Why protein is the secret to feeling your best this festive season
The festive season is a time for celebrating, spending time with your friends, your family and embracing every opportunity to get dressed up! But with that, it is easy to feel like your routines and healthy habits go out of the window, leaving you feeling a little out of balance
This is why when it comes to your nutrition, protein is your secret weapon to stay feeling energised and ready to enjoy everything that comes with this time of year — because it is not just about building muscle!
Protein comes with a whole host of other benefits like:
boosting your mood: your body needs amino acids from protein to produce your "feel good" and happy hormones, dopamine and serotonin. Very helpfully, turkey is one of the best sources of tryptophan, which we use to make serotonin!
helping your sleep: serotonin is converted into melatonin (your sleep hormone) and so the more you can support your body's production of these, the better!
balancing your blood sugar: protein slows the release of sugar from your food into your bloodstream, which helps prevent those energy dips and hunger cravings that can otherwise come with those festive sweet treats!
So, how can you get enough protein?
Well ideally you'd be getting 25-30g of protein at every meal, but what I say to my clients is just make it the focus of your plate — when you are out celebrating, the last thing you want to be worrying about is hitting nutrient targets! So choose your protein first, and then build around it
And then if you are having a snack, think of things like: hummus, nuts and seeds, eggs... and lots of smoked salmon nibbles at your drinks parties!
Lastly, don't overlook breakfast — starting with a protein-rich breakfast means that you can go about the rest of your day knowing that you have got a good dose of nutrients in you, which takes the pressure off your other meals! Whether it is a protein smoothie with spinach and blueberries, or eggs, smoked salmon and veg.. your body will thank you for it!