5 Tips for Eating Intuitively During the Holidays

No matter where you are in your intuitive eating journey, not having control over what food is available can be frustrating and sometimes daunting. But it doesn’t have to be! With a little preparation, you can overcome your fear and enjoy celebrating the season with friends and family.

Honour Your Hunger

Many people make the mistake of restricting what they eat the day before a big holiday event to “save room” for all the food they’ll be around later. But this strategy often backfires and can lead to eating more than feels comfortable.

A better strategy than “saving room” is to eat your regular meals and snacks on the day of the holiday event. That way, you’re not going into the event over-hungry. When you get over-hungry, it can be hard to stop eating and you may end up eating more than feels comfortable. Ensuring you go into the event well-nourished means you’ll be more able to tune into your hunger and fullness cues and stop eating when you feel comfortably full.

Identify the Foods You Truly Enjoy

Another important pillar of intuitive eating is the “satisfaction factor.” In other words, does the food you’re eating satisfy your physical and emotional cravings?

To practice using the satisfaction factor to determine what to eat, think about what you really want to eat. The holidays can be a great way to practice this skill because there is an abundance of food to choose from. I suggest taking a walk around the buffet table once before serving yourself. This gives you a chance to take in everything that’s available so that on your second pass, you only take what you really want.

Set Boundaries

While intuitive eating is becoming more popular, a lot of people still don’t understand what it is. When you tune into your hunger, fullness, and satisfaction signals, you may find that you have food left on your plate or that you finish eating before everyone else.

Well-meaning friends and family members may try to force more food on you. Here are a few things you can say to let them know that you enjoyed the food but don’t want more.

1.     “The food was delicious, but I’m already feeling comfortably full.”

2.     “No thanks, I want to make sure I’m not too full to enjoy dessert.”

3.     “Thanks for the offer, but I’m good for now.”

While it can feel difficult to turn down food that someone is offering out of love, remember that only you get to decide what to put into your body.

Tune Out Diet Talk

With New Year’s just around the corner, there’s bound to be talk about weight loss and dieting at holiday gatherings. While difficult, try not to let diet talk take away from your enjoyment of the food and guests at the event.

When diet talk does come up, you do not have to engage if you don’t want to. But if you’d like to share your commitment to not dieting and get a conversation going, you may decide to respond with one of the following comments.

Example: Someone sees your plate and says, “if I ate like that, I’d gain so much weight!”

What to say: “I used to be really strict with my eating, but now I’m trying to listen to my body and eat foods that I like and feel good to me.”

Example: Someone comes up to you and says, “I can’t wait for New Year’s to get here – I’m so fat and I need that New Year’s Resolution to help me lose weight.”

What to say: “What’s wrong with being fat? Bodies come in all different shapes and sizes!”

Example: Someone comes up to you and starts telling you all about the new diet they’re on.

What to say: “I support you, but I don’t feel comfortable talking about diets or weight loss. Can we change the subject?”

Tuning out diet talk can be so difficult, but if you go into situations with a few responses to diet talk prepared, it makes it a lot easier to manage.

Develop Self-Care Strategies

While the holidays are considered a time of joy and celebration, they can also be a stressful time for many people. Stress can make it difficult to tune into your hunger, fullness, and satiety signals. That, paired with being surrounded by holiday foods, can feel overwhelming.

If you know you’re prone to stress during the holidays, make a list of activities that help you relieve stress. Better yet, write each activity on a small piece of paper and put the pieces of paper in a jar. When you’re feeling stressed, take a piece of paper out of the jar for a surprise self-care activity!

Here’s a list of some self-care activities that many people enjoy:

·      Take a bubble bath

·      Read a book

·      Listen to soothing music

·      Take a drive

·      Go for a walk

·      Enjoy a hot cup of tea

·      Play with your pet

·      Draw

·      Knit or crochet

·      Journal

·      Call a friend

Coming up with self-care strategies ahead of time means you’re more likely to actually use them when you’re stressed.

Final Thoughts

Despite showing up armed with some solid strategies for eating intuitively during the holidays, you may still find that you eat more than feels comfortable during the holiday festivities. This is ok! Try to be non-judgemental and compassionate with yourself. Treat it as a learning experience and use that curiosity to build self-trust. Remember, there’s no such thing as a “perfect” intuitive eater.

Above all, remember that the holiday season is a time to celebrate and connect with friends and family. If you’re in need of some extra self-care during this season, there’s no shame in making time for it. Check out my Self-Care Workbook, which includes journaling prompts, affirmations, coloring pages, and more!

What’s your favourite holiday food? Let me know in the comments!