Stop With the Holiday Food Guilt
December is a delicious time of year! There are family recipes that get baked, holiday parties with seasonal cocktails, and who is going to argue with an advent calendar that lets you have a piece of chocolate every day!
If you read the above and immediately felt overwhelmed (or like you’ll need to restrict your eating this time of year), STOP. This time of year, can be triggering for a lot of people, not only are all sorts of foods more available, eating until bursting is encouraged by family members and in the media, and stress if running high—hello mall shopping and family drama! This time of year is a rollercoaster that can have your emotional eating get the best of you.
But it doesn’t have to be like that. Here are a few ideas on how you can challenge the holiday expectation to overeat, overexercise, overreact.
- Trying eating food that you actually enjoy and tastes good to you. After a couple of days of gingerbread, you may find yourself wanting a more balanced meal.
- Don’t listen to diet culture that tells you to restrict before a party or meal—this is a recipe for getting into the binge/restrict cycle. Eat as you normally would throughout the day.
- Carve out alone time. With so much to do and people to see and events to plan, getting time to yourself might seem impossible. Try taking a bath for a longer break instead of a shower or send the kids outside to make a snowman while you sip tea in the kitchen (supervising from the window).
- Be realistic. You will likely overeat, we all do it, and that is not a problem! It doesn’t make you a bad person and it certainly shouldn’t make you feel
đź’› Your peace awaits.
