Healthy Holiday Habits: How to Avoid Overeating This Season [Ep. 119]

0:00 This is the Eat Well, Think Well, Live Well podcast. I'm Lisa Salsbury. And this is episode 119 healthy holiday habits. How to avoid overeating this season. Welcome to Eat Well, Think Well, Live Well; the podcast for women who want to lose weight, but are tired of counting and calculating all the food. I'm your host, Lisa Salsbury. I'm a certified health and weight loss coach and life coach, and most importantly a recovered chronic dieter. I'll teach you to figure out why you are eating when you aren't hungry, instead of worrying so much about what you are eating. Welcome back and welcome to the holiday season.

0:43 As of the release date of this podcast, Halloween is tomorrow, which means we're just 29 days until Thanksgiving 56 days until Christmas and 62 days until new year's Eve. Does that timeline make you a little anxious? For years, this season made me nervous too. Before I gave up the cycle of fad dieting. I used to think. Hmm. Well, I guess I'll just try again next year. I tell myself just to not worry about anything, stop trying. Quote unquote. And sure enough, my weight would creep up through the season. Come January. I'd feel one of two ways. Either sad that Christmas was over January has never been my best month.

1:26 Or like I was somehow supposed to hit the ground running with new year's resolutions, which never stuck that led me to keep eating through my feelings until March when I'd feel desperate and look for the next big solution. Usually. A quick fix fad diet. I think what is pretty crazy is that we've also been told for years that typically people gain about five. Sometimes you even hear up to 10 pounds during the holiday season. But actually studies have found that it's more like one to two pounds. What's weird. Is that when I thought everyone was gaining five pounds, I figured I could. And maybe even should as well. I think it sort of gave me permission. Like, I'm just like everyone else.

2:08 Today. I want to give you permission to enjoy the holidays and to maintain your weight where you want it. If that means maintain it at exactly the same as you currently are. Great. If that means maintain the momentum you currently have, if you're in a loss phase. Let's do that too. The holidays seem to have become a full quarter of the year that we are not paying attention to our health. It doesn't have to be like that. And it doesn't have to be difficult either. You've probably heard the same, that it's less important. What you were eating between Thanksgiving and new years. And more important from new years to Thanksgiving. And while that is absolutely true. There's no reason to do a disservice to yourself by showing up to the first week in January with an extra 10 pounds to lose.

2:54 I want to give you six strategies. To help you develop some healthy holiday habits and avoid overeating this season. Number one. Get honest about your calendar. This time of year, we often just say, I am so busy. This is the biggest myth I see playing out. We're just so busy and there are so many parties. And while that is true, I believe you. Here's the thing. Are there really more events or we just expecting that there will be. I challenge you to check out your last three months of calendars. Look at how many gatherings you've actually had birthdays sports games, date nights, outings with friends, or really any social event where food is served.

3:43 When I first did this several years back. I was shocked to see it that I had about 27 social events across three months, 27 times. I was eating away from the house at some sort of event. That was way more than I thought I would get. These days. I have fewer kids at home it's less, but it's still significant. Now count up. How many holiday specific events you have? Do you see a big increase? This is what we're looking for. We're not looking for the total number of holiday events. What we're looking for is an increase. Between October, November, December, as opposed to the July, August, September months.

4:25 Okay. So in looking for that increase, what we want to notice is things like my husband's work, Christmas party will replace. Our regular date night, not add to it. My women's group at church, we'll have a Christmas gathering, but we do a gathering every month. It's just Christmas themed in December. So it's not an additional event. It's the same event I go to every month when we look closely at the actual number of extra events. it just might not be as high as we assume. One more tip here about your calendar. Break down these gatherings by week. Say you have a work lunch, Friday night holiday party, at a Sunday family dinner, that's three out of 21 meals in a week.

5:11 If you're eating roughly three meals a day. You're still eating your regular meals about 85% of the time. Even if you overeat once or twice. You're still at over 90% on plan. So remind yourself that you can enjoy these special meals without it throwing off your goals. Deciding you can't lose or maintain your weight. During the holidays because you have too many events is just not true. I have been using this calendar strategy with my clients for several years. And no one comes up with a dramatic increase in the number of events. It's just the easy thought to delay the time to start working on your health goals, your brain prefers this because it does not like change.

5:54 That's just the truth. Your brain will offer you all kinds of reasons. And being too busy is a favorite one. Number two. Is making sleep a priority. Another lie I used to tell myself is that I had to stay up late to get everything done. I've done several episodes with sleep experts on how essential sleep is to your weight loss efforts. Inadequate sleep such as less than seven to eight hours per night. Decreases concentrations of the hormone, leptin and increases levels of the hormone. Ghrelin. This is an unfortunate case of double jeopardy. Leptin signals, a sense of feeling full and grillin tells our body it's time to eat.

6:35 So a decrease in leptin says to our body I'm not satisfied. And an increase in ghrelin says I'm really hungry. You end up feeling, not satisfied by the same amount of food. That normally would satisfy you on a well rested day. That's the effect of the low leptin. You also end up with stronger cravings and a surprising desire to eat more often the effect of the high ghrelin. The other effect of lack of sleep is the decrease in emotional resilience. When we aren't well rested. So our ability to stick to our goals and not go to food for emotional buffering is decreased. The holidays can be stressful. As we all know. So getting sufficient sleep is not only helpful in balancing our hunger hormones.

7:19 But also to maintain our emotional resilience. More than any other time of year commit to a bedtime during the holidays. Based on your required wake-up time and stick to it. Except in the case of clinical insomnia, most Americans can get more sleep if they simply value it more by going to bed at the right time. Number three. Get honest about your food. There's a lot of honesty in these tips. Okay. There's a couple parts to this food. One first don't operate from scarcity. This is a trick, the food manufacturers and restaurants just absolutely love. And unfortunately we have started to believe them and internalize these thoughts.

8:01 You can only get it now. Limited time. Is it true that Starbucks only does the pumpkin spice latte this time of year? Yes. Could you actually make it the other nine, nine months of the year? Also, yes. But we do that with holiday foods we make, or others make at home too. You might think, oh, I only get fudge at Christmas time. That's true for me because I only choose to make it for friends and family at Christmas. But the truth is instead of making a lemon cake around Easter, I could just make fudge, the ingredients are available year round, such as chocolate chips, marshmallow cream, sugar, you know, the drill. All are just a regular grocery store ingredients that are available year round.

8:44 There is actually no shortage of fudge. You can totally make it any time. You can buy fudge at Godiva's or C's in the mall year round. You can even buy candy canes online. Year-round. When we are thinking things about food, like I only get it at this time of year. We get these feelings of scarcity. And when we are operating from that scarcity, it makes us think we should definitely eat it now. Or there won't be any left. The other thing here is to be really honest about what you want, like what you actually want. Like I said about my fudge, the ingredients are available year round. We could actually make pumpkin pie for the 4th of July. But we don't really want it then.

9:26 So say yes to the pumpkin pie because you actually want it now. Not because you don't get it at other times of the year. Enjoy these holiday foods, because they are meaningful to you at this time of year, whether that's because you enjoy making them for others or they remind you of a grandmother that's passed. Holiday foods often carry fond memories or make you feel festive, which is wonderful. Just don't let it trick you into feeling like they're scarce. And lastly on the holiday food section. Is that when we believe they are scarce or somehow particularly special. We reinforce the idea that holidays are for being off a diet. And January is for being on a diet.

10:08 Can you hear my air quotes? And then January foods seem dumb and boring and diety. this labels are foods good and bad, right? You're telling yourself that holiday foods are bad and that you can't lose weight while eating them. But that January foods are good. You'll throw out all the carbs and leftover snacks from the new year's Eve party. And then, and only then can you start to lose weight? When we label holiday foods bad, we are going to inevitably feel bad about ourselves for eating them. And then we continue that negative self-talk spiral by saying, there's no way you can possibly do this. You'll have to wait for the new year to really get on top of your eating.

10:48 So really get honest about the way you're feeling about food.. All right. Number four is specific to parties and gatherings. Get honest about what's actually good on the buffet. And when I'm talking about good here, it's not about good food, bad food. It's about what is delicious to you. Whether it's an appetizer, buffet, dessert buffet, or a whole meal, the holidays tend to bring out the variety of foods. Like nothing else. You want to try it? All right. Here's a few tips for navigating those buffets. First, make sure you can still see your plate. When you dish up your plate at home for dinner, it's likely you can still see what color your plate is in between your food.

11:30 You have your chicken separated from your potatoes and salad, or maybe you're having stir fry. So it's rice with your stir fry on top. So it's a stack in the middle, but you have plenty of room on the edges. But at a buffet suddenly you're piling food on top of food and feeling like you have to try at all. This is again, coming from a place of scarcity. Remember tip number three. But what have you dished up your plate in the same portions you would for dinner at home where you can still see what color your plate is in between the food. Make sure there are spaces between your food choices. With this little tip, you will likely not get too much on your plate. It's something I've used multiple times and it works great.

12:11 Second quit the clean plate club. Remember, there's no prizes at the clean plate club. I've talked about it many, many times. If you find yourself at an event where you want to try it all, do it. But just try it. You don't have to eat the entire thing. You want to try all five desserts on the buffet? Fine. Do it. But just have two bites of each and leave the rest. You want to try the potatoes and the stuffing for sure. I love those things. Just eat half of each one. Don't let there be drama about needing to finish. You're an adult and you totally can leave food on your plate if you want. buffets can lead to a lot of might as well eating that's when you already ate this.

12:53 So you might as well eat that. Or you go into it thinking I won't be able to not eat all of the things. So I might as well, not even try. It doesn't have to be that way. Buffets are usually associated with parties and therefore you want to be comfortable. I certainly don't want to be worrying about how full my stomach feels or how I need to find a bathroom while I'm already worrying about making small talk. Give yourself the kindness of being comfortable in your body. So it doesn't inhibit what you want to do at the party. Which leads us right into tip number five. And that is, remember the holidays. Are about the people. Have you ever gotten so worried about billowing, your diet, that you forgot to actually enjoy yourself?

13:35 Have you had so much anxiety not knowing what exactly is in the sweet potatoes that you didn't even bother to thank your aunt for making them. Have you worried ahead of visiting your grandma? I'm sure she will offer you food. That is not on your plan that you end up, not even excited to see her. Remember the most important aspect of the holidays. It's the people. It's the family and the friends you are with, you can literally eat steamed vegetables and drink water if you actually wanted to. I don't, but I'm just saying you could. And still enjoy the people. You do not have to eat everything on the buffet, say yes to every dessert or drink all the punch to enjoy. Conversation company and connection.

14:17 Remember food is part of the celebration, but it's not the celebration. The fun of the holidays is about connection and making memories with family and friends. Focus on the people this year and see how fun it can be. Even with a regular amount of food on your plate. Even if you don't have extra dessert at every party, this season enjoy every bite. And thank those that made it, especially if it was you. Okay, lastly, number six, let's talk about support. If you're serious about your goals, this holiday season, why not get a little help? Whether that's from me as a coach, or maybe you could team up with a friend for some accountability.

15:00 I get that it might seem like an impossible task to lose weight during the holidays. But only because you've never done it. If your brain is sure that this is impossible and that you should just put it off again. Don't believe that nonsense. Don't wait for January 1st. Start now to take control of your health. You don't need a Monday or a first day of the month or first day of the year. There's nothing special about those times. You can make the changes you've been wanting to right now. If you feel like you're eating for reasons. Uh, other than hunger, whether it's social pressure or stress, or if you want to stop the cycle of dieting and actually reach a sustainable weight coaching can help.

15:41 I work with you to develop a realistic approach to weight loss that doesn't mean giving up on fun connection or your goals. There is no diet that can help you address the root cause of why you're eating. When you aren't physically hungry. Do you feel like sometimes you are eating just because everyone else is. Or you finish something and think that wasn't even good. Why did I eat all of that? Or you plan to have one cookie and then you have seven. There are solutions. And I can teach them to you. I can help you and the obsession with fad dieting while at the same time. Getting you to your natural goal weight. I can help you and the constant feeling of hunger cravings and urges having a professional to be accountable to is like nothing you've ever tried.

16:23 And honestly, there isn't a better time to get that extra help than right now to help you handle the holidays and avoid overeating this season. Imagine going into January 1st. Five pounds down rather than your traditional five pounds up. Book a free strategy session with me and you'll see how coaching can really be the difference for you. And finally dropping the tradition of annual weight gain. If today's episode gave you something to think about or try out, I'd love to hear about it. Send me a message or leave a review to let me know. What's been helpful to you. Remember the journey to eating well and living well is about small, consistent steps. And you're already on your way. If you're listening to this, if you'd like some personalized support to make lasting changes, I'm here to help book a free strategy session with me and let's find out what approach will work best for you.

17:11 Again, thanks for listening to the eat. Well think, well live well podcast.