable. With shorter days, longer colder days, not to mention the holiday parties and travel that we all have to survive this time of year. 

All these things make the thought of planning out even one meal much less 6 or 7 near impossible. Then who the hell has time to shop for all that food and deal with the other people shopping that decided not eating out! Right? It makes you want to kick your feet up under a blanket and order a pizza. Well, cooking for yourself at home may be one of the best things you can do for your health. Michael Pollan, who is a great author and leader of the slow (real) food movement, said this in a youtube video I was watching a few weeks ago. Here is the link if you want to watch it (Video Link). 

So far I am being captain obvious we all know that when we cook at home, even if you're not Gordon Ramsay, it is better for you than most restaurants you can eat out. We have total control over what we use as ingredients, using fresh, natural feed meats, fresh organic veggies and amazing fats, oils and butter to cook all those amazing ingredients. The problem still comes in making it happen. So here are a few tricks that you can use to acutely cook this holiday season.

1. You have to start with a plan. Since I started teaching two weekends a month, one of the best investments in mine and my families health is by far e-meals. They email you seven meals with a shopping list. This saves so much time and thought and it only a few dollars a month. One warning they tend to repeat flavors and when you start to look at the previous weeks recipes. But for 10 dollars a month it saves a ton of thought.
2. The crock pot is your friend. Pick out recipes that are simple and that you can throw in the crockpot in the morning and have ready when you get home from work. When Erin and I are going like crazy, I am so thankful that we have that crock pot.
3. Make ahead meals are awesome. These are meals that you do all the prep work on a free Saturday or Sunday and freeze it in a ziplock. Then all you have to do is thaw and cook. These are usually great crockpot recipes also

It isn’t going to be easy to keep it all together over the holiday season there are just to many temptations to take the easy way out but if you are diligent and keep a plan and routine then you will make it through without the typical weight gain and fatigue (exhaustion) that usually accompanies the end of the holiday season.