5 Intuitive Eating Tips For Enjoying Holiday Meals
Thanksgiving can be hard for some people as the whole holiday is based on food. Trying to practice Intuitive Eating during the holidays can be extra hard. It’s that time of the year when our “normal” routines are thrown out the window.
We gather around the table with loved ones. We indulge in delicious holiday foods and drinks. The holidays are the time of year that proves that food is so much more than just food.
Most people have a certain smell or taste of a holiday food or drink that takes them right back to their favorite memories of this time of year. Food brings people together for celebrations, memories, tradition, life/death and so much more!
Food is not the enemy, and becoming aware of this idea and putting it into practice before the holiday season will allow for your holidays to be enjoyed the way they are meant to be.
So what are some ways you can practice Intuitive Eating this holiday season?
Give yourself unconditional permission to eat
This one can be hard, so be patient with yourself. Allow yourself to eat all foods without morality. Oftentimes, thanks to diet culture, we view food as “good” vs “bad,” “black” vs “white.”
In reality, though, food is just food. There are no bad foods and there are no extra magical good foods! All foods provide us with energy and nutrients.
Reframing how you view food is the first step in giving yourself unconditional permission to eat. Maybe that means you focus on one meal during this holiday season and focus on quieting those voices in your head screaming “good” vs. “bad.”
Look at every food item on your plate and think about the health benefits provided by each- that can help you realize there are no bad foods.
Eventually, you can get to a point where you fill up your plate with food you enjoy and have NO thoughts or feelings of guilt or shame.
Permitting yourself to eat and truly enjoy the food in front of you helps connect your mind to your body. Eventually leading you to a place to eat with satisfaction at the forefront.
Embrace your hunger and fullness signals
Many of us have completely dulled the signals of hunger and fullness. Strict dieting rules tell us to wait until noon to have our first meal or we can’t eat more than the points allotted.
Even if our stomachs are growling, we tell ourselves to wait, and over time our body's hunger signaling weakens.
For many of us, if we wait until we are ravenous to eat, we overeat. That is why listening to our hunger cues is so important in eating and comfortably nourishing our bodies.
I have walked this same path, too. There were years when the holiday season would give me anxiety - thinking about how I would “lose” the progress I had made each year in terms of my weight and how I looked.
I would restrict myself or “save up” so I felt like I could eat the big holiday meal. Ultimately, I would binge and eat as much as possible, leaving me feeling uncomfortably full.
I ignored all of my natural hunger cues before the meal and ignored all fullness cues during the meal. If I had taken a moment, to listen to my body, I would not be so unsatisfied and uncomfortable.
I can’t tell you how many times I spent Thanksgiving evenings feeling miserable because I overate to the point of pain!
So I challenge you to not do what I used to do. Listen to what your body is telling you and respect it when it tells you that you are hungry AND when it tells you that you are full.
Eating throughout the day based on our body signals not only nourishes us but allows us to enjoy the holiday meal without the guilt and shame (and discomfort!) that binging can cause.
So have breakfast on Thanksgiving morning, and have lunch if you are having your family’s Thanksgiving dinner. And hey, if you over-eat a meal, be patient and loving with yourself.
Intuitive eating is about being flexible, it is not rigid and this can be something you learn from.
Savor your favorite Holiday foods
There are so many “holiday” foods that are part of our holiday tradition or bring us comfort.
Food provides memories, and ultimately it provides satisfaction. Dieting and diet culture have a way of taking the satisfaction of eating away from us.
Many diets focus on strictly eating “whole foods” or fruits/veggies which is great but not every single person always feels satisfied after eating a banana.
So, we must put the dieting mentality behind us. That means choosing food or meals based on what sounds good to you and enjoying that meal without guilt or shame creeping in.
When I go out to dinner, I choose what I want based on what sounds good, and let me tell you it is a game changer! I feel satisfied whereas before I would choose my meal based on how “healthy” the meal was.
Satisfaction doesn’t always mean I’m going for decadent foods. It just means I sit and listen to what my body tells me before making a food choice.
So, I challenge you to practice that this holiday season.
Typically the foods we have at holiday parties and meals are foods we don’t have all year. So enjoy them! Pick the foods that sound the most satisfying to you.
Don’t listen to that little voice in your head telling you that you shouldn’t have this or that. Kick that food police voice to the curb.
Allow yourself to enjoy these meals. They only happen once a year!
Set Boundaries
Family gatherings, holiday dinners, and festive parties have the potential to be charged with comments on weight, dieting, and how “bad” we are for the amount of food we’re eating.
Honestly, these conversations are normal in our culture, they are part of food etiquette, but participating in these conversations does not lift us, rather they bring us down.
Commenting on someone's weight could reinforce disordered eating, or sharing how much weight you lost this year could cause someone else to spiral into negative self-talk and continue to see their worth in their body.
It’s easy to get caught up in these conversations, but what would happen if you didn’t engage? How much better would you feel? Or how much better would others at the table feel if you disengaged?
There are many ways to navigate these conversations depending on your comfort level, ranging from not engaging, to inserting yourself, to simply changing the direction of the conversation.
Here’s three ways to respond:
Don’t talk about people's bodies or food choices, including your own.
Speak up and politely challenge others to become aware of their weight bias. For example, say, “There’s so much more to you than your weight- I enjoy hearing about your hobbies or things you love, things that have nothing to do with your body size.”
Shift the conversation to something else (travel, movies, music, etc.) that has nothing to do with their body size or food.
Remember to prioritize yourself during the Holidays
I encourage you to practice self-care during this time. The holidays can be stressful with family drama, friends, planning, cooking, etc.
So, taking time for yourself is so important that you are charged up and ready to spend time with family as pleasantly as possible.
Self-care can look like a morning walk to get out of the house, journaling on the porch before you start preparing the meal, or participating in joyful movement whether that be yoga, meditating, 5k Gobble Run, or simply just playing with the kids outside.
Remember the things that you enjoy doing, and let the food that you eat fuel and nourish you to do those things that don’t build your life and your schedule around justifying the things you eat.
I mentioned earlier that I used to have a very rough relationship with food during the holidays. Not only did I do the whole “restrict-and-binge” routine, but I would make sure that I worked out that Holiday morning or the following day.
Not because it felt good, but because that’s how I could allow myself to maintain my “what the heck” mentality and continue to gorge myself during the holiday season on all the foods that were normally forbidden.
Once January 1st hit, I would jump back on the restriction bandwagon. That’s not the right mood or way to start a new year.
I promise you that this felt miserable, 0-out-of-10, not recommended by me.
My holidays are so much happier now that I can let myself relax, unwind, and put down some of my stress to enjoy and appreciate my family and friends.
If you don’t take care of yourself, who will? Your longest relationship is with yourself.
You are worthy of enjoying your Holiday meals. Be present. Enjoy the the moment. You got this!
Are you ready to stop worrying about your diet?
Elizabeth McIntyre is a registered dietitian serving people just like you all across Kentucky. She provides Intuitive Eating strategies for living a happier, fuller life.