Holiday Success Guide (A Food Addiction Perspective)
December 11, 2023Holiday Success Guide (A Food Addiction Perspective). The Holiday Season is here! I hope that you enjoy this special time of year and that your days are filled with good cheer.
But, I’m guessing that for many of you, this time of year can be kind of derailing. The holidays are often used as an excuse to default on health goals and fall into indulgence. Ultimately, this leaves us feeling lethargic, depressed, and disappointed in ourselves. Not to mention, stuffed into too-tight pants!
A Plan of Action
Picture this: You go into the holiday season with a plan of action. You enjoy festive gatherings with friends and family and eat a reasonable amount of food without going overboard. You are able to enjoy the company of others feeling light, happy, and proud. You feel comfortable in your skin and clothing. You go to sleep at night knowing you are acting in line with your best intentions and are on track to achieving your goals.
If that sounds good to you, then keep reading. I’ll share my best tips and tricks for staying on track during the holiday season. You can definitely do it and you will be so happy you did.
Before I go any further, let me briefly introduce myself and explain how I help the bariatric community achieve long-term weight-loss surgery success. I educate the bariatric community on food addiction and how to recover from the addictive pull of highly-processed foods. It is these foods that cause us to continue to reach for more and more food, even though we desperately want to stop. By eliminating the foods that trigger the addictive pathways in the brain, the pull of food subsides. It is very helpful to be assessed to see if you may be addicted to certain foods, because that information may hold the key to why it has been so hard to stop overeating despite your best intentions. It also holds the key to the solution.
I will preface these tips by saying that it is very useful to become rooted in good habits in time of lesser stress. The more we practice good habits during more peaceful times, the more these behaviors become ingrained and automatic and just part of who we are. That being said, read below to gain real practical tips on how to stay on track this holiday season.
Eat Well
Avoid feeling deprived during the holiday season. Many people will restrict their eating on a day when they know a holiday meal is coming. This is a bad idea as restricting food is a common precursor to overeating. Instead, eat well during the day by sticking to regular mealtimes. Eat sufficient amounts of carbohydrates, protein and fat from real-food sources. Don’t arrive to a party too hungry as this will make it more difficult to refrain from overeating.
Come Prepared
Arrive at holiday events with a plan in place. Many people in food addiction recovery regularly weigh or measure the quantities of food they eat to help them stay on track. This can be helpful and can be easily adapted to holiday meals by committing to eating one well-balanced plate for dinner. This does not mean you get to eat a plate heaped as high as a mountain with everything available on the table! No. I am recommending planning and committing to one regular sized plate that can be eaten slowly and mindfully with full enjoyment.
To this end, it is also helpful to have some awareness of the food that will be served so that you can be sure there are foods that fit with your eating plan.
It can be really helpful to bring a dish to share that you know is something that works for you. For people whose struggle with unhealthy eating stems from food addiction, it is important to keep in mind that processed foods like sugar and flour will hijack our brains and cause us to overeat on foods that don’t serve us. As an overarching rule in food addiction recovery, quality is even more important than quantity. If nothing else, it will be helpful to plan to eat only real food that is free from sugar or flour if you want to avoid spiraling into a binge.
Cultivate Good Feelings
Create a list of the emotions you would like to feel at the end of a holiday day. For example, maybe you want to feel loved, proud, strong, or generous. Next, think about what activities you can engage in to help you cultivate those feelings. Create an action plan to help you achieve your feeling goals. Do you want to feel connected? Commit to engaging in meaningful conversations and to asking others about their life updates. Want to feel at peace? Maybe you need to commit to keeping distance between yourself and your problematic sibling or to avoid political conversations. Do you want to feel of service? Plan to help with cleanup or organize a game of charades. Cultivate, through your actions, a positive experience that is not focused around the food you eat. You deserve to feel good!
Rehearse
Harness the power of your mind! You can rehearse your desired behaviors by imagining these actions in advance. For example, take some time to sit quietly and simply imagine yourself eating your one plate of food and walking away from the table. Picture yourself in conversation with a loved one, rather than lurking around the dessert table. Spend some time conjuring the feelings of peace and pride within yourself that you hope to feel at the end of the evening. Mentally rehearsing behaviors makes it much likelier you will actually make them happen in real time.
Words Matter
Do you have any food pushers in your life? People who say things like: “I made this especially for you!” “This is Grandma’s old recipe. She would want you to have some.” “It’s made with natural sugar. It’s healthy!” Be ready for these comments in advance by rehearsing what you will say in these situations. For example, “I really appreciate your work but I can’t eat this tonight.” Or, “My body will not agree with this food so I’m going to decline.” “I’m really focused on my health right now and am not going to eat this.” Or maybe, a simple, “No thank you,” will suffice.
Other people aren’t the only ones who can be food pushers. It’s important to recognise that some of us have an inner voice (often the voice of our addiction) that can try to convince us that food will make us feel great.
Be prepared to recognize this voice and be ready with words that come from our highest selves. Mantras can be really helpful to counteracting this voice and it’s helpful to have some ready. “I am eating only one plate.” “I am sticking to my goals tonight.” “I am choosing to feel good.” “That food is not for me.” Find something that resonates with you and repeat it to yourself in your mind. It’s a powerful tool.
I wish everyone reading this a wonderful, joyful holiday season. I hope these tips will help you live your best life as we move into 2024. If you are interested in learning more about food addiction and how to recover from compulsive overeating, reach out!
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
Pamela
Pamela Mekuz is a Food Addiction Counselor at Life Is Sweet Counseling
 | ABOUT THE AUTHOR Pamela Mekuz is a Food Addiction Counselor at Life Is Sweet Counseling that specializes in bariatric clients. She helps pre- and post-operative individuals treat the underlying addictive brain patterns that cause overeating. As a bariatric client and a food addict in recovery, Pamela understands first hand what it takes to finally eliminate cravings, stop binging and achieve sustainable weight loss. Read more articles by Pamela! |
