Holy Days Are Here Again!

by Cari Junge

How ‘Holy’ is your Holiday Season?  Meaning, is your Holiday season ‘Hol’-istically approached?

Aside from the well-planned feasts which we will soon review with 2011 Thanksgiving statistics, might you approach the time from Turkey Day to New Year’s Day as a vacation from healthy lifestyle or is it a reward from a deprived life-pattern?

The big question really amounts to . . . do you create for yourself or follow dis-ordered patterns around and/or during the Holiday Season in order to step away from healthy nutrition, exercise, lifestyle patterns, when Hallmark and Butterball push all your ‘Just Do It’ buttons? Nike might own the tag-line but we tend to emotionally connect to sounds and smells rather than stress and sweat during the month of December.

In 1621, pilgrims celebrated the first successful corn harvest likely with swan, venison or duck, and surely without green bean casserole and sweet potato pie. Sugar was hard to come by and turkey became the feast of choice in modern day. Check out these stats provided by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service regarding Thanksgiving Day 2011:

·         248 million turkeys, totaling 7.1 billion pounds, raised in US in 2011 for T-Day, with Minnesota leading the states with 48 mil. This means every man, woman and child in the US could eat over half a turkey and there’d still be leftovers.

·         While turkey and tart productions have gone up considerably since 2010, contracted production of green beans went down by 100,000 tons!

·         266 million pounds of tart cherries produced, up 40% from 2010- thanks to Michigan as largest producing state! Cranberry production went up nominally though corn went down

·         The expected consumption of turkey by the average American is 16 pounds, and it’s been shown that the fatigue level that keeps the masses on the couch after is triggered by blood sugar imbalances and over-eating more so than the stereotypical tryptophan buzz.

There are a range of ways to turn this feed fest concept which does great things for our economy into a holi-stic celebration of thanks to balance the insane amounts of food and drink Americans are known to consume along the way.

We will delve into healthy thoughts and tips across the next two months as we ring in a New Year. Until then, the Sweat of the Matter is a call to action from me to you:

Where Thanksgiving originated as a three day traditional feast thanking God for a             bountiful harvest (during which no signs of turkey and stuffing), by 1941 Congress   named the fourth Thursday of every November to be the Holy Thanksgiving Day per             President Franklin Roosevelt’s proclamation. Following Abe Lincoln’s lead to extend the       holiday season, FDR used this period as a means to inspire Americans to begin shopping   for Christmas during the Great Depression.

Brilliant, and how well We have grown a ‘forest’ from the seed our leaders planted!  Or    perhaps a ‘jungle’ is a more accurate picture to paint given one reporter’s account last year changing the name to Black-n-Blue Friday!

This year ending in ‘1’ (2011) in the world of numerology begins a new cycle. We as a country have planted many a seed together and killed some strong roots in doing so. Each of us has likely followed course in some way. Some seeds are likely well soiled and will need nurturing to grow, re-arranging to improve worth and vitality, and love to support their potential to impact the greater good. Given the natural progression of a cycle from 2011 or ‘1’ to 2019 or ‘9’ and the parenting role we must play to instill a healthy life for our creations, 2020 will be flourishing with plush trees, whether forest or jungle. Act now:

·         Study your past year.

·         Define the seeds you have planted with clarity and conviction.

·         Decide now which you will continue to nurture and those that are not meant to be. Seeds are big picture life altering/ enhancing anchors. They can be ideas or actions or commitments or relationships, you name it. They are planted by you though and you are a powerful being on this fruitful earth created by a brilliant master.

·         Cherish that which grew from a tiny seed.

·         Take time before Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and the remaining Holy-days until 2012 to establish your responsibilities to feed your seeds for optimal success.

·         Start this week!

·         Join me next week for some Holi-Day Holi-stic Nutrition Tips!