#24 Thriving Through Tinsel and Temptations: A Keto Vegan’s Guide to Conquering Christmas Celebrations

Welcome to another episode of The Keto Vegan, the podcast where I delve into the world of Keto Veganism and navigate the challenges of festive celebrations. I'm your host Rachel, and today I’m tackling a timely topic: surviving the Christmas holidays with our keto and vegan principles intact.

In this episode, I'll be your guide through the seasonal maze, exploring the importance of planning ahead to maintain your dietary goals, strategies for coping with social pressure and resisting temptations, and the powerful tool of mindfulness to keep you centred amidst the holiday hustle.

So, grab your favourite keto-friendly snack and join us on this journey to not just survive but thrive through the Christmas festivities. Let's dive into the heart of the season and discover how to make it a joyous and fulfilling experience while staying true to your Keto Vegan lifestyle.

 

So many personal health benefits of following this diet, as well as the environmental benefits of course.  Health benefits include:

• For example, studies have observed that vegans have a 75% lower risk of developing high blood pressure and up to a 78% risk reduction of type 2 diabetes.
• What’s more, vegans tend to weigh less than non-vegans, and those who adopt vegan diets are more successful at losing weight than people who eat animal products.
• The keto diet is well known for its effectiveness in weight loss, blood sugar control and reduced heart disease risk factors.
• A study in 58 obese children and teens showed that participants following a ketogenic diet lost significantly more weight and fat mass than those on a low-calorie diet.
• Ketogenic diets have also been shown to reduce heart disease risk factors, including high triglycerides, blood pressure and “bad” LDL cholesterol

 

Planning ahead is absolutely vital.

Highly likely you’ll get cravings especially when confronted with so much non keto food.

Visualisation can be essential – when wake up, visualise self being in control, powerful, happy, proud of yourself. 

How I’m planning ahead – I find vegan is easy, the keto bit is the more challenging especially as I’m entertaining and have opened up the food list to all who are coming! What I’m planning to give me a fighting chance!

• Seed crackers, I’ve bought some vegan cheese from I Am NUT OK – some carb counts are high but others OK. I have a food list with carbs, fat, protein listed that I’m always editing – send me a screenshot that you follow my podcast and you can have access to it for free.
• keto desserts such as raspberry cream pie (episode #23),
• roast celeriac,
• roast Jerusalem artichokes, Jerusalem artichoke is a rich source of complex carbs and, although high in natural sugars, has minimal effect on blood sugar levels. Jerusalem artichokes also offer a bit of protein, along with numerous vitamins and minerals.
• if I was bothered for stuffing – there’s a link below, but I’d replace the sausage meat (this is an American recipe) with good old Beyond burgers defrosted and broken up.
• I’ll be making cocktails but this is hard to make winter cocktails keto.
• Low carb and vegan snacks: cream cheese on seed crackers, or with low carb veg/crudites

Coping with the social pressure and temptation

This can be the hardest and most challenging part of it.

You may well be judged.  How to cope with this? Be confident in your choices.  You’re the one that’s on this journey.  You have come to the decision to eat this way because of things that have happened in your past. You don’t need to explain it to them either!  But, if you do – BE KIND. Be respectful of where they are at.  Don’t get into a debate. 

Don’t do guilt trips (about the animals and environment). Most of us were also meat eaters in our pasts, I know my head was in the proverbial sand for such a long time and at the right moment I saw the right documentary that changed my life (more on this in Episode 1).  Who are we to judge?  If we are quick to judge others it tells us a lot about ourselves.

Talking of judging – set yourself realistic goals, track your progress – you can use urinalysis strips for this, find a healthy way to reward yourself for the effort you put in.

 

Mindfulness

What are your triggers?

Breathe.

Set a random alarm through the day – to check in with yourself..  I use a free app called RemindMe Play Store - image of a blue alarm clock with a red dice in front of it just in case you want to find this yourself.

Afformations – Noah St. John book and idea. Uses questions instead of “I am” statements. 4 steps to creating a new you using afformations.

1. Identify what you want and write it down
2. Form this into a ‘why’ question that assumes what you want is already true.
3. Give yourself to the question. Don’t answer it, focus on what you have, let your brain look for the answer. Read the Q, write it, say it, listen to it.
4. Take new actions (action is vital) based on your new assumptions about life.

Guided meditations – can be found on my YouTube channel @RachelGhinn – I’m a hypnotherapist, therapist and life coach so use this channel to post free visualisations and meditations. I’m also a secondary school teacher and have put on a few visualisations for my students.

“I am enough”

Could try Tapping – I found Jessica Ortner’s book “The Tapping Solution for Weight Loss and Body Confidence” helpful – I listened to it rather than read it which meant I could go through the tapping processes with her.

 

Finally – When you're hungry, eat. Eat what you keto vegan want, Eat consciously. When you think you're full - STOP.

Valuable Resources

For an extensive list of foods with their carb, fat and protein count, go here: https://www.rachelgtherapy.co.uk/1-what-why-and-how

For a keto-vegan start-up menu and shopping list go here: https://www.rachelgtherapy.co.uk/1-what-why-and-how

Free visualisations from my other YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/@rachelghinn

Celeriac – how to cook it: https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/how-to-cook/how-to-cook-celeriac

Vegan Sausage Stuffing: https://ketovegetarianrecipes.com/vegan-sausage-stuffing-fennel-keto/#recipe

Host Bio

Rachel, a once morbidly obese individual, experienced a remarkable body transformation through the keto diet. Later, she embraced veganism and now shares her extensive knowledge and obsession with carbs in vegan proteins on The Keto Vegan podcast. Her goal is to demonstrate the simplicity of combining the keto diet with a vegan lifestyle.

Resources: https://www.rachelgtherapy.co.uk/the-keto-vegan

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheKetoVegan/podcasts

Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/821471059206067

Email: contact@rachelgtherapy.co.uk

https://theketovegan.podbean.com/

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