Functional Medicine Edition
in2GREAT’s Top 10 Tips for Holiday Survival
The official, unofficial, totally essential, slightly savage Holiday Survival Playbook.
Functional Medicine Edition with extra honesty and a little humor.
Because you worked way too hard on your health this year to let your Aunt’s casserole and Grandpa’s moldy basement take you out.
Let’s Build Your Holiday Wellness Protocol
This list focuses on five critical areas to focus on your:
- Immune health
- Digestive health
- Daily detox support
- Mental and emotional wellbeing
- Energetic health
#1 Start Your Day Grounded (before the chaos begins)
Before your phone, before your inbox, before your family’s group chat blows up:
Breathe. Journal. Set an intention.
Take your morning supplements like a ceremony, not like a chore.
Give thanks that you woke up not sick despite being surrounded by the triple-vaxxed-and-boosted cousins coughing in your general direction.
#2 Hydrate Like A Boss (with clean water)
Drink half your bodyweight in ounces daily with clean water (like distilled water)!
Bring your own full water bottle to family and friends. Order glass-bottled mineral water at restaurants and while traveling.
Match every alcoholic drink with a full glass of water.
ProTIP: Add a pinch of unrefined sea salt or an electrolyte mix (doTERRA product) to your water for enhanced hydration.
Links:
#3 Support Digestion Before the Damage Is Done
Going to a family potluck full of gluten, vegetable oils, GMOs, and sadness? Then for the love of your gut health (and GI MAP results), please:
Take Perfect Balance’s Digest or CellCore’s CT-Zyme BEFORE you eat. And then Aegis’ Total Tox Binder AFTER you eat to bind up to the toxins you likely consumed.
Be mindful and grateful for your food, eat slowly, and don’t pile your plate like it’s your last meal.
Links:
#4 Immune Support: Don’t Wait Until You’re Sick (Prevention > Recovery)
If your nephew sneezes directly into your eye, or your sister tells you she just got her 3rd COVID booster, don’t panic (well, maybe just a little). Be prepared.
Elevate your immune boosting protocol with (incl. links):
- Researched Nutritionals Transfer Factor Rapid Response
- Researched Nutritionals Transfer Factor Multi Immune
- DesBio VIR: Combination Homeopathic Drops
- Up your vitamin D3
- BioFilm Clear Nasal Spray
- Our Viral Immune IV Therapy
#5 Drainage First: Open the Exits (maybe even the back door)
Functional medicine 101 rule: Support detox only when drainage is open. If the exits aren’t open, nothing moves.
Not toxins. Not stress. Not that conversation with your sister that’s been looping for 17 minutes.
The holiday load increases exposures to different foods, sometimes excess alcohol, toxins like bacterias and mold, even emotional stress and awkward social situations.
You wouldn’t start a detox without a clear path out… ALWAYS have an exit strategy – like the lymph, urine, sweat, stools, and the back door of your in-laws house!
#6 Detox the Body and the Family Lineage
Not all toxins are physical. Some can also come in the form of emotional patterns, generational stress, beliefs and behaviors passed down. It is important for drainage AND detoxification to occur daily.
Rid yourself of toxins with:
- Physical Detox Support with DesBio Comprehensive Detox Homeopathic Kit: Supports gentle, intelligent detox of liver, lymph, kidneys, and GI
- Emotional + Energetic Detox with DesBio Mental Emotional Detox: Because you don’t have to carry your family’s anxiety, old relational dynamics, what was never yours to begin with
#7 Anticipatory Stress/ Nervous System Support (for gatherings that test your soul)
You know those moments when someone says something wildly triggering and your body leaves the chat?
That’s your cue to take (incl. links):
- Evexias QuiCalm and DesBio Anxious Homeopathic Drops — before, during, and after.
Take it BEFORE the event, not in the bathroom while ugly crying.
Also, have an exit strategy in place for when you get cornered by “that one family member.”
#8 Set Boundaries Like a Regulated Adult (or fake it till you make it)
You are allowed to say:
- “I can only stay for 2 hours.”
- “I’m not discussing politics/vaccines/your health/my health/your MLM.”
- “I need to go outside for air.”
- “No, I don’t want that gluten-filled dessert.”
You’re not trapped. There are doors. Use them.
#9 Build in Recovery Time
Travel day = recovery day.
Family dinner = recovery morning with an infrared sauna sweat sesh!
Holiday party = recovery weekend, also with an infrared sauna sweat sesh or two!
Links:
- Book a few FLOWpresso sessions at our clinic
#10 Honor Your Feelings, All of Them
It’s normal to cycle through: joy to irritation to deep existential questioning to hunger and then joy again.
Let it all move through.
Give Yourself Permission to Choose YOUR Holiday
(And if that means Irish exiting at 7:30 PM with a magnesium mocktail… do it.)
- You don’t have to repeat traditions that drain you.
- You don’t have to eat food that wrecks you.
- You don’t have to attend everything.
Create the holiday experience that supports your health, your joy, and your sanity.
Some Holiday Mantras
Bonus:
“I can love my family deeply and still leave early to protect my nervous system.”
“I trust my body. I trust my intuition. I do not trust mystery casseroles.”
“I breathe in peace… and breathe out everyone else’s chaos.” (Pranayama meets dysfunctional family dynamics.)
“I do not absorb what is not mine. Not emotions. Not opinions. Not airborne pathogens.”
“I am not responsible for anyone else’s emotional holiday meltdown.”
Now go out there and enjoy your Holidays!
About the author
Eli Priest is a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (FNTP), a Master Restorative Wellness Practitioner (MRWP), and one of Kansas City’s most passionate minds when it comes to the subject of how nutrition plays into an individual’s health and wellness.