How to avoid weight gain during the holidays as an emotional or compulsive eater
Chances are you feel very sceptical reading the title and you’re probably thinking, “Yeah, right, as it could ever happen…”
But what if I told you it can be done? What if you had some science-backed techniques to help you? Then, would you believe me?
What have you got to lose?
These are my top 18 ways to avoid gaining weight during the holidays.
Let’s get started!
De-Stress
External stressors
The holiday season is merry and bright. It’s also full of stress and anxiety. Especially the time before the holidays. Finishing work projects, social events, buying presents and food, cleaning the house before the guests arrive, preparing food, entertaining your guests, dealing with difficult family members, and so on.
The problem is that too much stress usually triggers cravings and overeating. And what’s the first thing you’re going to reach for when you’re anxious and tense? High-calorie “comfort food” packed with sugar and fat, of course.
Studies show that there’s a direct link between stress and overeating due to hormonal changes in the body. Increased cortisol level, induced by constant stress, increases appetite. Since you eat sugary, carbohydrate-rich comfort food as a response to stress, weight gain is almost inevitable.
Internal stressors
All-or-nothing mentality
You probably add to this external stress a good dose of internal stress with all-or-nothing thinking, i.e. you do something properly or not at all.
When you have an all-or-nothing mentality, holidays and other celebrations, when a lot of food is involved, can cause you a lot of stress.
You may stress about what you will eat, what you can’t eat, whether you will be able to stay on track or not and be worried that you will completely ruin any progress you made so far. As you can only do things properly or not at all, after the first slip-up you throw in the towel and just eat whatever you want and usually in large quantities.
Why?
Because you know that the next diet is coming in tomorrow or on Monday or in January so you just want to make the most of it now. You eat everything you restricted before and promise yourself that you will never eat them again.
And of course, you will. And you’ll feel guilty and you won’t understand what is wrong with you. Why can’t you just stick to any plan?
I tell you why.
Because you are human and restricting yourself too much is simply not sustainable. Nothing is wrong with you, it’s normal.
All this obsession with food prevents you from being fully present with your family and friends and you can’t enjoy these celebrations. It’s sad. You deserve better.
In this case study blog post, I compare Dieting Diana and Balanced Bianca (a.k.a. Food obsession and food freedom).
In this 1-hour live class, I talked about 5 of the most common mistakes that dieters make that drive them to overeat and how to fix these issues. Change these and you are on your way to food freedom (a.k.a. eating the way you want to eat instead of how your cravings make you eat).
You can watch the recording of this class here.
If you learn to apply moderation and mindful eating (this is what I teach in my course) you can enjoy a slice of cake without guilt or equally easily can say no if you don´t feel like eating. You can be present and enjoy your time with your loved ones. You will also avoid gaining weight during the holidays.
I deserve it mentality
Another mentality that may make you overeat during the holidays is the “I deserve it” mentality.
After all the external and internal stressors before the holidays, you feel like finally, you deserve a break during the holidays and you reward yourself with food. You use food as me-time and indulge in a lot of comfort food.
So, instead of letting the holiday strain get to you, try some de-stressors. This can be as simple as a few minutes of mindful meditation or reading your favourite book.
If you prefer something more hands-on, why not treat yourself to a facial or a new haircut. You can even get a mani-pedi while you’re at it. After all, you deserve it!
Prioritize what’s important, delegate, or simply eliminate the things that are not so important to you. You don’t have to do everything for everyone all the time. Learn to say no when it’s becoming too much. I share more tips on how to end overwhelm in this ebook.
Reducing stress and overwhelm is key to avoiding weight gain during the holidays.
Be Realistic
You know that the holidays are all about great parties and delicious food. So, pretending that you’re going to eat only one Christmas cookie is the exact opposite of reality.
Instead of going extreme, try to be honest with yourself. Acknowledge that you’re going to eat more than you normally do. Stay away from the “all or nothing” or “black-and-white” mindset.
Healthy eating is not a black-and-white story. It’s a Goldilocks story. A balanced healthy eating approach is in the grey area.
It’ ‘s when you eat mainly healthy food but you allow yourself joy food too. You eat just the right amount your body asks for; not too little and not too much. Same with exercise: not too little, but also not too much. You find a balance that works for you. There’s a lot between a carrot stick and the whole apple pie.
If you overeat at one meal, don’t beat yourself up. It’s best to simply move on and make a healthier choice the next time you eat. There are only a few holiday meals a year. You can eat balanced, healthy meals for the rest of the year.
I like this quote from James Clear:
“The first mistake is never the one that ruins you. It’s the spiral of repeated mistakes that follows. The problem is not slipping up; the problem is thinking that if you can not do something perfectly, then you shouldn’t do it at all…”
The best gift you can give yourself is improving your relationship with food. I also teach you how to do this in the How to stop eating your feelings workbookand in my 1 on 1 coaching program.
Plan activities other than eating too
Take part in activities other than eating too to make the holidays special. Spend quality time with your family, maybe you’ll have more time for self-care activities, rest, and relaxation too. If you don´t do anything fun you’ll be more inclined to use food as “me-time”.
Start planning these activities BEFORE the holidays. Think about what non-eating activities you’ve enjoyed the most during previous holidays or other special occasions.
Is it a walk with family? A stroll with the dogs? Choosing something fun to wear? Going to the swimming pool or having a spa day? Catching up on sleep? Playing games with family or friends? Reading a good book? Going to the theatre or cinema? Deep conversations? Think of ways you can make the holidays more fun and relaxing.
You’ll see that eating isn’t the only enjoyable thing that can happen to you. Try some of the mood-boosting ideas from this post too:
Don’t eat to please others
Eat for yourself, not to please others. Eat what you want to, how much you want to, or not-at-all all, as you want to. Tune in and listen to your hunger signals.
Saying no can be very hard when a
-a family member is persistent,
-you don´t want to offend someone,
-you don´t want to feel left out,
-you don´t want to make someone feel uncomfortable.
Being polite, kind, and respectful when you say no is helpful in these situations. You can also accept the food, eat a few bites, and if you feel full, you can say you can´t eat more, you are full. Simply just say: «Thank you but I´m full.»
Or: «I would love to but I´m super full. It looks very delicious though.»
And if people keep pushing, even when it comes from a place of love, remember you need to prioritize your mental and physical health.
You don’t need to accept any comments that other people make about you and what and how much you eat, or should or shouldn’t eat. You can simply change the subject and find something more interesting to talk about.
Listen to your body
From time to time check in with your body to see when you feel comfortably full. (You can download the hunger scale with my free Food and Lifestyle Journal to be able to calibrate your hunger signal and learn how it feels when you are too full, comfortably full, ready to eat, or overly hungry.)
If you’re not sure when you’ve had “enough” and you’re too distracted to be able to tune in, try getting away from the table for a few minutes. Simply excuse yourself to go to the restroom. It’s a discreet way to make some space for yourself to check in with your body. This is also a great way to take a break from any “feeding frenzy” energy that you might experience at the table.
It can be challenging to be true to ourselves when we get together with others who like to overeat during the holidays. Or if there’s an old habit of always overeating that you’re really ready to change. But it IS possible to enjoy all the delicious foods mindfully without obsessing about our food choices.
If the feelings urging you to overeat overwhelm you, try my Feel your feelings meditation to help you peacefully feel your feelings and let them go instead of suppressing them with eating.
Make smart choices
When you know there will be a lot of delicious, tempting food offered at an event you can implement these small tips.
Don’t save your calories
It’s common to try to eat lightly in an effort to save calories for the holiday meal, but this plan can backfire quickly because when you’re beyond hungry, it’s hard to stay in control of your food choices. You can lighten up your meals a bit before a bigger meal but don’t skip meals altogether. Eat some high-fiber foods, veggies, and proteins. These will keep you feeling full for longer.
Use smaller plates
Then, once you’re at the event, use smaller plates. This meta-analysis of 56 studies from 20 papers shows that varying the size of the plate or bowl has a substantial effect on the amount of food self-served and/or consumed. More generally, a doubling of plate size increased the amount of self-served or amount consumed by 41%.
Eat mindfully
Choose 3 food items that you want to try the most and start with those. We enjoy the first bites the most and if you don´t start with your favorites you might end up getting full with something you didn´t really want.
Another smart choice is to chew slowly and eat mindfully, savouring every bite. I know that parties aren’t the best place to savour each bite. Yet, if you give it a try, you’ll notice how delicious everything is and you’ll feel full quicker.
Turn off the TV
If you eat at home, turn off the TV while eating. Eating while you’re watching TV has been linked to overeating and making poor food choices. You get sucked into whatever you’re watching. Then, before you know it, that newly opened bag of chips is now a loose pile of crumbs.
It’s not only mindless watching that gets you. It’s also all those commercials for processed snacks and sugary drinks that increase our cravings for low-nutrient junk foods.
There is always more
When you want to continue eating even though you are full because the food looks and smells so good, tell yourself that you can always have more later in the day, or tomorrow, and the leftovers during the week.
If there are no leftovers, you can have it another time or you can have something equally delicious tomorrow.
Relax, and know that there is always more. You don´t need to listen to your internal deprivation voice, you CAN eat delicious food any time you are hungry. You don’t need to overstuff your body when it’s not hungry and doesn’t need any more food.
You can always eat more later. You can make the same dish any time of the year if you want to. Just because you usually only eat this on special occasions, it doesn’t mean that you cannot have it any other time. You can ask for the recipe, you can make it yourself or you can order it.
Go easy on the alcohol
When you consume alcoholic beverages, you’re loading up on extra calories without even realizing it. For example, a regular beer has about 153 calories, while a glass of wine has about 133 calories.
Not only that, but excessive drinking makes you act irresponsibly, especially around food. So, let’s say you’d normally eat just a couple of snacks here and there.
When you’re inebriated, however, you’re more likely to throw caution to the wind. You may very well end up gobbling a plate full of cookies, rather than just a couple as you normally would.
Be mindful of your alcohol consumption and drink water regularly throughout the day. You’ll start to feel less on edge and worn out because water washes out toxins from your body.
Focus on your favourite desserts
Instead of eating every treat in sight, just focus on your favourites and leave the rest on the table.
Mindfulness is key here too. Savour the desserts you do indulge in, and take the time to eat them slowly — this may leave you feeling more satisfied and less likely to overdo it.
Keep meals balanced with protein and fibre
Holiday meals are typically rich in carbohydrates but low in protein.
However, protein keeps you feel full for longer and helps you feel more satiated so it’s beneficial to include some protein with every meal.
Good sources of protein include meat, poultry, fish, and plant foods like seitan, tofu, tempeh, edamame, seeds, beans, quinoa, and fake meats.
Fibre is another important nutrient that helps you feel full.
Studies show that increased dietary fibre can reduce total calorie intake, which may help prevent weight gain over the holidays.
Unfortunately, many common holiday foods lack adequate amounts of fibre. Try your best to include some fibre-rich foods, such as vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds in your holiday menu.
What to do when you are the host
Taste-test moderately
If you spend a lot of time cooking and baking during the holiday season, be aware of the food you consume while taste testing. It can add up to quite a lot of food if you too generously taste the dishes. You might even get full before serving the dishes.
Tasting your dishes is important, of course — but a small bite after seasoning is usually enough.
It’s also better if you aren’t hungry while cooking. It’s much more tempting to taste-test everything multiple times when you’re very hungry.
Give Out Parting Gifts
Did you throw a party and now you’ve got piles of leftovers in the kitchen? Instead of getting stuck with the leftovers, why not pass them out as parting gifts?
You can invest in some disposable food containers, fill them up, and hand them out as your guests are leaving. You could even pick containers with a holiday theme to earn extra hostess points.
Freeze Leftovers
If you don’t feel right about giving your guests leftovers, or they don’t want to take them, you can keep them. You won’t need to cook for a few days, you can eat leftovers. You can also repurpose them in other meals.
If you still have extras, the freezer is your best friend. You’ll have a ready-to-serve dinner all set for a later date. No need to buy processed frozen meals.
Get Your Steps In
Not all of us can go to the gym three days a week during the holidays. There’s too much on our plates as it is!
But you can still stay active. Why not use the stairs instead of the elevator? How about parking far from the mall entrance so you have to walk a few more steps than normal?
It’ll help burn off those extra calories to help you avoid weight gain during the holidays. Plus, any type of physical exercise reduces the stress and pent-up tension you may be feeling due to all the hustle and bustle of the holidays.
You can also go for a walk with your family or do some fun outdoor activities.
Resist the all-or-nothing mentality when it comes to workouts and do what you can when you can — if that’s just a quick routine in your living room or a quick walk, that´s perfect. A little bit is better than nothing.
Get plenty of sleep
Sleep deprivation, which is quite common during the holidays, may cause weight gain.
Sleep is just as important as nutrition and exercise for weight loss and health.
Good sleep helps our bodies and minds recover and keeps us slim, happy, focused, and healthy.
Chronically bad sleep causes weight gain, messes up our hormones, ages us faster, makes us less focused and more tired during the day, and wired at night.
Most growth hormone (related to the development of lean muscle) is released in deep sleep during the initial sleep cycle. Sleep is also essential to repairing overworked adrenal glands and thyroid function (regulating our resting metabolic rate).
People who don´t sleep enough experience increased insulin resistance. When we are tired, we crave sugary foods. These foods will affect our blood sugar negatively too.
Peaceful sleep greatly reduces stress too.
So give yourself some time to catch up on sleep to avoid weight gain during the holidays.
Give these tips on how to avoid weight gain during the holidays a try and let me know how it goes. Do you have any other tips that worked for you?
This free training shows you a 6-step strategy to stop feeling out of control around food all year round.
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