What Are The Eating Struggles During The Holiday Season? & How To Implement Intuitive Eating?
We all know that the Holidays are times when certain struggles emerge. However, there are ways to navigate and handle them, that will make you feel empowered instead of stressed.
Let us go through the main struggles and their solutions:
1. Feeling out of control around food: The more you restrict food, the more you crave it.
The solution: Telling yourself that you are allowed to eat any food whenever you want, at any time of the year and at any quantity that satisfies you.
The question will then become: Do I want it? / Do I feel like it?
You will be less likely to stuff yourself from quiche or binge on gingerbread cookies, thinking it is the only time you can have those.
2. Not knowing when to stop eating or when you are full:
Try practicing mindful eating before the holidays start, on one meal per day or once in a while. That meal will be enjoyed alone and without distractions (no TV, phone, podcast).
It will help you pay attention to all your senses as well as your hunger and fullness cues.
You can learn so much before you get to the holidays’ meals and you will be able to listen to your body’s feelings of fulness better.
Mindful eating is a good habit to keep all year long.
3. How to find balance during the holidays:
There are more foods for the soul than to nourish our bodies as part of the celebration and the creation of memories with family and friends. Yet if you think about it, there are only a few holiday meals per year.
You can meal prep beforehand, for the times when you are tired or stressed to cook and use the freezer to your advantage.
You can also incorporate holiday left-overs as part of your meal planning and mix them up within your other meals of the week.
Remember that restriction is when you want something and you tell yourself you can’t have it.
You will know how to balance it out better when you are as prepared as possible.
However, making a choice that you want to feel good is when you know you can have that food any time but YOU decide not to in order to honor your health. For example:
You opt to drink alcohol on specific days of the holidays and not on a daily basis
OR
You decide on not serving yourself a second plate in order not get past fullness, overeat and feel uncomfortable afterwards.
4. Dealing with comments from other people about what you are eating or your weight as since it can get uncomfortable and awkward:
Scenario 1: Pressure to eat more from the person who cooked: You should not be a people pleaser; it is your body and your decision. It is ok to politely say NO.
You can tell them you are enjoying the food but you are saving room for dessert or you have reflux.
You can also offer to take part of the food home in a doggy bag whenever there is a lot of pressure.
Scenario 2: If someone is commenting on the quantity that is on your plate, just tell them to focus on theirs and you will focus on yours.
You can also write or practice certain responses before you go to gatherings if that makes you feel more at ease.
Scenario 3: If someone comments on your or someone else’s body OR tells you that you have gained weight:
If you are close to the person, you can tell them: “I am working on my relationship with food and my body and I don’t appreciate comments like that”.
If that person is not close to you OR you simply don’t feel like discussing, just change the subject. It is your right not to play that game and to set your own boundaries.
On the same line, a reminder to you is to avoid commenting on anyone’s body or even giving compliments to people when you notice that they have lost weight. You never know what is going on in their life and some people lose weight because they have an eating disorder, are sick, depressed or have been struggling in a way or another.
On the other hand, some people gain weight but they are at a happier place in their life, they got back to their set point weight or they simply gained muscle mass which are all great!
Overall, it is better to avoid commenting on anyone’s weight whether they gained or lost weight; unless they are very close to you, you are aware of their situation and they feel like discussing this issue in a private or one-on one conversation.
Scenario 4: If people or the voice in your head (a.k.a. “the food police” in Intuitive Eating) tells you that:
You can eat whatever you want and then do a strict diet after the holidays OR
To buy clothes that are smaller in size to fit in them later at a specific moment of time OR
To compensate the extra calories, you ate or will be eating by over-exercising or sticking to cardio workouts only OR
To skip dessert on that day although it is one of your favorites
Remember that it is not an all or nothing thinking! That the abundance mindset is the way to go (that nothing is forbidden or permitted at a particular time) and that what matters to our health is the overall habits and food intake we have throughout the year.
It also doesn’t mean that you cannot tune in to your body’s signals during the holidays, stay nourished and while still enjoying the gathering.
You don’t want that constant food dilemma and obsession in your head which only makes your relationship with food and your body worse.
Exercise to feel better and whenever YOU plan it and feel like it, and NOT to burn yesterday’s dinner! So, if you feel like doing a Yoga or weight resistance session, do that instead of punishing yourself with a workout you hate!
Intuitive eating is a non-diet approach to eating that can help you to develop a healthy relationship with food. If you're struggling with eating during the holidays, try incorporating some of these principles into your life. You may be surprised at how much better you feel.
Stéphanie