On my drive to work on Monday morning the radio station I was listening to was discussing how much they had eaten over the holiday weekend and about weight gain. They even turned it into a game and asked listeners to call in and guess how much weight the radio host had gained over the past week. Really?!? Do we have to go there every.single.year. during the holidays. There are so many positive things we should be focusing on during the holiday season, so why must the focus always go towards food and weight talk? It’s enough to make anyone go crazy and obsess about it!
Why is that when you ask someone about how their holiday was…they often have a response that involves how much food they ate, how “bad” they ate, and how they need to start _____ diet. It’s so hard to be a normal eater in today’s society. I feel bad for my client’s and others who are struggling with disordered eating trying so hard to get well in a society stuck in it’s own eating disorder.
As I talked about in last week’s post (read here in case you missed it), giving yourself permission to eat your favorite foods over the holiday does not mean overeating these foods, but what if you did? What now? The most common initial reaction to overeating is to compensate by eating less/restricting the next few days. This is exactly what you should NOT do!
By compensating via restriction, developing new food rules, starting a new diet, or overexercising you’re setting yourself up to repeat the cycle. You know that cycle…. binge/overeat –>restrict/diet–> overeat/binge–>feel guilt–>repeat cycle. You’ll find yourself swinging from one extreme to the other all holiday season long…and beyond. So what can you do?
My advice is to get back on your regular and consistent eating schedule ASAP. No need for any extreme measures. No need for a new diet regimen, detox, or juice cleans. I’m sharing my tips below…these small tweaks will help stabilize your blood sugars and get you “back on track” 😉 Avoid setting rules about what you can’t have and shift the focus onto what can include more of in your diet and routine.
- Consistent meals and snacks…eating every 3-4 hours
- Increase your water intake! Limit booze (gasp!) and caffeine
- Aim for half to all of your body weight in ounces. (ex. if you weighed 130lbs your goal is a minimum of 65 ounces to 130 ounces/day)
- Significantly increase vegetables intake (all the green veggies)
- Extra handful of spinach in your smoothie, add a side salad with dinner, roast a big batch of veggies, etc.
- Load up on protein and fiber with each meal
- decrease processed foods and focus on lean protein and fiber (whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies) at each meal
- Engage in enjoyable physical activity
- exercise is not punishment for what you ate
- Adequate sleep (8-9 hours)
- lack of sleep significantly impacts food choices and messes with hunger hormones and cues.
xx,
Alix
