Does the holiday season stress you out? Does the food marathon this time of year give you nightmares?
Fear no more. We gotchu covered!
We know the holiday season can be triggering for a lot of people. Worried about falling off track, sinking into the black hole of indulging, or the overwhelming guilt and shame that comes with your uncontrollable eating?
We get it!
Here are some quick and dirty (and effective) tips on eating your way through the holidays with grace:
1. Enter the party well fed: contrary to what a lot of people think they should do. When you enter a party with an empty stomach, because you’ve been prepping to get dumped on by a large amount of calories… is like going grocery shopping when you’re hungry. You will eat EVERYTHING!
Rather than starving yourself all day, have your regular meals and enjoy the holiday dinner like any other dinner you’d be having. That way, you won’t need to justify eating more or less, it’ll just be any other meal with a festive twist 😉
2. Chew slow, listen more: your mama was right. Don’t talk when you chew, and listen more than you speak 🙂 When we chew more, we eat slower, which allows the brain to actually receive stomach’s signal before we turn into a beached whale. Chewing more also allows us to savour the food, to appreciate the taste and texture we love so much
3. Have a realistic plan for the new year: new year, new me! Hmm what about right now? Is the current you someone who eats till they drop? We often go into the holidays gearing up for a famine. Thinking that we will have to go on a “diet”, restrict and deprive ourselves to go on a health kick… To prepare for the upcoming famine, our mind often justifies the need to load up before the restrictions come. If you haven’t realized, it’s completely an illusion and not sustainable at all.
Instead, have a balanced and sustainable plan for the new year. Nothing drastic, but still on track towards your goals. You’ll find it much more manageable and long lasting. And the good news? Your results will also be more predictable and that bangin’ body will be yours forever 😉
4. Don’t restrict leading up to the holidays: some think if we can “save up” the calories before the holidays, we’ll afford to eat more… That’s exactly the type of non-sense our mind makes up. Restricting calories before the holidays will make you feel more deprived. You think using your macho willpower during the holiday dinner will save ya… think again (and no offense to your willpower!). All your cravings will start to accumulate and rack up. The more you feel a “lack”, the more you build up the momentum to indulge. When those delicious treats are placed in front of you, your mind will make up all kinds of excuses to dig in.
Remember, balance is key! Allow yourself to eat for nourishment and for indulgence. Health and weight goals become reality with consistency, not periodic deprivations. Guilt and shame only holds us back, and does not propel us closer to our goals.
Have an amazing holiday season! Indulge, savour, and enjoy all the goodness this season has to offer!
Written by Deanna Rose
Deanna is the founder of Wellth by Deanna Rose. She focuses on empowering women to love their body and create their dream body, master unbreakable confidence and really own their true power. Most people cope through life by creating their own physical and mental limitations on the daily, and not realizing they actually never lived. She works to break through those limiting beliefs and help them live with confidence and freedom. Her work focuses on optimizing nutrition, fitness, and mindset; emphasizing sustainability and integrating it into a lifestyle rather than a quick fix. She also works with people on getting out of the restrict- overeat cycle, weight loss, burnout, and performance optimization. She has a background in counselling, is a registered and licensed naturopathic doctor, certified sports nutritionist, and strength and conditioning specialist.
