14 Tips For People Anxious About Holiday Eating
By: Juha Juppi
Tags: Eating, Christmas, Health, Tips And Tricks, Holidays

Drink Lots Of Water

I’m sure we’ve all heard the same saying ‘if you’re hungry then drink some water!’. While I’m not saying water is a meal replacement, sometimes we misinterpret what our body is telling us. The next time you’re hungry, try drinking a glass of water. You you might find that you won’t be as hungry as you thought. Maybe.

Eat Slowly

Once you start eating, it can take up to 20 minutes for satiety (the feeling of being full) to kick in. For those who are anxious about holiday eating (including me) we’d rather eat less food in the time it takes for satiety to kick in.

Go For A Walk

I was going to say workout (which you can totally do) but going for a walk can be a very family friendly activity during the holidays. Houses around the neighbourhood laced with lights, everyone feeling cooped up and just wanting some fresh air. I’m not advocating that you break any social distancing or social gathering laws, so know what you can do where you live.

Stretch

Stretching either before or after a meal can be helpful. Some stretches promote digestion and things like yoga have helped some reduce binge-eating. I’d recommend doing stretches around the core/spine/hips/shoulders.

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Drink Responsibly

There’s a difference between drinking to enjoy the beverage and drinking to get drunk. Try to chose options with fewer calories. Also while eating try to make an effort to have water with your food, not alcohol. That might be best for after dinner after you’ve already carbed up. Oh and having a stomach full of food before drinking will reduce your desire to bound back endless beers throughout the night.

Keep Yourself Busy

If 80% of the night is spent sitting on a couch, then it wouldn’t surprise anybody that your right hand man for the evening will be your favourite choice of beverage. Keeping yourself busy will not only keep you moving and aid in digestion, but will give you fewer (not zero) opportunities to look towards endless snacking.

Know Your Trigger Foods

If you know that someone in your family is making something irritable, do something about it. Have it stored somewhere that is not out in the open. Put a lid on it so the scent doesn’t fill the room tempting you to endulge with every passing moment. Keep it in the fridge for as long as you can and only take it out when you plan on eating it. Also try eating a small healthy snack before eating your favourite holiday treats. That could give you a healthy balance of being able to enjoy your favourite foods guilt free.

Prepare Leftover Containers

You don’t need to eat everything in one night. It will taste almost if not just as good the next day. Coming prepared with leftover containers will help enforce that you don’t need to eat 4 serving sizes for one person.

Photo by Nadine Primeau on Unsplash

Chose High Fiber Foods Where Possible

It’s no secret that dietary fibre has a strong relationship with feeling full for longer. This video talked about how eating a high fibre/low glycemic index food [beans in this example] for breakfast actually made people less hungry the following meal. They also were not hungry as fast as the group that ate bagels for breakfast. What can we learn from this? Before you have your big holiday dinner — eat a strong breakfast high in fibre. Bonus points if you slide beans in there.

Physical Group Activities

This is similar to keeping yourself busy. You can keep yourself busy with both group activities and individual ones. Helping around to clean before dinner, setting up equipment for family games, shovelling snow, etc. All of these activities add up to keeping you busy and giving you less opportunity to binge eat out of pure boredom.

Play Like A Kid

Children really do seem to have endless endurance, so join them! You may not need to join them all of the time, but you’ll find that playing with kids often requires you to move your body in a way you often don’t. Bending, turning, twisting, throwing, lifting, running, stopping, etc. It may not be enough to give you six pack abs overnight, but during the holidays every little bit of exercise counts.

Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash

Try To De-Stress

I know it’s impossible to bring your stress levels down to zero. You can always find a reason to be stressed out if you look for it. On the flip side, you can find an endless amount of things that make you feel happy that will reduce your stress. I know that you can binge eat while happy, but I would personally bet on people making better decisions when they’re happy vs stressed. De-stressing activities can include; meditation, guitar, working out, stretching, phone call with loved ones, reduce social media/phone screen time.

Have A Good Breakfast

This piggybacks off of the point about choosing high fiber foods where possible. If you skip breakfast then you’re more likely (depending on the person) to eat a larger meal at lunch. This method can work for many people — but if you don’t have the best relationship with food then it’s probably a safe bet to have a good breakfast. Don’t test your will on skipping a meal when there are endless treats just a few hours away.

Eat Before You’re Hungry

We know it can take up to 20 minutes for satiety to kick in. So why not use that number to our advantage. If you are already committing to eating slower, then why not double down and have a healthy snack 10–20 mins before dinner. Something high fiber that will keep you full and low GI so you don’t get a blood sugar rush & crash after dinner. Even a small bowl of fruit could do the trick!

Photo by Garrett Bear on Unsplash

I hope you found this list helpful! Please like/comment if you got value from it and enjoy this stock photo of an adorable cat! Talk to you in the next article.