Many of us say good-bye to healthy eating during the holidays. The holidays are fun and celebratory—and this includes food. At the same time, overindulging doesn’t feel good either. How can you enjoy the holiday season without overeating? Here are fifteen tips:
- Find “enough.” It’s easy to get into the trap of, “It’s the holidays, I can eat whatever I want!” This is all or nothing thinking, overdoing it now, and then punishing yourself with a diet in January. On the other hand, feeling deprived—not allowing yourself to enjoy special holiday foods—will lead to overeating. The solution is to embrace enough. Find that sweet spot where you feel treated—maybe it’s your mother in law’s famous mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie—and then stop. Enjoy what feels good without overdoing it. This is healthy indulgence.
- Relax your anxiety about holiday eating. 500 extra calories of potatoes and stuffing is not going to harm your body. What harms your body is anxiety about those extra calories. Scientists even have a name for this: pleasure anxiety. When we label foods as good or bad, we feel bad when we eat “bad” foods. Then every time we eat a slice of pie or a hunk of bread, we feel guilty. According to nutritionist Marc David, this anxiety about eating treat foods puts our bodies in a stressful state, translating into weight gain. By contrast, when you relax and enjoy your food without guilt, you put your body into a state of optimal digestion—instead of sending your treat foods straight to your hips.
- Listen to your body. Part of the reason we feel guilty for eating pleasurable foods is that we overeat them. Don’t throw all your limits out the window. Honor the subtle difference between healthy and unhealthy indulgence: when the extra bite of pie makes you feel overstuffed, or when an extra serving makes you sleepy and groggy. Listen to your body—it will tell you when you’ve had enough. Your mind, however, we tell you to keep eating. Separate the two by feeling your hunger or growing fullness, instead of listening to your mind’s desire for more.
- Savor your food. When we shovel our food down without tasting it, our brain interprets this as, “I haven’t been fed.” It will continue to seek out food so that it feels full and nourished—leading you to overeat. Changing this behavior isn’t a question of willpower, but of awareness. Slow down. Savoring your food will make you satisfied with less. Get out of your thoughts—anxieties not only about food but also about the family dynamics that pop up during the holidays. Pay attention to the taste, texture, and aroma of your food. When you’re eating, focus on eating.
- Start small. There is some truth to the adage, “Your eyes are bigger than your stomach.” Mindless Eating author Brian Wansink has conducted numerous studies showing that large plates, large serving sizes, and eating without visual cues (not putting food on a plate so you can see how much you’re eating) will cause us to eat more. Instead of loading up your plate with huge mounds of food, start small. Start with a smaller serving, and then give yourself permission to eat more if you’re hungry. We tend to do the opposite: We give ourselves too much food and then eat it all, feeling overstuffed.
- Honor the power of leftovers. Part of the appeal of holidays is that we eat special foods that we reserve for this time of year. This can lead to feelings of scarcity, where we hoard the turkey, sweet potatoes, and apple pie because they only come around once every twelve months. As Scarlett O’ Hara said, “Tomorrow is another day.” Instead of doing your feasting all in one day, spread it out over the course of the holidays. Save the leftovers, and have turkey again the day after the holiday. Having your favorites more than once quiets feelings of, “I have to have it all right now.”
