Your guide to break through diet culture & enjoy the festive season
I know how tough this time of year can be with so many mixed messages from diet culture. I've been there, I know exactly what you are feeling - the anxiety, the stress, the fear and the uncertainty that this time of year brings.
You may be worrying about the extra temptation of festive foods and desserts that you usually don't expose yourself to, fearing what you will have to do to compensate for your indulgences and stressing that you can't precisely calculate everything you consume.
You may be planning your next workout to 'burn' off the cocktail you drank, making a mental list of the foods you cannot have or meticulously scheduling in workouts to fit around the festivities. Is anyone else exhausted at just the thought of this?
That's because it IS exhausting and it is totally consuming. But it doesn't have to be this way.
We are constantly surrounded by diet culture and messaging online that tells us we need to 'earn our Christmas lunch' and accounts that provides macro break downs for festive treats - which only promotes food guilt, anxiety and an unhealthy relationship with food! But why?! Why should we be made to feel guilty for eating delicious food, spending time with loved ones and taking a break?
The answer is: we shouldn't. And it doesn't have to be this way. I'm here tp help you navigate the festive season to make it more joyful and less stressful.
So here are a few of my top tips to break through the diet culture BS this festive season and just enjoy the holidays!
#1: Ditch the 'all or nothing' mentality. This includes labelling foods as “good” and bad” or “clean” and “treat.” Know you do not need to be perfect with your nutrition - heck, perfection does not exist! If you have a little treat it doesn't automatically undo all your hard work so don't just throw in the towel and binge. Its what we do majority of the time that truly matters, not what we do occasionally.
#2: Don't skip meals or compensate for what you have/will eat. If you're trying to heal your relationship with food, killing yourself in the gym pre/post-meal isn't going to get you closer to that goal. It only encourages disordered behaviours like restricting and over exercises and likely will lead to overeating or binging soon after. Continue with your normal meals & know you are worthy and deserving of food.
#3: Keep up your usual exercise. No need to go start a new intense program or slog yourself in the gym for twice as long. Keep up your regular movement because you know it makes you FEEL good, not for the calorie burn. If you feel too focused on this, take off that fitness tracker and use exercise as a social meet up - go for a walk or to a yoga class with friends!
#4: Practice saying YES! Say yes to something you would usually say no too - whether thats a specific food, a social outing on a weeknight, it could be anything! Rebel against that voice inside your head that is always trying to control you, keep you 'small' and stop you living and enjoying your life. Its time to take back control! The more you practice saying yes, the strong you will become and the quieter that controlling voice will be (its just like working a muscle in the gym!).
#5: Don't have a food or weight related new years resolution. Planning to start the new year with a goal related to food or weight often results in you treating Christmas kind of like the ‘last supper’. You know as soon as 1st January rolls around, you are going to go on some super restrictive diet and cut out all the foods you enjoy so you ‘need’ to make the most of it while you can still have them now at Christmas. Often resulting in you eating far more than you would have if you knew you could have them again whenever you wanted. Don’t go into the new year planning to start ‘X’ diet or lose ‘X’ kilos. These types of resolutions are often set with aesthetics in mind, but weight and looks do not equal health. Health is not a number. So if you are setting a new year resolution, make sure you take this into consideration and don't set them from a perspective of cutting things out, but adding things to your life! For example, I will move my body in a way that I enjoy each day; I will prioritise sleep and be in bed by 10pm each night; I will start the day with a glass of water etc!
#6: Give up calorie counting, now and forever. How can you be present with love ones and enjoy Christmas when you are so fixated on calculating every single thing that is on your plate? 10 or 20 years from now, when you look or think back to your memories of Christmas, are you going to think "I'm so glad I knew exactly how many calories I ate that day" and "I'm so glad I was skinny" OR are you going to look back and think I'm so happy and fulfilled by the memories I made with my family on Christmas day.
#7: Remember, food is just FOOD. Food is fuel for our bodies, it allows up to live, breathe and function! No foods are 'good' or 'bad', food is just food! While some may provide more nutrients than others, it doesn't mean we can't enjoy all foods as part of a healthy and balanced diet. Trust your body, it knows how to digest and metabolise ALL food to be used as fuel. So, like I mentioned earlier, remove labels around food and give yourself full permission to enjoy all foods. Whether that is Christmas Ham, creamy potato bake, rum balls or Christmas Trifle! It is OK and your body can handle it, I promise you.
This is something I cover in further detail in my NEW eBook - ‘A Merry & Balanced Christmas’. So if you want access to my full guide to enjoy a happy, healthy and balanced Christmas, plus over 25 of my favourite Christmas recipes, check it out here!