Life can be a little overwhelming when dealing with a chronic inflammatory condition. Events that were once pleasurable are now fraught with fear of a loss of control of our environment, or ruined by a never-ending histamine hangover.

But this Christmas I’d like to share with you some strategies, tips and positivity on how to to take stress out of the holiday equation.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of year, where friends, family and food unite to create lasting memories.

Sadly though in the last few years this and other celebratory feasts have left me feeling less than stellar afterwards, thanks to my lovely histamine intolerance/mast cell activation. It would usually take about two days to hit me, unless I was already quite unwell to start with. I’d wake up on the Friday feeling slightly hung over, but by Saturday, feeling like a sixteen wheeler had its way with me.

I’d mope around the house, beating myself up for going off-diet (off the low histamine diet that is). Sacred to put anything into my body – because no matter what I put in (so it seemed at the time) it was sure to come back up again, or threaten to anyways.

I’d feel pretty miserable, asking myself why it had seemed worth it to eat pie, ice cream, or/and drink those glasses of wine, knowing that I’d spend the next week/s paying for it. Your psyche (and stress levels) really take a beating when you’re convinced that you’ve flushed days/weeks/months of progress down the toilet, for a bit of pleasure that lasts of so fleetingly.

As I discovered though, cheating on the low histamine diet was a huge part of my recovery. Not only did the stress of avoiding so many foods end up making me sicker than just going ahead and indulging responsibly once in a while, cutting nutrients out of my diet ended up making me look, and feel like, I was knocking on death’s door. I’m working on a book that’ll detail how I’m healing myself, but you’ll find a ton of that info on the blog. It just takes persistence to navigate through it all! 

But first, lets deal with how to get through Christmas without having to just grit our teeth and bear it. Here’s an idea – how about we enjoy it – knowing that no matter what we do, we’re giving it our best, and that’s all we need to have a great time.

Decide what’s most important to you

Is it eating a heavy meal till you’re fit to burst and too exhausted to make conversation?

Is it being vital enough to jump out of bed with a bounce the moment the minute you hear the kids going to town on the wrapping paper?

How about feeling happy and healthy and ready to show your entire family how your dietary choices have changed your life?

I’m not trying to guilt you here. It’s just about identifying what will make you happy, so that you can make sure to get it! Even more importantly, it helps quell the negativity bias inherent in human beings. I’ll all too guilty of having been a member of that group…many a times have I uttered phrases like: “but I was sick the whole time” “I haven’t accomplished anything today” “I’m not getting anywhere” “I didn’t have any fun because…” Identify what’ll make you happy, and then acknowledge it when it happens. That’s the key to re-wiring your brain for positivity. Please check out these great books (not mine) for more on generating happiness.

Ask yourself: is it worth it? How much downtime can I afford? And then make your peace with it.

Resolve to enjoy yourself and make a conscious effort not to then spend the next week obsessing about the way you feel and beating yourself up about it. Life is far too short to engage in this mental flagellation and stressing over what you’re going to eat or have eaten could conceivably cause more illness than just having the damn pie!

Find out:

Where you’re eating.

What’s being served.

If you can bring a dish.

What your cover story is (because you don’t really want to spend the holidays talking about histamine do you? I don’t!

You’ll find a full low histamine Christmas menu and my strategy for eating out over the holidays in the Happy Holidays Christmas Book, your gift with the purchase of any of my low histamine cookbooks. 

Join my mailing list for more recipes and to be the first to know when registration for my low histamine webinar opens. 

Take a peek at my low histamine and antihistamine cookbooks for more high nutrient recipes.

If you’ve found this information useful I’d appreciate your support (at no extra cost to you!) – please check out my online store for your health foods, supplements, kitchen items and beauty product purchases. Affiliate sales through my online store go towards maintaining the website, funding travel to interviews and purchasing all the lovely foods for my free online recipes. You’ll find these items in the “FABULOUS THINGS” drop down menu on my homepage – there’s now a UK and US store.