Feel in control of festive eating
Good news! You CAN feel in control of all the festive eating AND still enjoy all the yummy food this time of year! Watch the video below for my tips, or keep scrolling if you’d rather read the blog.
This is for you if you’re dreading the festive season coming up, with all the overeating and weight gain. Or maybe you’re thinking “stuff it, I’ll do what I want, then sort it out in January!” I’m here to tell you that you absolutely can enjoy all the festive food and still feel in control of your eating. I’m going to share with you some of my tips to help you manage all the parties, meals out and all the yummy festive food.
Tips to feel in control of festive eating:
1. Ditch the guilt about food and eating
When you feel guilty about your eating habits it just leads to more overeating. So ditch that guilt and remember no food is ‘good’ or ‘bad’. It’s absolutely OK to enjoy the food that you love. Even if you completely overdo it and you eat way too much! Maybe you start Christmas Day with chocolate for breakfast, then eat all day long and drink too much alcohol? No problem! Remember it’s just one day; draw a line and move on. Even if it goes on for a few weeks or it’s the whole of the next month or two. Remember the bigger picture.
Eating healthily and building healthy habits is about what you do most of the time, approx 80% of the time. It’s not what you do on that one day where you had two meals out, because it was the work Christmas do.
A handy guide to help you decide if that food is naughty or not!
2. Tweak what you normally do
Have a think about how things normally go for you this time of year. What is it you normally do? Is there something specific that you could do differently? Could you plan some kind of strategy to manage the challenges that pop up this time of year? What do you normally struggle with? Having a plan can make all the difference and those little tweaks really do add up.
Have a think about what small tweaks you could make to what you normally do, that would make a difference. Maybe think about your physical activity levels. Try to keep up the exercise where maybe you normally drop things this time of year. Think about whether you need to have ALL the treats in the house. Sometimes this time of year it’s easy to buy all the lovely festive foods that are available. But do you need to have them all?
What about all the work parties, Christmas meals and buffets? Think about what you do normally and look at how you could tweak that a little. Do you need to have ALL of the courses that are available or could you just pick your favourites? Remember doing something different means you get different results.
3. Prioritise your favourite foods
Think about all the food that you love this time of year and ask yourself if you need to have everything. Or instead could you prioritise your favourite things? It’s all about trying to get that balance between enjoying yourself, enjoying the food that you love, or completely overdoing it.
How could you make it easy for yourself? Do you really need to have loads of tubs of chocolates AND all the fancy biscuits in the house? A lot of clients have said to me in the past that they need those in the house for the kids, or for visitors. But be honest, who is actually eating most of those chocolates? Did you really want to eat them or was it mindless picking that leads to feeling guilty? Do the kids really need to have tubs of chocolates, as well as chocolate advent calendars, as well as chocolates on the tree?
Have a think about all the different food-related activities that you do this time of year and decide what’s most important to you. Pick your favourite things to keep doing so you’re still doing the things that you enjoy most, but remember you don’t have to do everything.
4. Practise mindful eating
Mindful eating is all about taking your time over food. When you eat, give yourself time to savour the flavours and textures, really take your time to eat and enjoy the food. It’s also about learning to listen to your body so that you follow your appetite and listen to your hunger cues. This means you’re less likely to overeat and have more than you need.
Remember to still aim to nourish your body with well balanced meals. Give your body what it needs so then you’re less likely to pick at the extra bits between meals and you’re less likely to overdo it. Also remember to drink plenty of fluids, especially when you’re going out for drinks. Try to alternate between alcoholic drinks and non-alcoholic drinks like water or soft drinks.
Mindful eating is also about planning so that you’re aware of your eating. Try to look at menus before you go out for a meal and decide what would be the most appropriate choice for you. Avoid letting yourself get too hungry before you go out for meals coz then you’re more likely to overeat. When you get too hungry you’re less likely to make the most sensible decision about what to have and more likely to eat way too much and end up feeling rubbish!
Remember it’s fine to overdo it once in a while – it’s not the end of the world. If you overdo it one day, draw a line, but really listen to your appetite for the next day or two. You should notice that you won’t need as much, so try having smaller portions for a day or two. If you really listen to your body, things do balance out.
Just to recap:
- Ditch all that guilt around eating and remember the bigger picture.
- Have a think about what you normally do this time of year and then ask yourself how you could tweak it.
- Prioritise your favourite foods this time of year.
- Try and practise mindful eating, to enjoy food, but still feel in control of your eating.
Get in touch if you’re ready to get started and ditch dieting forever.
Ditch dieting forever, because you deserve better and you absolutely CAN enjoy the food you love this time of year and still feel in control of your eating.
Need help to ditch dieting forever?
Want to eat normally again AND lose weight healthily? While still enjoying the cake & chocolate? Hell yes!
I will help you ditch dieting forever, either with my 1-2-1 support. Or if you prefer to work independently, you will learn all the skills I teach my 1-2-1 clients, on my ‘No More Diets’ online course.
Special ‘No More Diets’ Bundle
Save £68* and get one of my ‘Kick-Start’ 1-2-1 sessions PLUS unlimited access to my ‘No More Diets’ online course, with the special bundle price of £299. Get in touch with me here and ask about the special bundle price.
*Save £68 compared to buying these two services separately.
Freebies!
My Weekly Round-up! AKA; what I’ve been up to recently…
- Tea of the week has been coconut and cocoa rooibos for a massive change. I’d completely forgotten I’d got some and it’s nice to have in the evening as it doesn’t contain caffeine.
- I’ve been much better at keeping up my walks and exercises this week. In fact I decided to try mixing things up, so I’ve been trying some short yoga videos I found on YouTube. Pretty pleased I’ve achieved my goal of walking and doing my exercise routine at least 3 times so far this week.
- At the weekend we went up Nover’s Hill again. This was one of the hills we walked up as part of our little family challenge ’22 Hills 2022′, which we completed earlier this month. I think Nover’s Hill was hill number 19, but we went up a random route that meant I didn’t feel like we’d really gone to the very top. This time we went straight up the direct route to the top. We walked all along the top and found the pond at the top – check out the photo below.
- Apart from a spot of biscuit-baking – mainly by Sam & Genevieve, I just enjoyed eating them – we’ve had a fairly quiet week. And yes in case you were wondering, I did dunk my gingerbread people in my cuppa!
- I’ve watched a range of interesting films this week. First of all I watched ‘The Wonder’, which was about a young girl convinced she can survive without food. It was based on some true stories from 19th century Ireland. It was a pretty sinister little story, but I really enjoyed it. We also checked out ‘Slumberland’, which was a fab little magical tale – really enjoyed that too, not just coz it has Jason Momoa in it – ha! I watched a few other films, that were good, but pretty gritty – ‘To The Bone’ a young woman’s journey through Anorexia Nervosa and ‘The Unforgivable’ which was about a woman building her life after serving 20 years in prison for murder.
- Bird Nerd Report: I’ve seen a nice little range of birds this week. I saw kingfishers twice and I think one was a juvenile as it was much more greeny-turquoisy blue than electric blue. There have also been a few goldcrests, a grey and yellow wagtail and a chaffinch down by the brook. Then I think as I was walking over one of the railway bridges I saw the albino magpie! We’d heard there was one around the area, but this is the first time I’ve possibly seen it. I’m not 100% sure that was what it was, but I’d like to think it was!
