HeyMonicaB

Oh my goodness. Who else is inundated with client/vendor lunches? During my day job (not Ayurveda and yes a 40-hour grind), I service lots of clients and now is the time for end of the year reviews, i.e. lunches up the wazoo. It’s a mad scramble to try and fit everyone in during December before holiday ends and that’s a LOT of eating out!

My schedule over the past three weeks has been work parties, work lunches, and dinners out. While I’d much rather bring my own lunch, what can you do!? It’s part of our job.

So no wonder we get lethargic and might notice that our pants are tighter. Yeah yeah, we all know about gaining weight over the holidays and it’s no wonder, what with holiday work parties, parties with friends, get togethers with family, cookie exchanges, white elephant exchange, and work lunches…that adds up to a lot of extra food that we aren’t used to! Not only that, but it’s probably not the most healthy foods either.

So, what to do?
I have some ideas to keep our minds in our food during all the holiday lunches, parties and snackies.

• Practice Mindful Eating.
• Remember the Plate Portions according to who you are. Especially when there are snack foods, the best thing to do is grab a plate. Fill it up so you can see what you are eating. That helps the mind understand how much the body is consuming. The mind is like the body’s guardian.
• If you are talking, don’t eat. That’s a good rule of thumb to keep our mind in our food. You could throw down 3 lacey cookies in 2 minutes while talking to your friend about her new boots. See? You don’t even remember that, do you.
• Say NO to the cookie/candy snackie area. If you can’t resist the cookie/candy area at work, take a different direction to get back to your desk.
• While on a client lunch, keep portions under control. Soups (not creamy) or wraps (not mayonnaisey or fried stuffs) might be a good option. Ask for a little roll with your soup. Eat only 1/2 the wrap and choose healthy sides like pasta salad, fruit, side salad or seasonal veggies.
• Order hot tea with your lunch. It increases agni AND you will have to sip it instead of guzzling a coke and then getting a refill 5 minutes after you sat down (that’s already about 400 calories).
• Make sure you are truly hungry before putting food in your mouth. Clear burps are a good sign!
• FAST. If you eat a lot for lunch, skip dinner. If you are not hungry for breakfast, skip it and have ginger tea. Really. THIS is where true Ayurvedic balance comes in. Give your digestion a chance to catch up cause holiday time is also prime ama time! No bueno. Listen to your body. It will tell you when it’s hungry.

Anywho, those are my wise words for today. If you have other ideas for our reader-friends on how to have healthy client lunches, do share! Love you guys! xo