It’s the most wonderful time of the year…unless you are trying to change the course of your nutrition & eat healthily.
In our modern-day culture, our relationship to food has taken center stage. No other time of the year is this more evident than the holidays that span the 30 days between Thanksgiving & Christmas.
Our current state of processed holiday foods is far from what was initially intended by those who gathered at the first holiday tables.
Those first meals were shared out of gratitude for whole foods, which were culturally traditional in different parts of the world. These groups of people long ago, gathered around their table with recognition of the fact that their most critical needs of food, love & community had been met.
This year as we enter the highly commercialized holiday season, it would do us good to take a little time to reflect on why we eat, what we eat & whom we share it with.
Our issue with overstuffing at holiday parties & on the actual holiday itself is due in part to the diet mentality of our culture.
For so long, we have over-indulged with no self-control, that we, in turn, get trapped into following diet rules & restricting our intake beyond what we can handle. Then we feel guilty & shameful about our eating “mistake” & vow that it will never happen again.
This guilt usually strikes us on a Sunday, so when Monday morning rolls around, we start over on that diet that didn't work to begin with, only to find that by Friday, we have once again fallen off the "good eating train." But never fear, there's always Monday to start over again.
Do you see the cycle?
God made food for us to enjoy. Not to use as a tool to determine if we’ve been naughty or nice.
So this is the year to change your mentality about gorging yourself until you are miserable & then wallowing in guilt afterward.
Here are some ways to avoid that overstuffed yet unsatisfied feeling:
Realize this isn’t the only time of the year you can enjoy eating special foods ~ Don’t fall prey to thinking it’s today or not at all. Denying yourself any sort of enjoyment throughout the rest of the year, or living on a constant diet, will lead to thinking you have to eat all the food available to you on holidays or at parties. Start allowing yourself to have one or two special meals or desserts throughout the month so that you can know the freedom that comes with self-control. Sometimes eating that particular food is okay & sometimes it's not. Spirit-led self-control is your way of knowing if it's a good time for you to indulge or not.
Pray before you eat ~ I don’t mean that obligatory prayer at the beginning of the meal, I mean, legitimately ask God to help you. Not to avoid the food, but to enjoy & be satisfied by the food. You’ll be surprised how well this works. With every bite, think about how God has given you this food to enjoy & then enjoy it. Relish in the fact that you can taste it. So often, we stuff our faces without genuinely acknowledging the amazing sense of tasting & savoring the food. Don’t let the moment go without recognizing the enjoyment of the pleasure of eating.
Consider the ingredients in your food ~ Is what you are about to eat made of whole foods that your body will recognize? If not, then go ahead & pass on consuming it. Why? Because processed foods are what are known in the nutrition world as hyperpalatable foods. These foods are specifically designed & manufactured to cause your body to become addicted to them. It’s going to be a lot harder to overeat things made of whole food ingredients than it is things made of processed ingredients.
Decide what you will eat ahead of time ~ No more eating your aunt's fruit cake just because you don't want to hurt her feelings. If you feel pressure from someone to eat a specific item, just say you're full & take home leftovers. By choosing the things you like best, you will enjoy your meal more thus have more satisfaction. This means you can pass on the foods that don't line up with your nutrition goals & enjoy what you really want to. Remember to stay mindful of how you want to feel when the day is over & how you want to feel the next morning.
Most of all, remember to enjoy your holidays. Don't let food or nutrition goals sabotage your brain & make it all you think about. Make sure your family gatherings & parties include other memory-making events so that you can focus on relationships with people more than your relationship with food.