How to Eat your Favorite Holiday Treats without Guilt
Happy Thanksgiving week!
Many of us are worried about losing track of our health goals with the upcoming holiday eating. But depriving yourself of one of the best parts of the holidays (the food!) is NOT sustainable or recommended.
Chef Nikki recently led a presentation addressing exactly this, in a 20-minute recorded session titled “Holiday Eating 101: How to eat what you want without losing sight of your health goals.” We’ve summarized 3 of the highlights below.
#1. Prioritize water and make a game plan for sweets and alcohol
Water: Go into your day, your events, and your parties prioritizing water, or water with electrolytes for extra hydration power. Alcohol tends to dehydrate us, so staying hydrated while you drink is key for keeping your body healthy and lessening the misery of a hangover.
Sweets: This time of year has some of the tastiest treats, and you don’t have to avoid them. Chef Nikki suggests making a physical list of your holiday treat priorities (Grandma’s chocolate fudge?) and mindfully enjoying them. But when it comes to something less satisfying for you (almond cookies?), leave them on the table. Stick to your list and choose to indulge with intention on the food items that really spark joy.
Alcohol: Determine which fun holiday drinks you’ll ACTUALLY enjoy, and choose these over drinks that you feel you’re drinking out of obligation. If you don’t really LOVE the spiked eggnog, don’t drink it! Find a holiday drink that you’ll get some real enjoyment out of, one that will feel satisfying for one or two drinks.
#2 Eat NORMALLY throughout the week
It can be easy to fall in the trap of either going all out “since it’s the holidays” or on the opposite end of the spectrum, “saving up” for a party by fasting the day before or after. Both of these choices will create wild swings in blood sugar that will leave us ravenous.
Chef Nikki suggests enjoying yourself at a holiday event and then returning to your normal eating habits throughout the week. Even one party per week won’t completely derail your health.
What WILL derail your health is if you take that one night and repeat it 6 weeks in a row by “holiday eating” even when you’re by yourself or at work. Or, you may derail yourself by getting stuck in a binge-restrict cycle for the holiday season, which isn’t a mindful place to be eating from and doesn’t provide us with enough nutrients to feel well.
#3. Protein and produce is king!
It’s easy to find protein at holiday meals: shrimp, turkey, ham, cheese, or beans. There are also often sources of produce that can help your body feel nourished- think veggie trays with hummus dips, green bean dishes, cranberry relish, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and more.
After you make a base of produce and protein, sprinkle in your favorite treats. When we say favorite treats, we mean the things that will bring you the most enjoyment, not the things that you eat just because they’re there.
This is an exercise in mindfulness, not a exercise in restraint. Practice presence for your meal experience, and you’ll find much greater satisfaction in the things you consume.
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