Intuitive Eating Around the Holidays
1. Reject the Diet Mentality – The holidays are upon us, which means the ever lurking, toxic diet culture messages are right around the corner. You know, the ones that make you feel like you have to change your body to have any worth in this world. The ones that prey on men and women and say “Oh it’s okay I guess that you enjoyed the holidays, but now it’s time to work it off.” Full stop right there.
To work towards intuitive eating you have to actively reject these messages. Kind of challenging when they are all around us, right? I hear you. It’s important to walk away from these conversations, change the subject, and unfollow whoever is promoting diets. The more you hear this messaging and believe that “a diet could work for me” the harder it is to work towards a place of intuitive eating. You see, diets are the exact opposite of intuitive eating. They set strict rules, make unrealistic promises, and make you feel like you are failing when they “don’t work” (news flash – diets don’t work or else you wouldn’t have tried so many). The diet world is a money making industry, they do not care about the individuals they are so called “helping.” The more you can reject these messages, the more you can truly lean into your intuition when it comes to food choices, and the less guilt you will feel for honoring what your body is requesting.
2. Honor Your Hunger – This leads me right into honoring your hunger. Your body has a hormone called ghrelin, also known as the hunger hormone. When your body releases ghrelin it signals to search for food. However, if you continuously ignore this signal it will eventually become suppressed, throwing your hunger fullness cues out of whack. It’s important to listen to your body! It is so intelligent and it’s telling you things for a reason. Honoring your hunger lets your body know that it can trust you. So, even if the big holiday party is tonight and you know there is going to be some great food, you still need to eat beforehand! This will keep your blood sugar levels balanced, will prevent overeating past the point of satisfaction, and will keep you happy and tell your body it can trust you to take care of it.
3. Make Peace with Food – Food is not the enemy. Toxic messages promoted by diet culture are. The more you tell yourself you “can’t” or “shouldn’t” have certain foods the more likely you are to want them. Here’s an example – you smell your favorite cookies that your Grandma makes every year at Christmas, but you tell yourself you can’t have any. You go all night without having a cookie, however, you can’t stop thinking about them. At 10 PM when everyone else has gone home and left the kitchen you end up binging on the cookies. This cycle can lead to guilt and shame (although it shouldn’t), and can also be hard on the body physically and mentally. What would it have been like to make peace with the cookies, have one or two, and move on with your evening?
4. Challenge the Food Police – No one likes someone making comments about their food, so why do we do it to ourselves?! Would you look at your friend and say “Oh you are so bad for eating that piece of cake”? Probably not. Let’s detach moral value from food choices. You aren’t good or bad for them. You didn’t steal something or hurt someone, you ate a piece of pie. So when that voice pops up in your head, push back against it! Question where these messages came from, unfollow diet accounts, and fact check your thoughts.
5. Discover the Satisfaction Factor – There is a difference between being full and being satisfied. You can eat a whole box of spinach and feel full, but it’s highly likely you will not be satisfied. Being satisfied might be decreasing the spinach, adding some chicken, dressing, croutons and cheese – or it might be skipping the salad all together and grabbing something else. Will every meal be the absolute best and your absolute favorite? Probably not, and that’s okay. When you have the opportunity though, pay attention to texture, taste, smell, and even your own surroundings! This holiday season don’t skip the foods you actually want to have for the foods you feel like you “should” have. At the end of the day you won’t feel satisfied and you will probably have overwhelming thoughts.
6. Feel Your Fullness – Something I often hear from clients is that they do not like to feel full. However, it is a normal human experience! Whether you avoid feeling full, or often eat past fullness to the point of being uncomfortable, there are tools you can incorporate to tune into fullness cues. Use a hunger/fullness scale in your mind, pause halfway through your meal to tune in, and eat consistently throughout the day. It’s also normal to eat past fullness at the holidays when we are enjoying a really good meal with family and friends, know that the feeling of being overly full is temporary.
7. Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness - Unpopular opinion here, but I think emotional eating is okay. I do believe it’s important to have other coping skills. If you are turning to food alone to cope with emotions this can harm you mentally and physically. That said, do not beat yourself up if you turn to food. Learn from the experience, pay attention to how you feel, and lean into other coping skills. The holidays can be a time of joy and a time of sadness, be kind to yourself and turn to others for support.
8. Respect Your Body - Your body knows where it needs to land when it is being properly nourished. This also means emotionally! Working towards a place of body kindness or body neutrality can seem challenging, but pushing back against your negative thoughts will rewire your brain to form new ones. Challenge the messages you hear and tell yourself. Again, around this time of year there are so many toxic diet culture messages, but you know what is best for your body - the best way to tune into that is to tune out external messages.
9. Movement – Feel the Difference - Intuitive movement focuses on tuning into how you feel versus other factors (calories burned, steps walked, etc). Great ways to make sure you are keeping movement fun is to be flexible with it, tune into how you are feeling before and after, and set intentions. Be honest with yourself when you need a day of rest and when you actually feel like moving. The holidays can be super busy, don’t miss out on time with friends and family just to get in that gym session… what would it be like to go for a walk with loved ones or take a day of rest and watch Christmas movie?
10. Honor Your Health – Gentle Nutrition - Sometimes when people hear intuitive eating they think of eating donuts all day long. If you are coming from a restriction mindset you might sway that way at first (think of it as a pendulum), but eventually your body is going to request something different. Our bodies are incredibly smart and they like a variety of nutrients! So while the holiday treats are abundant this time of year, I can almost guarantee if you let yourself have a few, your body will appreciate it AND also request other foods. Our mind tries to tell us otherwise (AKA - “If I have one cookie I’ll have 10”) but our bodies give us signals to take care of ourselves.