The Tummy Whisperer

Ep. 11 - Navigating Thanksgiving: Embracing Mindfulness for a Joyous and Digestively Peaceful Holiday

• Renee Barasch

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Ever found yourself with a case of the post-Thanksgiving blues, feeling more stuffed than the turkey on your table? Join us, Renee the Tummy Whisperer, and my trusty sidekick Janine, as we tackle the holiday stressors head-on, sharing secrets to a serene and healthful Thanksgiving. We get up close and personal with strategies to glide through family squabbles and turn potential chaos into calm. Discover how swapping out the usual frenzy for mindfulness practices can lead to a delightful day of giving thanks, delicious eats, and most importantly, digestive peace.

We're serving up a second helping of wisdom, dishing out the must-try ingredients for a joyous holiday, sprinkled with gratitude and a side of "shit shield" to fend off negativity. Savor the heartwarming tale of my gluten-free pie adventure and learn how small acts of kindness can enrich not just your own festivities, but also those of others in need. Whether you're breaking bread or breaking out the gluten-free goodies, let's celebrate together and make this Thanksgiving not just another Thursday, but a day filled with laughter, love, and the best kind of fullness.


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Renee :

Hey everybody, welcome to the Tummy Whisperer. We are on episode number 11. Thanksgiving week here All the hustle and bustle has started everywhere. I was at the grocery store on Sunday picking up stuff and tons of cranberries, all the green beans. I was shopping and getting everything ready to go. So I thought I would talk about how to try to reduce some stress around our Thanksgiving day holiday here. Unfortunately, holiday time is supposed to be a time of relaxation and peace and gratitude and family or friends or loved ones. So many times there's so much stress because of family dynamic or this or that the other Janine we were talking about.

Renee :

Oh yes, and that's a big deal because you really want to have. For me it's just going to be I told you it's going to be Mark, myself, my dog, maybe my friend, her dog maybe not, and it's going to be nice and small. His kids are away and they've got their lives. If you're invited somewhere or you are hosting or you're going to a restaurant or whatever it is, you can talk about things that you can do physically with your eating and with your diet to try to make your digestion and your health better around Thanksgiving, so you're not feeling horrible after dinner. But also, too, there's an emotional component too, and everybody knows and I've talked about this numerous times our cravings, what we crave, is usually driven by our mental state or not being able to have nourishment in our body, not digesting properly, and then plays into the neurochemistry, our brain chemistry, of what we want to feel good right, with that sugar or that fat or that salt or that crunch or that sweet or that cream or whatever it is in that moment, because so many things are happening, there's so many balls in the air with health, with emotional health, with digestive health, and they're not separate. They're not separate the first thing I think I'd like to give everybody an idea about is how to prepare yourself. Pretend you're the turkey. We gotta get you prepared for your holiday right. This takes some time and it takes some care and it takes some love so you can do some breathing, some meditation.

Renee :

Meditation I think everybody has this idea about meditation has to be sitting in silence for days and it is not bad at all. Put on some music, something that you like. You can put on some. I always have Alexa play nature sounds with birds and streams, and we just go to town. Mark will come meditate with me, rook will come by me. It's so cute, is that? With or without?

Janine:

alcohol.

Renee :

Yeah, that's good. I don't care. Whatever makes it easy for you, I'm talking about.

Janine:

I just find that when I'm cooking, I need to be drinking something, whether it's water or liquor or something, because if I'm not, then I'll just eat and pick everything.

Renee :

Yeah, me too, I'm a cutter slicer. Yeah, again, my table is going to be very easy this year. I've got carrots, potatoes, green beans, the turkey salad.

Janine:

It's stressful holiday I've never done I've only cooked an Easter dinner before and I love Easter because I'm not a big turkey fan. So I make a big tenderloin and some really good. But Thanksgiving, statistically, is the most stressful holiday of the year for so many reasons. Family sucks, you're mad at your brother. You haven't talked to your sister in four years. You're doing this, you're doing that and that can cause you stress and that can cause you to eat right.

Renee :

Because your digestion shuts down. That stress automatically is an automatic reset. For, hey, we got a problem here. Right, houston, we have a problem. We got a shut off digestion because we need to be able to run from this proverbial stress, right, which is the family, whatever it is, yada, yada. And on top of that, digestion shuts off and the brain is not satisfied. So here comes the cravings, right to the tongue, right, go get that sugar, go get that salt, go get whatever it is you need.

Renee :

So again this I talk a lot about self-care. I think it's important. It doesn't have to be 10 hours a day, but if you can do something one to two minutes three times a week, that's something that's better than nothing. My husband and I have been doing some meditation practice. We started doing it. Started doing it about a week ago and I missed this morning, but we've been doing it and it's amazing how much nicer your day can go.

Renee :

So something that would be an automatic when your body's re-regulated and relaxed. Some maybe that incoming hit is not that big of a deal. We're about your oh, I don't like that, but no big deal. And then you keep moving on, so doing something that you love. If you are preparing your table. Make something that you love to eat. Nobody else has to like it, but if they do, fantastic. Make it special for yourself and make sure that you're taking care of yourself. So again, like for me, I'm having some healthy food. It's going to feel good. Digestion starts with preparation. I'm not much of a cook, but I was thrown down this year. Normally, I order Thanksgiving from a chef who does everything organic and gluten free for us. That sounds amazing, so convenient. I warm everything up and like hello.

Janine:

Wow, and I bet it's delicious right.

Renee :

Yeah, but I wanted to do it this year and I'm excited to do it. And again, my days and my morning is going to start out with some breath work, some relaxation time with my family, the dog. I'm cooking everything tomorrow, so I'm going to turkey's almost defrosted needs like another day. I'm going to throw it in the oven tomorrow. We got a small. The smallest bird I can get was just 12 pounds. So we'll be eating turkey for a week and I'm going to have everything done. So on Thursday, our plan is to have a long walk in nature with my doggy and my hubby and my friend and her doggy too, and we're just going to have a relaxing, very chill Thanksgiving. So I'm lucky because it's going to be small, but again, I'm taking time to have a nature walk. I'm taking time to take care of myself. My husband, my partner, loves to do that. We enjoy watching so much.

Renee :

So if you're hustle and bustle and you have to be somewhere, you've got kids and you've got so much on your plate, you may not be working that day. There's preparation, there's shopping, there's all of it. Try to prepare Today's, Tuesday. So people, a lot of people, have most of their stuff already. If you're going to make a dish, make something that could be a little bit healthier.

Renee :

So we talked before we got on Jeanine about how to not have three scoops of stuffing and three scoops of mashed potatoes, right, but maybe having extra squash, extra vegetables, extra green garlic, green beans or whatever sweet potatoes, whatever it is, having extra of that. If there's going to be salad which I am making salad, extra, extra of that, and I didn't get my act together. I don't think we're going to have any like gluten free pumpkin pie and I'm actually okay with that. I think I might. I'll probably just make an apple crumble that's just cut up apples with maple syrup, right. And that's another thing, guys sweetening with maple syrup or agave nectar or a little bit of honey, although you never want to heat honey because it can become toxic.

Janine:

So using Queen få selle.

Renee :

Yeah, for those honey lovers out there never heat your honey. So when you're putting honey in your tea, have your tea cool down some, because honey can be come toxic when it is heated. So you never want to really cook with honey. But cooking with maple if you like, maple is fine and using that you know that. Yes, and using fruit for sweeteners is wonderful too. I made oatmeal bars yesterday that turned into like oatmeal mash, but I used banana to sweeten it, it was good.

Renee :

It was good. The whole the pan is gone. We ate them all. We kept going right by the kitchen counter and taking a piece and taking oh, look at that, Take it, it's really good, it was good.

Renee :

So yeah, using fruit for sweeteners, using other types of sweeteners, trying to get full on the squashes and the vegetables, having having good protein and trying to not eat too much. You can always take a plate, a plate, and load up a small plate and go back for seconds, but maybe take two minutes in between getting up to go, maybe talk to Uncle Ralph or whoever and check in with yourself Are you really full? And if you're pretty full and you, I can wait. Then you don't have to load up your plate again. Or, if you're going to go back, grab some extra salad, grab some extra squash, grab a little bit of turkey, hold the stuffing not too much gravy, go for the cranberry sauce and get some vegetables in there. Try to be mindful when you're loading up your plate, just cause Thanksgiving doesn't give us the right to be completely gluttonous. Exactly, thank you.

Janine:

I was looking for the right, it's so true, and I think of all the years of Thanksgiving's I've had with family, and typically Turkey obviously has the enzyme that makes you tired, so people want to sleep right. They want to have something right, which is I'm super sensitive to it because I don't really eat turkey.

Janine:

So a lot of your relatives end up like sleeping on the couch right and they're like, oh, we're going to eat and then we're going to watch football, we're going to pass out yeah, that's great. I see you twice a year and this is great. But we could take the crate. I want to see you sleep right.

Renee :

I'm just, you know, I'm screwed completely. Exactly it's so boring. So take a walk. I think I'm going to take a walk this year Doesn't it sound nice. We've had unseemly warm weather here. We're like in the 40s 50s, which is warm this time of year for us, but it's really warm, perfect walking weather. Yeah, we've had near the sixties. Last week almost it was ridiculous. Yes, three years later. Three months later, we got lost. Don't ask. Thank you, bubble warming, I guess it's one good thing about it.

Janine:

Wow, interesting, renee.

Renee :

It's supposed to be nice on Thursday, so again we'll hit a walk. Rook is an all-weather dog. I just don't walk him in 90 degree weather. I don't walk you that, tim Anything 78 below. We're good to go and he loves it. So I want to try to get five miles in, five, six miles in on Thanksgiving, so that I will feel good about having extra food, because I will eat too much because I'm preparing it.

Janine:

I drink a lot of water in the morning, like when you wake up. I'm going to pound water because by the end of the evening you're eating, you're with family. It's better to just flush earlier, right?

Renee :

Yeah, or you can start, you can do hot lemon water and you can add some vodka. That's really going to be a soft say. Here's my hot lemon water. A little shot of a tea, tea nose.

Janine:

That sounds good. I'll do that with tequila, though, there you go.

Renee :

It's made with agave.

Janine:

Yeah, you know yeah.

Renee :

Other little tips that everybody knows. I'm going to sound like everybody's mother, but chew your damn food, guys. People eat so fast and I do it too Sometimes. I know I'm yelling and you guys don't want to do it because you're not thinking about it. You're thinking about the next email, or like I got to get the dish, I got the ba-ba-ba-ba.

Renee :

Take a breath, just take a breath. Putting the fork down in between bites. Take a bite or two. Put the fork down, start talking to your cousin, start talking to the waitress, start talking to your husband, I don't know. Ease, having ease around it. There's going to be plenty of food. It's not going anywhere. So, slowing down chewing, trying to chew your food you don't have to count how many times you chew but making sure that all the food is really almost like a paste before you swallow it. It gets your mind connected with swallowing and it gets your mind connected with your digestion and you'll separate your mind from eating, because eating should be it really should be ceremonious. There are people that don't get to eat on Thanksgiving and we're very lucky. People that are watching this are going to have a meal.

Janine:

For years. I love that you mentioned that. For years growing up, my dad and I I was used to volunteer at the church and feed the homeless Homelands. It's the most rewarding feeling to spend. If people have never done that, the gratitude and gratefulness that they give. It's not what you're giving, it's really what they're giving you. You're right.

Renee :

You're what you're receiving from how grateful they are.

Janine:

It's just heartwarming.

Renee :

Yeah, I definitely want to do that. I know I talk about doing it and I haven't. And I, you know I could, like I said I'm cooking everything tomorrow. I truly could. But you know, having gratitude for having a meal and having. You know, having gratitude for what you have and really having Jenine. You know me, I'm a glass half full, part of being a Libra right, I always look at the bright side of things. I'm always trying to see the light in everything. I think that's really important.

Renee :

I think when, if your attitude is worry and negative and fear, you're going to get worried, negative and fierce. When you can start changing your mindset and you're prepared for some jerky family member to be an asshole, and they will be right. If you're chill, it's okay. They can't really come at you with their vibration because your vibration is different from theirs and you can choose to walk away. You can choose to do whatever. You can choose to not let. My husband has this famous saying don't let, don't get any of their shit on you, and my therapist always says used to say, I don't see your mouth anymore, but put up your shit shield. So when they're coming at you with their emotional shit, bring your garlic and know that you are in a good place. And just because they are, does it mean that if your light annoys them, that's on them? So back to the. I don't want to get too into the emotional part of it, but it's all of it right.

Renee :

So you're going choosing healthier things to load on your plate, not loading too much of the carbs and then also not having that mindset of I'm going to get through the holidays. I'm going to really take care of my health after the first of the year. What, what? You're going to a month. You're going to eat like crap for a month. No, start doing something today, whether it is just drinking more water. If you just drink more water, if you just connect yourself with something you're putting in your mouth water, food, whatever it is you start changing your mind instead of having things be completely cut off and then you're acting on having that emotion of not caring. So you're just going to eat whatever anyway.

Renee :

And again, you know me, this isn't about like perfection and like never eating gluten and never having dairy and never having dessert. Oh, it is not that at all. This is about being able to eat things and feel good and enjoy your life Period. So I think those are good, helpful tips. Just really taking care of yourself. I think it's critical, it's important. We all need to do it. If you're noticing that you have, we're going to say something, janine.

Janine:

No, yeah, I was just about to say to your audience and people that are watching and listening all over that I it's one thing to hear someone say something, but I've actually taken a lot of your advice and it works. For example, if I eat, if I don't stand up and I'm just sitting there, the digestive process doesn't get started. So you'd recommend it stand up, breathe, do some movements.

Janine:

It makes like people don't realize that digestion starts from the minute you put something in your mouth before you can start chewing. You have digestive enzymes and you have all right they go in on your system. So there's ways to control everything. And I remember when I was working in weight loss years ago, this woman said to me and she was in her sixties and she had lost like 40 something pounds, and I was taking her after pictures, taking her testimonial, and I said what was your motivation for doing this? And she said and it stuck with me for 15 years she said there's chaos all around us and the only thing I can control is how I look and what I put in my mouth.

Janine:

And I thought yeah, I thought that is so true. So, no matter what's going on around you, if you can feel wellness, health mentally, physically, everything else just doesn't matter. Exactly.

Renee :

And that's so well put and that's so true. There is so much chaos around us all the time and what can you control? What you eat, what you drink, what you say? From me, the most part, unless you're really upset, which happens. But yeah, it's so true, it is so true. And the other thing, too, to keep in mind is not to have it so much feel like it's like a control thing, but it's like an invitation to yourself for better health. It's just an invitation to yourself for better health.

Renee :

With that being said, too, maybe I want to invite everybody too to have some awareness too around when you're eating. If you're noticing, I just started working with a client just a couple of days ago. She called me. She said I know when I eat legumes I get horrible acid reflux and her bowel goes 90 miles an hour. So legumes are high in oxalate and histamine and there's other things going on. So she has this awareness around legumes.

Renee :

You guys can start having some awareness around certain foods. If you know you eat something that every time you eat A, B or C, I get acid reflux, I get heartburn, I get diarrhea or I can't go to the bathroom. I notice I'm so bloated or, again, bloating can be even on an empty stomach because there's bacteria and undigested food particles and all of the other stuff. So starting to take a little bit of awareness and check in with yourself and know that if there is some issues or help out there it means your digestive system is off kilter, out of balance and you're not digesting what you're eating. So again we look at maybe putting in changing something. Maybe we can swap some of those legumes out for some other vegetables or rice or corn or whatever somebody tolerates, or different kinds of legumes. Some people tolerate garbanzo beans over black beans or navy beans or whatever it is. So black eyed peas are so many different options to try.

Renee :

In giving yourself that room and that invitation to try and having that awareness of, hey, something's not quite right, or I don't feel good, or I'm getting hives, I'm getting zits, I'm having bloating, I'm having bowel issues, my tummy is hurting me. You guys have a tummy whisperer, you know who to call. But if you have that awareness again it means the body is not in good health. Your check engine light is on. Digestion is what runs your body. What you eat, how your body absorbs, digests, absorbs and gets rid of the waste is what help is. Your mouth and your gut is your engine and it feeds the rest of your cells. And if you're not breaking down your food, your body is going to show you symptoms and I can run through them and I do every episode.

Renee :

The obvious digestive issues acid reflux, heartburn, gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea those are your obvious digestive symptoms. The ones that are not so obvious to people are poor sleep, skin conditions and let me back up poor sleep, not being able to fall asleep, not being able to stay asleep that's an absolute mechanism of poor digestion or eating something inflammatory. Skin conditions hormonal detoxification can look like chemical sensitivities or sensitivity to loud noises. If somebody walks in the room and is like hey, Janine, are you like? Oh, that's a sign of poor detoxification and it could be also poor carbohydrate metabolism. So again, the digestive system is whole health.

Renee :

Other things that you wouldn't think that are related to your digestion you mentioned hormone, skin, sleep, cravings, allergies, hair falling out, nails not growing. For women, If they're third of their eyebrow, certain come out. They're looking at thyroid issues and they're looking at gluten and dairy. So if you need and I do I had a Mahashi model person, so I lost a little third of my eyebrow years ago, so he's my eyebrow pencil. So if you need to extend your eyebrow pencil out, ladies, know that maybe something that you're eating is affecting your thyroid and affecting the rest of your body. Your body smart, and it will show you. And by the time your body shows you symptoms, it's already time to do something about it. So what do you think, Janine? Because this is some good stuff to start with, have for people every day going forward. It doesn't have to be just Thanksgiving, right, I think this is great.

Janine:

My takeaways are when I'm sitting breaking bread with shitty people that I don't really like. I'm going to be in my own world, digest my food, drink drink water, chew my food and then get up from the table and take a walk.

Renee :

Bravo.

Janine:

Those are Jeanine's takeaways from the tummy whisperer episode. I love it.

Renee :

I love it. If we can't get rid of the shitty people, then just have another little piece of gluten-free pumpkin pie.

Janine:

It's gone still. Oh, that sounds good.

Renee :

I hope folks used to make gluten-free apple, cherry and pumpkin. I would get one of each. What a pain, right? I'm like, oh, but I like all three and I don't see them anymore and I'm glad I didn't see it when I was there and you're like, yep, I didn't see it, or I wasn't looking too hard and I was like, yeah, I don't see it. I'm going to check out.

Janine:

And it's pretty easy to make a gluten-free pot Like almond flour. You reuse almond flour.

Renee :

They even have. A lot of grocery stores have a gluten-free crust that you could just make your pie filling, which again is like pumpkin puree, the spices, the nutmeg, the cinnamon, like coconut milk or something an egg-ish. I've never made one. I'm assuming that's how you would make a pumpkin pie filling. But yeah, I'll have to have a little pumpkin pie so I'll try to figure it out. But yeah, I hope everybody has very happy, happy, healthy, wonderful Thanksgiving.

Renee :

Find the gratitude for yourself first, so that you can share it with others. And if somebody is in your space and they're having a bad time, maybe you can have enough gratitude and self-love within yourself to share so you can help somebody else and also paying it forward. I think it's so important to do something kind for somebody, anything. Hold their door, send a nice text message Just out of the blue is thinking of you, Hope you guys are doing well, there's anything you can do, anything to pay it for. It makes you feel good, like you mentioned when you were serving to the homeless. It's a feeling that you just can't describe because you just feel so good helping somebody in need. So taking care of yourself guys, helping the people that need it, and I hope everybody has a wonderful, happy, healthy Thanksgiving. Lots of deep breaths and we'll see you guys in a couple of weeks. And if you guys need to find me, of course you can find me at thetummywhisperercom. You can listen and download. Janine, you do this part and never do it credit.

Janine:

Yes, if you're looking to get in touch with Renee the Tummy Whisperer, you can follow her at the Tummy Whisperer on Apple, Spotify or any of your preferred platforms. All of her information for a consultation and her contact info is in the description of the episode, and we look forward to having you on again.

Renee :

Absolutely. See, we'll do that back and better than I do.

Janine:

That's what I've been told, oh dear, on that note, thank you, nurse, love you.