Here are 3 ways to use mindful eating during the holidays to stay attuned to your physical and emotional needs.
The holiday season is a busy time of year. There are plenty of ways to distract you from taking care of yourself. Attunement disruptors like travel, late-night parties, eating different foods, hosting family or friends, work parties, and kid’s activities can distract you from basic needs like eating regularly, movement, and sleep.
As wonderful as this time of year is, it’s not uncommon to get to December 24 feeling physically and emotionally spent. Use the following mindful eating practices to help make this a season of joy for you and everyone around you.
1. Eating enough consistently is the foundation of mindful eating
It’s easy to not take time for meals or snacks when you have a million things on your to-do list. Maybe you grab a few cookies with your vanilla late and call it breakfast. You miss lunch as you dash between appointments and holiday shopping. Or you try to avoid holiday weight gain by eating lite during the day because you’re attending a holiday party at night.
Honoring your physical hunger can easily go by the wayside when you’re busy because it can be difficult to hear subtle signals of hunger until you’re ravenously hungry. This isn’t you’re fault.
It’s part of your built-in survival mechanism to help you survive times of stress. However, not eating until you’re starving can also set you up for eating more than you’re comfortably full. You’re also more likely to make food choices that don’t align with your health goals. Try this instead.
Set a pleasant reminder on your phone to check in with your hunger roughly every 2-3 hours. You’re used to hearing notifications go off for social media, texts, and emails. Your need for consistent fuel is just as important as any of those other notifications.
Honor your hunger with balanced nutrition whenever possible. Strive for practice not perfection here. Balance your meals and snacks with carbs, protein, and healthy fats to help you feel more energized and more emotionally grounded. This will help the busyness of the season feel less overwhelming.
Here are examples of holiday-inspired snacks:
- Trail mix: roasted mixed nuts, dried cranberries or figs, pieces of dark chocolate, toasted pumpkin seeds
- Whole grain crackers with hummus or your favorite cheese and a tangerine
- Holiday cookies with a handful of mixed nuts and a cup of herbal rooibos chai tea
- Apple with almond or peanut butter and a cup of soymilk
2. Mindful eating encourages you to lead with satisfaction when choosing meals and snacks
Mindful eating during holidays encourages you to shift your mindset away from restrictive or contractive food rules and towards an expansive add-in approach to food. What can you add to your meals and snacks to make them more satisfying? Honoring physical hunger is important to maintain energy. Taste hunger is also important for mental and emotional health.
Tis the season for foods you don’t normally have all year. Whether it’s your grandmother’s famous fudge recipe, your mom’s pumpkin bread, or the fancy cheese on the Charcuterie board that you’d never pay for in July, honoring your taste hunger this time of year is essential. How is taste hunger related to mindful eating?
Taste hunger is the sensation you feel when food “looks good” and you want to try it. You might not be physically hungry, but the idea of tasting the food is appealing. Taste hunger is essential for feeling satisfied with your meals – without eating beyond comfortable fullness. It keeps you from the fear of missing out on foods you love – which can trigger old dieting thoughts and behaviors.
When you’re on a diet or following specific food rules, mindful eating doesn’t work.
You tell yourself:
“I can only eat the foods allowed on my plan.”
Or, “I can have the holiday cookies only if I workout longer tomorrow or only have salad for dinner tonight.”
These are examples of contractive thinking with food. You put limitations on what you allow yourself to eat during the holidays. This isn’t mindful eating. It’s false mindful eating because you suppress your satisfaction and taste hunger. How can you honor your taste hunger, lead with satisfaction, and not feel like you’re out of control with holiday foods?
Ask yourself, “Would I eat this food at this moment if I knew it would have no impact on my health or weight?” Said another way by Dr. Jenn Salib Huber RD ND host of the Midlife Feast Community, “Will having more of this food at this moment add to or take away from my satisfaction?”
3. Slow down to enjoy the flavors of the season.
You don’t have to eat all the foods all the time and feel uncomfortably full. You can practice mindful eating during holidays with seasonal foods, embrace comfortable fullness, and honor satisfaction, without judgment or a plan to “get back on track” in January. What’s the best way to practice more mindfulness with food, exercise, and life during the holiday season?
Try making a self-nourishment menu. At the beginning of each week, take a look at your calendar. Plug in at least 3 of the following self-nourishment activities:
- What nights do you want to cook, when do you need take-out
- What holiday activities are going on
- When do you want to exercise
- Time for quiet reflection (meditation, journal, read)
- Connect with family or friends
- Set boundaries around self-care like a consistent sleep routine.
Practice not perfection is essential here. This activity isn’t meant to increase stress in your life. Lower the bar if you need to and only choose 1 or 2 self-nourishment activities per week. Whatever it takes to help you stay attuned to your needs for food, movement, rest, and emotional well-being.
