The Christmas season is known to be full of temptations. As good as biscuits, mulled wine and the like taste, they are not necessarily healthy, which is why unwanted weight gain occurs during the Advent season. In today's post, we'd like to give you five tips on how to get through the Advent season with as few calories as possible without having to give up pre-Christmas traditions.
Discover healthy breakfasts for the Christmas season
Tip 1: Healthy biscuits for the Christmas season
Biscuits are probably the biggest temptation during Advent. The delicious smell of freshly baked Christmas biscuits makes your mouth water, and it's hard to resist the temptation to have a taste or two while they're baking.
The good thing, though, is that biscuits don't have to be unhealthy. Of course, there are many recipes with lots of sugar, butter and wheat flour, and of course they taste good. But apart from those who hibernate, nobody really wants to gain weight in winter. Fortunately, there are also some delicious biscuit recipes that are also healthy.
The following two recipes, for example, do completely without classic sugar and wheat flour. Healthy nuts (cashews) are used as a source of fat, which, unlike conventional butter, contain significantly healthier fatty acids. The wheat flour, on the other hand, is replaced by our healthy muesli mixes, which have more fiber and thus cause your blood sugar to rise less erratically. Why not try out these two healthy Christmas recipes? You'll be surprised 😉 You can find more inspiration for healthy recipes here on our blog.
Recipe: Filled cocoa date cookies or “healthy Rawreos”
Ingredients
Cookie dough
- 100 g Verival Almonds (soaked in water for 30 minutes)
- 100 g Verival Walnuts
- 100 g Bircher porridge
- 120 g Verival dates (soaked in water for 30 minutes)
- 1-2 tbsp Verival maple syrup
- 30 g cocoa powder, unsweetened
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon, ground
- 1 pinch of salt
Filling
- 200 g Verival cashew nuts (soaked in water for 30 minutes)
- 100 g coconut flakes
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- 2 tbsp Verival maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp ground vanilla
Preparation
- To make the dark cookie dough, put the almonds in a food processor with the walnuts, muesli mix, cocoa powder, cinnamon, salt and dates and blend to a smooth mixture.
- Transfer the mixture to a sheet of baking paper. Place a second sheet of baking paper on top and roll out the mixture to about 0.5 cm thin. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- In the meantime, place the cashew nuts in a food processor along with the coconut flakes, coconut oil, vanilla and maple syrup and blend until smooth. Blend the mixture until it has a creamy consistency – if necessary, add a little water.
- Cut out the cookie mixture into round cookies with a diameter of about 4 cm. Knead and roll out the mixture repeatedly until it is used up. Then put the cookies together, place about 1 teaspoon of coconut filling on one cookie, place a second one on top and press firmly. Store the finished cookies in the refrigerator.
Tip 2: Conscious enjoyment during the holidays
As good as the healthy alternatives taste, you won't be able to resist the odd temptation. It's not so important to avoid all “unhealthy” foods, but rather to eat a wide variety of foods and provide your body with all the important nutrients it needs. If you eat something less healthy from time to time, especially during the holidays, that's okay too.
However, make sure that you eat as consciously as possible and listen to your body's signals. Just because something tastes good doesn't mean you have to go overboard. If you consciously take time to eat, prepare your meals nicely and maybe even eat in company, it will be much easier to perceive your body's signals. You will be better able to tell when you feel full and stop eating accordingly.
It may be challenging at first to put a half-full plate of biscuits back, but you won't necessarily get more satisfaction if you just eat even though your body is actually sending you satiety signals. Besides, there will be more left for the next few days.
Healthy Christmas recipes – discover them now
Tip 3: Bake and store sustainably
No matter how hard you try, the variety of biscuits you really want to try just keeps on growing. However, simply eating all the biscuits just because they are there and it would be a “pity to waste them” is not a solution either. No matter how healthy the biscuits may be, they still contain calories. And the more you eat, the higher the chance that the BMI calculator will suddenly sound the alarm.
This is how you calculate your ideal weight – to the BMI calculator
A much better and more sustainable solution is to either give the biscuits as a pre-Christmas gift or simply freeze them for the next visit. This not only gives you something to look forward to for longer, but also means you don't have to throw the biscuits away or compulsively eat them all. You can find more tips for a sustainable Christmas.
Tip 4: Get some fresh air
If you don't want to hold back too much when eating, you can instead opt for a little more exercise. It's best to focus on exercise in nature, as this not only helps you burn plenty of calories, but also strengthens your immune system at the same time.
However, it is important to find the right physical activity for you and your body. For some people, this is a long walk in the winter landscape, for others it is a hike in nature. But running, walking or other sports are also excellent in winter.
However, you should make sure you have adequate clothing that protects you from the cold but still allows you enough freedom of movement. The right footwear is particularly important, as you don't want to have to turn back after a 15-minute walk because you can't feel your toes anymore.
It is also very important to choose the appropriate intensity and duration of exercise. It's best to start your first training sessions a little more gently to give your body a chance to get used to the strain and the climate. It's best to breathe through your nose and avoid breathing too much through your mouth.
This is because the nasal mucosa warms the cold outside air to a temperature suitable for your body. However, if you breathe through your mouth too much, the cold air will go straight to your lungs and can cause a cold or cough.
That's why exercise is so important for your body – learn more
Tip 5: Create routines and rules
Last but not least, it can be useful to create routines or impose certain rules. This may not sound particularly exciting, but it will help you to eat sensibly and get plenty of exercise.
What's more, rules don't necessarily have to be a nuisance, because if you approach them skillfully, you can even have fun with them. It's best to set your rules together with a friend or your partner. That way, you don't have to constantly control yourself, which helps to keep your motivation and stamina high.
For example, you could plan to go for a walk with your favorite person every morning to get your circulation going and do something good for your body. Rules can also be useful for snacking – for example, you could decide to only snack on biscuits when you are with people and otherwise opt for fresh fruit when your body craves something sweet. This way, you can bring more variety into your daily routine and your diet, while playfully preventing unwanted weight gain during the Christmas season.
