Intuitive eating during the holidays featuring Caroline Green, Registered Dietitian + Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor
Spending time around family can conjure up anxiety, especially around food-focused holidays. To help talk through and tackle any feelings associated with the season, we’re chatting with Caroline Green, a Registered Dietitian & Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor to find ways to ease some of the tensions and anxiety in this mini Q+A.
Why are holidays a tough time for eating?
The holidays can be a tough time for eating for a variety of reasons. The most obvious is that with the holidays come a multitude of holiday parties and functions that involve food. And food that may be much more exciting than your normal routine. This can highlight any issues someone might have with food, as it is heightened with this pressure of holiday food everywhere. It exacerbates the common diet worries of overeating, feeling out of control, weight gain, and so much more.
The holidays could also be a tough time in general for mental health and anxiety with things like a super packed schedule, busy work days, family stress, and traveling. This can increase our stress and anxiety, which also can affect our relationship with food. The combo of stress and abundance of food is a fearful duo for those that struggle with dieting, eating disorders, or body image.
What are some ways that people can avoid making others feel uncomfortable about food during the holidays?
Try to overall avoid discussions revolving food, bodies, weight, and dieting. Even if it’s well-intentioned. Comments such as, “OMG I feel huge, I can’t eat another cookie” or “I need to work out tomorrow after all this food” are more harmful to others (and yourself) than you may realize.
Also, if you’re hosting a party, ensure people don’t feel pressured to eat or try a certain food. Allow people to have choice. I know it’s common southern hospitality for comments such as, “you have to try my pie” or “did you get enough, here have more” because food is some people’s way of providing care and love. But choice is really important, so others don’t feel pressured to go against their own body’s needs and cues.
What are 5 tips for those struggling with eating/body image during the holiday season?
1. Focus on self-care as your foundation
If you struggle with eating and body image, it’s imperative to focus on taking care of yourself at the basic level — take regular showers, get adequate sleep, journal, have quiet time, do something that fills your cup up. When we aren’t practicing self-care, we’re much more likely to exacerbate our body image distress and eating struggles. Showing your body basic respect is a great way to work on your body image. Take care of you, first and foremost!
2. Stick to a regular eating schedule
Rollercoaster or chaotic eating can easily happen when we aren’t prioritizing regular meals and snacks. To ensure balanced blood sugar (which helps with cravings, mood, energy levels), it can be helpful to aim to eat balanced meals and snacks (a source of carbohydrate, protein, fat, and fiber) every 3-4 hours. If we go to a holiday party super hungry, of course it’s going to be stressful, and we’re much more likely to overeat and have guilt. So aim to honor your hunger and eat regularly to have overall balance.
3. If you’re struggling, reach out for support
If you are struggling with your eating or body image, don’t ignore it. Now’s the time to take extra care to address it and get support. You are not alone! This may mean reaching out to a therapist or a Dietitian, journaling your feelings, processing your emotions, or talking to a loved one or friend.
As soon as you recognize you’re struggling, be sure to take care of yourself and don’t just push it down inside, which often just makes things worse. You deserve support!
4. Bring awareness to negative self-talk
Are you aware of the diet culture thoughts, or the hatred self-talk going on in your mind? If these pop up, recognize that this thinking style isn’t helpful. Hating our bodies will never change them. Get mad at diet culture instead of your body, and focus on bringing in more kindness and respect to your thoughts surrounding food and body. The good news is you can create a new neural pathway in your brain to change your thinking, so it’s time to practice those positive thoughts!
5. Think about adding in healthful habits that make you feel good
Instead of a restrictive or all-or-nothing mindset, focus on the feel-good behaviors you can add in! Think: A walk with your dog, a protein-packed breakfast, a 20-minute quiet time for journaling, buying a bag of greens to add to simple meals, drinking enough water, etc. Health and nutrition is all about being flexible, and adding small, doable habits in, not taking things out or being too extreme.