Evolve and End Holiday Food Stress

“There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable.”

~Mark Twain

Before you know it, the holidays will be here. Are you looking forward to them as I am? Or do you experience the holidays with teeth grinding, stomach churning, palms sweating--OMG--here comes the food?

Perhaps you think about what happened last year or the year before and worry that you’ll have the same experiences this Thanksgiving, Hanukah, Christmas or New Years.
NOT SO ! 
This year, take a few simple steps and  Evolve to your most peaceful, enjoyable holiday season ever! 

How?
First, consider this proven adage: What you resist persists. 

It’s human nature. When we hear, NO--our desire and focus increases. We just seem to want what we think we can’t have.

When it comes to the holidays, this means that the surest way to set off bingeing or restricting is to:

1. Worry months in advance about what hasn’t happened yet.

2. Predict the future based on the past.

3. Label your favorite holiday foods as “special, different or forbidden” so you’ll have to get them—and lots of them-- while you can.

4. Restrict all year. Living as a “professional dieter,” in public eating only “good foods,” --salads without dressing, no carbs, desserts, white starches or fat. In private cravingcravingcraving these very foods. Trying to eat this way is like trying to hold your breath—you can only do it for so long--- and then…..

So, this year let go of the old, worn-out strategies that have not served you. This year, instead of resisting and then regretting the holidays, instead of bingeing over the holidays and starving after…

I recommend taking a different path to holiday eating.

1. Make a list of all the holiday foods you like/love and wish you could eat reasonably.

2. Prepare/purchase a single serving of one or more of these foods as a part of a meal. When you are moderately hungry, sit down. Eat mindfully, slowly. Enjoy. Stop when you are satiated (comfortable/just enough). Move on. 

3. Eat these foods at a meal at least twice per week. These might include potatoes, stuffing, desserts, etc. The Mind may make a fuss. Label those fussy thoughts “thinking” and continue.

4. It may feel scary to eat a “forbidden” food the first time. How do your feelings change the second time? Feel calmer? Third? Tenth? Notice how over time, these OMG foods are becoming just another food. No charge. No big deal. They are not special, not bad. You can have them anytime you’re hungry.

5. Expand now to Christmas foods, New Years foods, Hanukah and Kwanzaa Foods. Enjoy!

Foot note:
Many of my clients started experimenting with Evolved Holiday Eating before Halloween. One in particular reports:

“This is the first Thanksgiving that I feel completely confident about all food and my eating.  When I think of eating stuffing, mashed potatoes or even pie, I feel--no big deal!”

Wishing you a joyous and peaceful holiday!

“To promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to do that very thing.”

~Mark Twain