Not to state the obvious but god dam I love holidays – not only do you get to escape the normalities of your everyday life/work/technology and responsibilities, but for 2 whole weeks (if you’re lucky) you unknowingly allow yourself to morph into a better version of you– a more relaxed, fun, stylish, and adventurist (lets be honest – awesome…) version of you.

Just a little extra bit of time up your sleeve automatically transforms you into the you you wish you could be all year long. So this got me thinking, how can I (realistically) keep some of this holiday glow and use even just a little for my everyday life, post holiday bliss?

Waking up at 5am may sound like a bit of an overkill (hey I am still on Sydney time) but this has allowed me to walk my pup along the beach, followed by a run myself, then a short kayak across the river for a tad of exploring – all before 9am.

We then feast on an amazing breakfast of free range farm eggs (the yolk is out of this world yellow) with some avocado, fresh mushrooms, tomatoes with a little bacon.

The rest of the day is filled with playing with my gorgeous nieces, a few swims and lots of reading and cooking for my family.

So what have I summarised as the key to maintaining this feeling?

As hard as it is initially.. the early bird really does get the worm – and then some. You just can’t beat going for a swim or walk in the morning before work to separate the two – no one and I mean no one feels good rolling out of bed straight into the office chair where you sit for the next 8 or so hours.

The next is finding a balance between selfish (hello overdue massage) and selfless acts like cooking a meal for others, which leads me to my last point…eating and preparing clean but tasty meals. Christmas time is about food, it always has been and always will be, though it is now you have to be smart about adapting your favourites into a healthy version.

While most people around me are having crayfish sandwiches on white buttery bread (super tasty I know but since I follow ‘modern paleo’ principles, grains are out) so instead I opt for a fresh and colourful crayfish salad (recipe below) or for sweets I have made almost chocolate balls (with a splash of rum for a Christmas twist) and banana bread (see deserts for the recipes).

Yes, holidays give you the needed time to prepare healthy food at a leisurely pace, which of course can be hard to replicate in a real life. I am all too familiar with the daunting task of creating healthy masterpieces during a busy week, but my using the extra hours in the morning to prepare meals for the day, or dedicate a block of time every Sunday to making holiday glow worthy meals, you will soon see the benefits and reduced stress that meal times can bring.

Happy holidays x

Crayfish Salad

1 cup of baby spinach

Handful of cherry tomatoes

Half an avocado

Slow roasted pumpkin with rosemary

A sprinkle of pine nuts

1 fresh caught crayfish drizzled with lemon juice or vinegar

Garnish with parsley and enjoy!

Nutrition Highlights

Crayfish, 3 oz. (84.9g) (cooked, moist heat)
Calories: 70
Protein: 14.2g
Carbohydrate: 0.0g
Total Fat: 1.02g
Fiber: 0.0g
*Excellent source of: Selenium (31.2mcg), and Vitamin B12 (1.83mcg)

In addition, there is a healthy supply of vitamin D and A as well as calcium and potassium, copper and zinc in crayfish. Iodine is also often mentioned as an important ingredient