Take Charge of Your Health: Session 11

The holidays can be a challenging time to stay on track – but they don’t have to mean derailing months of progress. In this free class, Megan Ellison, RDN, CDCES of Sound Dietitians, LLC covers Chapter 13 of Prediabetes: A Complete Guide by Jill Weisenberger – 14 steps for supporting healthy habits in yourself and the people around you – along with a practical holiday strategy guide for navigating food, drinks, and stress through the season. This is the eleventh session in the Take Charge of Your Health series, offered through Stilly Valley Health Connections – explore more in our free class recordings library.

What’s covered in this class:

• 14 steps for building healthy habits as a household – why making changes as a group works better than singling one person out, how the division of responsibility framework reduces food battles with picky eaters, and why modeling the behaviors you want to see is more effective than telling others what to do
• Navigating holiday meals without overrestricting – why avoiding all your favorites tends to backfire, how to stay intentional about what you actually want versus what you feel pressured to eat, and why planning for leftovers beats trying to fit everything into one meal
• Buffet and blood sugar strategies – why surveying the full spread before filling your plate leads to better choices, the case for putting vegetables first at a buffet, and why a short walk between dinner and dessert helps blood sugar come back down so you can actually enjoy it
• Rethinking holiday drinks and recipes – how mocktails, sparkling water with natural flavorings, and herbal teas can replace high-sugar cocktails, and how small recipe swaps (reducing sugar, whole wheat pastry flour, adding flax or oats, leaning on herbs and citrus) can upgrade traditional favorites without losing what makes them special
• Sleep, stress, and staying active – why consistent sleep is especially important during a high-stimulation season, how to identify whether holiday stress is self-imposed or needs to be addressed directly, and why one indulgent day will not derail your long-term progress – what matters is what you do most of the time