HO-HO, OH NO…ON THE WEEK OF CHRISTMAS

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Holiday Weight Gain

CAROLS OF COOKING AND CHAOS AND CLEANING

Forget about:

  • 12 Drummers Drumming
  • Eleven Pipers Piping
  • Ten Lords a Leaping
  • Nine Ladies Dancing
  • Eight Maids a Milking
  • Seven Swans a Swimming
  • Six Geese a Laying
  • Five Golden Rings
  • Four Calling Birds
  • Three French Hens
  • Two Turtle Doves
  • and a Partridge in a Pear Tree…

It’s more about what you get planning a memorable Christmas Eve, morning and noon meal:

  • 30 Guests a Coming
  • 90 Recipes a Reading
  • 20 Pies a Baking
  • Gluten-Free a Thinking
  • Hard-Wood Floors a Polishing
  • Unnamed Dishes a Cooking
  • And 100 things in less than 10 Days

You get it….

DASHER, DANCER, PRANCER, VIXEN, COMET, CUPID, DONNER AND BLITZEN.

Oh, and Overeating, Sugar Loads, Hangovers and Fruitcakes, Blood Pressure, Chest Pains, Gut Distress and Weight Gain… (an extra strain on the roof.)

LET YOUR YULE TIDE OVERFLOW

It’s never easy up to this point, and maybe we’ve gone a bit overboard, (although true), but now is time to stop and think what the holiday is really all about: family, love, laughter, togetherness, gratefulness, rejoicing, hope, awe, joy, making memories, yule tide spirit, peace on earth and hundreds of photos, videos and selfies to mark the wonderful moments.

IT’S A GOOD DAY, CHARLIE BROWN…

Other than one helping after another of football, another tradition is to watch Christmas movies. And there are tons of them. Some of the most popular include:

  • A Christmas Carol
  • Scrooge
  • Miracle on 34th Street
  • Gremlins
  • Elf
  • The Bishop’s Wife
  • A Christmas story1941
  • The nightmare before Christmas
  • How the Grinch Stole Christmas
  • Home Alone
  • Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
  • It’s a Wonderful Life
  • Frosty the Snowman
  • The Santa Clause
  • A Christmas story
  • White Christmas
  • Holiday Inn
  • The Muppet Christmas Carol
  • Scrooged
  • Christmas in Connecticut
  • Bad Santa

It’s a really nice thing for the family to do together. On one device.

RETURN THIS

No, not a sweater, not a set of kitchen spoons that look like bizarre zoo creatures…return all the things that are making your body feels like it’s been stuck in the chimney, and return to good health. Some of the things that can wreak havoc on your body, can really be coming because your hormones are out of balance. Hormones are the great communicators, sending messages to the cells throughout our bodies. Because they can fluctuate, they can act like a roller coaster, causing mood swings, sleepless nights and depression. And those are just a few of the symptoms. But there’s help. Dr. Stephen A. Goldstein, Goldstein, MD, FACS at Denver hormone health has years of expertise, experience and advanced training in balancing hormones. You can tell he really cares. After discussing your issues, several simple tests are taken. The results help him pinpoint where the problems are and from there he creates a uniquely tailored treatment plan to help.

Make an appointment now.

Get relief. With all the trimmings.

HO-HO, OH NO…ON THE SECOND WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS

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Christmas Stress

WRAPPED UP IN KNOTS

All right…so you THINK you got most of what you were looking for, including a fortune in wrapping regalia that has to envy the gifts they enrobe. Great. But now you have to wrap everything, scissors and bows, scraps of unused paper and globs of stuck scotch tape forming a gooey, towering mountain of mess around you.  Oh, and labels…can’t forget labels. There’s another nightmare that can give you a boxful of insomnia and anxiety. 

HAIL THE KIDS

Christmas is really for kids; a lot of people think. You think, “yeah?”, and in another form of guilt, you have to plan on making their holiday the most memorable ever. These days, they text photos of all the gifts they want (no, make that “expect”.) Many of which are devices and games and anything tech. (Read “expensive.)  Their manic sides take over and they are in your ear endlessly, day and night. And cookies. Christmas cookies. There’s a tradition that could drown you in icing and powdered sugar and piles of sprinkles. Sometimes, the kids actually like to be part of it, licking spoons and downing raw dough. But suddenly, as quickly as the cookies disappear, so do they. Still, why is it you are downed with a bad case of BMS– Bad Mother Syndrome?

TREE AND TINSEL TERROR

Then there’s the magical moment of “the tree”. Some have faux (used to be called “fake”) ones, disassembled somewhere, that with gads of distress, dads are forced to put together. Other families trek out for the real thing—lush green, fragrant smelling firs. Here, dad gets his own grief trying to convince his whining, clawing kids why a 20-foot behemoth balsam won’t even get through their door. Once the tree is (supposedly) upright in its stand, the ritual of decorating begins. Christmas lights, (what seems like miles to untangle), old ornaments and new, strands of strung popcorn and tons of glittery tinsel that sticks to everything. And, of course, there’s the tree topper. The lights are lit and a huge “aaaahhh” fills the room making it all worth it.

But in a flash, “aaaaahhh” turns to “oooooo” and “nooooooo”. Dad falls off the ladder…it’s off to the Emergency Room. The tree isn’t settled tightly enough and topples. (Happens more than you think). Then the pets pounce, rolling in the tinsel and ingesting everything they shouldn’t. Which can be deadly if not caught in time. It’s off to the vet Emergency Room. And the bit about “making the season bright” can be a huge hazard when trees are too dry, candles abound and electrical glitches can start fires! How are we doing on the “joy” part so far?

PARTY POOP OUT

The invitations to stop over for eggnog and goodies roll in from everywhere. Family, friends, neighbors, parents of your kids’ school friends…So you slide into your “faking it” smile that belies your body’s aches and pains, and socialize until you’re ready to drop. And if you work, watch out for office holiday parties. Oh, what dangers lurk there. Minefields of mess. Alcoholic excess is magic juice for sometimes making fools of yourselves. Tongues loosen, barriers break down, truths, complaints and grudges are open ground. Going with a significant other might help, but it’s never a guarantee. And the next morning? A remorseful, guilt-filled hangover with a side of upset stomach. What’s to celebrate there?

HARK THE HERALD HEALTH

Feeling heavier and nuttier than a fruitcake about now? Sure, Christmas craziness can make you feel that way, but if your hormones are imbalanced, that could be the real problem. Hormones move all through the body, chemical messengers that impact the way your cells and organs function. They can impair your immune and digestive system, accelerating damage at the cellular lever, even telling cells to die. One way to calm the chaos going on inside your body is to make an appointment to see Dr. Stephen A. Goldstein, MD, FACS at Denver hormone health. At the forefront of hormone replacement therapy, he has expertise and experience hard to match. But what’s more important is that his one goal is to make you feel your absolute best. All over.  When you meet him, you’ll see how much he cares. After an in-depth consultation, and simple tests, he can tell exactly what hormones might be making you feel so messed up. Then he creates a uniquely tailored plan for you, that unlike some gifts you get, fit perfectly!

Make the call now.

Give a little more tenderness and goodwill to yourself.

HO-HO, OH NO…ON THE THIRD WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS

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Holiday Stress

IT COULD REALLY SLEIGH YOU

It’s Black Friday, and visions of angst dance through your head. Because Christmas is right around the corner, just while you’re still trying to recoup after Thanksgiving. Not something to be so grateful about at this point. The headaches raise their ugly heads again. You want to curl up with a steamy cup of hot chocolate (a hit of rum in it wouldn’t be so bad) and wake up when it’s all over. Like in 2017, maybe. But you’re tough and resilient and ready to go.

HELPLESS AND ELFLESS

Whatever’s supposed to be frantically going on at the North Pole, doesn’t seem to have anything to do with you. Where are your merry band of elves working to make things easier? Didn’t they get your text…” HELP!”? Actually, where is anyone in your family stepping up to the wreath? Most of the time you’re pretty much on your own and what you have to do is daunting. A “Bah Humbug” would be acceptable here. Even before gifts and other plans, you need to think of Christmas Cards. Pictures of the family? Touching thoughts? Funny? And who is supposed to get them? You can count on forgetting someone. So you can count on a big hill of guilt. But grab your gift garb and get ready to shop.

SHOPPING THROUGH THE SNOW

There’s so much in store for you. Oh wait, that’s so many stores in store for you.

Door busters can cause you to bust a gut. The lines, the insanity…forget it.

And then there are the decisions. Like the card confusion, who gets what?  If anything. The mailman? Your manicurist? The babysitter? The paperboy? (Oh wait, that hasn’t been an issue for ages and ages thanks to digital news.) Who might give you a gift you aren’t expecting so you better have something on hand for them?  “Oh, you didn’t have to do that”, they gush.  Wish that were true. You do have choices, though. You could shop online. But you could blow hours and hours on that one. Oh, and no guarantee anything you buy will arrive in time for the big day. Actually, there’s another blustery thought: just how many gifts do each person get? If you celebrate Hanukkah, there’s 7 nights of gifts to get. Try and wrap your head around all that. You can’t, so, it’s off you go, ready for the battles at the counters with the only bells jingling are in your head are incessantly loud, annoying and endless. Ah, it’s like music.

Dashing through the snow

In your 6-seat Chevrolet

O’er the crowded freeways you go

Crying all the way

Jingle bells…jingle bells…

PUT THIS ON YOUR LIST:

Dr. Stephen a. Goldstein, MD, FACS. at Denver hormone health.

A lot of the health problems you’re feeling over the holidays, like stress or all other malaise toying around with your body, what you’re feeling might actually be the result of unbalanced hormones. Like so many other things you’re at the mercy of this season, you could be at the mercy of hormones. Hormones are the messengers telling your cells how to operate. There is no end to the damage and tricks they can play. And how miserable they can make you feel. But dr. Stephen a. Goldstein, MD, FACS. at Denver Hormone Health is at the head of the field of hormone replacement therapy. In one consultation, he listens to what is bothering you, then with simple tests, is able to determine exactly what’s going on in regard to your hormones. From there, he creates a uniquely tailored plan to get you back to Christmas joy.

So make an appointment today.

No thank-you card required.