5 Tips For Holiday Eating (from a dietitian)
We are officially IN the holidays. It is a time for thankfulness, joy and celebration. For gifts, goodies and parties. And for mixed messages about food, indulging, and the resulting guilt.
As the morning news shows begin to serve us up a heaping helping of “eat this not that” and “how to make traditional foods healthier” and “how not to gain weight over the holidays,” I challenge you to tune it out and tune in to a different way of experiencing holiday food this season by following these 5 tips.
1) Don’t Save Up
Do you ever skip breakfast and maybe just eat something really small at lunch when you know that you have a big holiday meal or party to go to that night?
This concept of “saving up” calories usually ends up in more overall calories consumed than had you eaten more earlier in the day.
Why?
Because by the time we reach the afternoon or evening after not eating much that day, often we are starving and our bodies physiological drive to want to get a lot of energy into it fast is really strong.
If you haven’t eaten much all day, by the time you arrive at the spread of turkey and stuffing or sausage balls and artichoke dip, your body is desperate for energy and we are inclined to get energy into it fast.
And when you are getting energy into your body fast, it can be very difficult to slow down and find your fullness. It is proven that the more hungry you are, the more likely that you will overeat.
2) Don’t arrive starving
This is not just an extension of number 1, although they do go hand in hand!
Even if you have eaten a satisfying breakfast and lunch, by the time you start getting ready for the holiday meal or party, you might very well be hungry again. The inclination is to hold off, you have a lot of great food coming!
You know the saying don’t go to the grocery store hungry - and why is that? Because the next thing you know, you have a cart full of foods that you don’t even usually eat and you don’t really like because Melba toast is BOGO and you just have to have it.
For the same reason, it’s not a good idea to go to a holiday meal or party starving either. Have a light snack, even if it’s an hour or less before you head out the door. A snack that still leaves plenty of room in your stomach to be able to enjoy all the delicious food.
3) Skip the “should” foods
Now that you have leisurely made your way to the food table, being able to chat with friends or family along the way because you aren’t dizzy, faint and hangry from not eating all day.
And because you had eaten your snack earlier just before you left, you are not desperate for food and you have created some space for yourself to determine what sounds good.
Survey the table, see any favorites?
Take it all in, then ask yourself, what do I really want right now?
And you know what? That is the only question you need to ask yourself to determine what you should have.
None of this, fill up on the veggies first business - unless of course that is the honest answer to your question - but I really don’t care if you don’t put one measly raw carrot on your plate.
Seriously.
This is a holiday party and there is great food and this not a time to squander precious real estate on your plate and in your stomach with “should foods.”
So decide what you really want, take some of each, and pass on what doesn’t appeal to you.
Why?
Because if you fill your plate with the “should” foods, after you are done eating those and you get to the foods you really wanted, you are most likely going to end up feeling overly full.
Why?
Because the foods that you really wanted taste good to you and you want to eat them, so you are most likely going to eat them, only now you are already full on the foods that you didn’t want that much.
The sole purpose of a holiday food’s existence is for enjoyment, comfort and nostalgia. It SHOULD be enjoyable and pleasurable, and if it is not, don’t eat it!
4) Enjoy the food
As we just discussed, enjoyment of holiday food is essential.
Take your first bite from something and make sure that it is holding up its end of the bargain by tasting just as good as you hoped it would.
Does Grandma’s stuffing taste just as good as it always does?
Does Sally’s famous pimento cheese taste just as good as it has in the past, or did she have an off year?
If it hits the taste bud jack pot - enjoy every bite of that beauty and go back for more if you’d like.
If it doesn’t? Put it down, don’t eat it, and move on to the next.
Since you had that snack before you came (I know, I know, you are like - allrightallready with the snack!) and you don’t desperately need to fill your belly fast, you have the time to eat slowly and for enjoyment.
5) Resolve Not To Resolve
So what if you do “overeat?” It is ok, I promise. As a matter of fact, overeating at times actually fits into the definition of normal eating.
Overeating at Thanksgiving, a holiday party or Christmas dinner says nothing about your willpower, self-control, or your ability to eat well or care for your body.
Sometimes we overeat because it tastes good, and we need to leave it at that.
There is no need to feel guilty about it. There is no need to resolve to do better tomorrow, eating less “to make up for it.” There is no need to resolve to do better the next time or resolve to “start over again” in the New Year.
Why?
Because this thinking starts a vicious cycle of overeating, guilt, cutting back our food, which inevitably leads to overeating again, then guilt again, rinse and repeat. This concept is worthy of it’s own blog post or 20, but trust me, you did not mess up.
This probably should be number 6, but we will just consider it a bonus one.
Be present.
Don’t let stress about calories, sugar and fat steal your joy.
I know that it can be difficult to not let our joy get squelched when we feel that we are in a holiday eating minefield of “bad choices” and “over indulgences” that cause us to constantly “fail” at eating. But these occasions should be about giving and receiving love, about connecting.
Push back on thoughts about food and body that distract you and keep you from enjoying the here and now - and flip that tv off the next time someone is trying to “enlighten” you about the calories in a slice of pumpkin pie or a sausage ball!
If you find this approach to nutrition refreshing and you’d like to hear more about how you can think about food differently the rest of the year, I’d love for you to get my free masterclass and I’ll help you figure out where you might be getting stuck with food and your body and where to go instead! You can click here to get it for free.
Hi! I’m Meg. I am a registered dietitian nutritionist and coach and I help women stress and obsess less about food and their body so that they can enjoy life more and make a bigger impact on this world!
If you want to become more nutrition and body confident, click the button below to get my free video and workbook series, 4 Steps To Becoming Body Confident.