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Let's talk holidays. Holidays are these wonderful times we get together with family and friends. Usually we look forward to them to enjoy ourselves and indulge in downtime with those we love. Spending time together, making memories, and reminiscing. They're usually as food, and for you, it might bring thoughts of stress.
Thoughts of overeating or not being able to plan. Thoughts of blowing your weight loss or having to deprive yourself while at parties. First, I want to remind you, you are in charge of whatever you eat. You can choose whatever you want. You just have to like your choice. The holidays should be a time of enjoyment and not a time of judgment.
So have a little thought work ahead of time. Now you can go into the next couple months at ease and ready to enjoy. The holidays are [00:01:00] typically Thanksgiving and Christmas. Those are typically two days. Even if you have multiple family events to attend or a few extra parties, you are still probably talking about, I don't know, maybe six meals over the next two months, give or take.
There are about 183 meals in November and December if you are eating three times a day. Six meals out of 183 makes a lot of opportunities for you to plan and to just eat to enough. Let's start with planning the intention. What are you going to the event for? Is it for family and friends? Is it, um, all the talking or the playing games, reminiscing, maybe for the sharing of gifts or cooking, crafting, I don't know, whatever fun.
Maybe you're planning to eat a meal or a snack or a dessert. Or maybe you're going because grandma or your favorite aunt's dish that only comes out this time [00:02:00] of year will be there. After you decide why you are attending, now think about the event. I want you to truly envision going, enjoying yourself.
How much of the vision includes food? If you are anything like me, a bit of it will. I am a dessert girl and I love the variety. My family loves the meal and the massive quantities of noodles, potatoes, rolls, and all of their favorites. But I am desserts. Can you imagine enjoying the event and The food not being a part of it.
Some people are not connected to the food and they are all about the connections to the people or the activity. They are not magical unicorns. They just have a different focus. For them, they can eat before they go or have a plate with a meat and a couple of veggies and then get back to the fun. If that is not you, then let's get down to managing your holidays in a way that you have a great time and love yourself after.
I usually start with making a [00:03:00] decision. After I thoroughly envision the event, I think about what I am looking forward to and What I am willing to have as a result after the holiday event. Am I willing to gain or maintain weight to have more of the foods I enjoy? Am I so excited about my accomplishments in my health and my weight loss that I am unwilling to not have a week of losing weight or of gaining?
There is no right or wrong answer here. It is totally your choice. After I make this choice, then I put together a plan that will help me reach that intended goal. I know that you may not know what you will be served. However, you can make a decision to not overeat no matter what. You can decide if you are having alcohol, sweets, or even seconds.
You can decide how much you want to start with. Maybe a spoonful of each thing that you like, or maybe you look over the all the choices. And then create a plan of what you would have planned if you had [00:04:00] known what was going to be offered. You can make your plan ahead of eating, but at the event, you have so much control.
If you know that by holding off eating all day for the holiday meal, you show up starving and have an urgency to want to eat it all right now. Well, maybe then you plan a small breakfast or lunch knowing this. Maybe you know that the habit of talking and snacking around the food table is going to be more than you want to resist.
Change your habit and go to another area. Make decisions that help you get the results you want in the easiest way possible. Some people make a plan to only take one plate of food and take it somewhere else, or to only drink water or have one alcoholic or sugared beverage. Change Some people want to see space between all of their food choices so they aren't tempted to pile on having large portions.
You may have some social anxiety that [00:05:00] you have previously eaten to avoid the anxious or awkwardness that you feel in gathering. This holiday you can decide that the best gift you give yourself is awareness and understanding. If this is you then maybe you decide how long you are staying at the event or who you will or will not sit and talk to.
Maybe that judging nosy person who always has the most unkind observations that they have to tell you. Well, maybe you've decided that you smile and wave as you walk by, granting yourself permission to skip the polite ear this year. Let someone else take their turn. This is just one example, and maybe you have noticed that you ate for some other feeling or reason you were trying to avoid.
This year you noticed you can enjoy the delicious food and eat it when you are hungry. Eating when you are avoiding and not hungry just creates more problems. And the thing you were avoiding is still there. And now you may have added some [00:06:00] guilt or shame. from the extra eating. So the last part of holidays I want to talk about are food pushers and food gifting.
You cannot make someone feel good or bad by you eating something they gave you. Their feelings are created by their thoughts. If they think you loved their gift, they might feel good. If you don't want to eat their food, tell them how you can, how you, how you can't wait to eat that later when you can really, really enjoy it.
You can decide if you want to trash it or put it on tomorrow's plan. I have worked in jobs where everyone has been so generous. I made a decision that I could have anything offered, but it wouldn't be until tomorrow when I could put it on my plan, and that takes the urgency and anxiety out of that choice for me.
For me to do that, I would have to make a plate and [00:07:00] protect it to take it home to store it. That one decision made so much of what was gifted a little less appetizing. a little less urgent to have to eat it now. Most homemade cookies only held my desire when they were straight out of the oven. Now when someone brought something I was willing to take home and put it on my plan for tomorrow, well that was something that was really special and I enjoyed every bite of it.
the next day. But every grocery store purchase item, those did not have me obligated to eat them. I loved regifting and offering my gifts to my co workers, letting them share the treats, or let them take them home. I would take them to parties and contribute to the spread. Sometimes they just went in the trash.
No matter if I ate the gift or not, I was still so filled with love with my thought that the person took the time to think of me, how thoughtful [00:08:00] and sweet they were. I was very complimentary with my gratitude and appreciation of their gift. I never told them I was trying to lose weight or let them know I might not be eating the treats.
They wanted to gift it to me and I loved knowing they were thinking of me. Those were the thoughts I chose. When you envision as many parts of the holidays ahead of time, you can make the best decisions for yourself when old habits, emotions, and those loving food pushers are not there to cloud your decision making.
