Chapter 9 – Ho, ho, ho it’s Christmas

I love Christmas, it’s one of my favourite times of the year and I make an effort to make it special.

Santa brings presents for everyone in our home, everyone, and all our Santa sacks are full – how exciting! Santa’s reindeers also leave ‘reindeer poo’ which is chocolates and lollies through the house. Once upon a time they would lead from the bedroom doors to the tree, these days, due to our puppy and chocolate being toxic to dogs, they’re on the dining room table – Santa and his reindeers are so accommodating! 

We had a fun morning, exchanging gifts and Teddy was delighted to see all the ‘reindeer poo’ Santa had left.

We had family for lunch, and we wanted to keep it super casual. We had a cheese platter and dips on arrival, then home made wood fired pizza’s for lunch. We weren’t doing dessert although Chris does love a Christmas Pudding, but it gets eaten once (if at all) and then it’s thrown away, so we didn’t have one this year and Chris was fine with it. I personally have always hated Christmas pudding and Christmas cake, so it wasn’t an issue for me.

In terms of what I was going to eat, I really hadn’t planned my day and whilst this felt fine at the time it didn’t feel good later on!

I was still intermittent fasting, so I didn’t have breakfast, and I was still in my year of no bars or blocks of chocolate so I didn’t eat any reindeer poo either. I did make a green juice and drank that with Chris, plus I took my supplements. 

Then at lunch time I was going to grill some chicken and make a salad for myself but I never did.

Instead I looked at the cheese platter and I wondered, whilst I’m dairy and gluten free, maybe I’m not going to do that today and maybe that’s ok?

I tucked into the cheese and dips, and it was totally ok with it. I had some nuts, chips and fruit too.

Then when the pizza’s came out I had a few slices and I was full.

We had a quiet rest of our day and I went to bed that night with a twitchy leg, which is one of my side effects of me eating things that don’t work for my body.

On boxing day, we again had a very relaxed day. I didn’t feel any effects, other than my twitchy legs (which I hadn’t felt since I’d changed my diet removing gluten, dairy etc.) from eating the cheese, crackers and dip so I thought why waste it, and I rolled it out for afternoon tea.

It was all going well until my eyes started to itch, my nose stated to run, my tummy bloated and later on my leg started to twitch.

I’d gone too far – and I hadn’t really eaten that much but two days in a row was too much for me.

Health creates choices

I took myself to bed early that night and woke up the next morning with all my symptoms gone. I put the remaining cheese and dip in the bin, drank lots of water and came back to the foods that served me rather than those that affected me – as much as I enjoyed them. 

I didn’t have any further issues with my eyes, nose or legs, but it did take a couple of days for the foods to move through my digestive system, which left me feeling tired and sluggish – not a bad thing for the Christmas period but as I say to Teddy ‘health creates choices’ and I didn’t have a lot of choices – or less than I wanted.

I’m human, I’m not perfect, and O made a few more ‘choices’ after my Christmas adventures. I didn’t beat up on myself, I let it be what it was. Plus, I didn’t ‘wait’ until some fictitious Monday or some day in the future to change things, I just woke up the next day and moved forward, or moved forward with my next choice.

I took dairy and gluten out of my diet again. I also decided that next Christmas we were going to do things differently. I didn’t know what that was at the time, but I can tell you now that we’re heading off camping and will be in Airlie Beach for Christmas 2023 – I can’t wait!

Santa will still come but it will be smaller, and perhaps bigger gifts will be left at home, we’ll see. The Reindeers will still leave their poo and you’ll find me relaxing by the pool with my latest book.

What are you going to be doing?

 

My next step

Travelling and staying on track with our health can be tricky. In my next Chapter, I’m sharing what happened when we went to Canberra in January 22. The covid challenges, low-energy and the realisation that intermittent fasting was no longer serving me.

When we have these realisations it’s really interesting to see what comes in. The doors definitely opened for me and I walked through them.

You can check out everything about my Project 22 over here and Chapter 10 – Visiting Canberra and my longest period ever.

 

Share with me

Are you going on your own journey in 2022? Then tag me and use #project22 so we can connect xo

 

Disclaimer

Everything shared in this post and across my website is my story and recollection of conversation and events. They are in no way medical or mental health advice, prescription or diagnosis. Should you be interested in what I’m sharing and what this could mean in your life, then I’d encourage you to engage with the relevant health professionals or if you need support please seek out the health professionals that can support you.

In relation to my podcast, the information shared is mine or my guests. Again it is not medical or mental health advice, prescription or diagnosis. If you need support, please seek out relevant medical professionals.