Health at the Holidays

emilyelizabethfran
Dec 13, 2015
3 min read

A beautiful gingerbread house from a friend, a festive bowl of clementines and mugs just waiting to be filled with hot chocolate and marshmallows

The holiday season can be a tricky time for maintaining healthy habits. There never seems to be an end to the savoury dishes, sweet treats and seasonal cocktails available to us, and in addition to the overindulgence that seems synonymous with the season, there can be stressors associated with the holidays too – getting everything done at work before breaking for the new year, finding a great gift for everyone on your list, travelling to see loved ones, and perhaps even hosting a large group at your house, either for a holiday party, or overnight stay.

For those of us with eating disorders in our past, the holidays can be an especially daunting period. I often feel compelled to lose as much weight as possible before the holidays, so that I can look decent at seasonal parties, and counteract the weight-gain that I feel is inevitable between Christmas and New Year's. Then there’s the stress of having to eat all those large meals. The year-end holidays always illuminate the social nature of eating; we feast together at Christmas and on the days leading up to it, we gather around food, and expect all celebrants to enjoy festive spreads. This pressure can be a lot to take for someone with profound anxiety around eating.

That's why I've jotted down a few things that have helped me stay level-headed about the holidays so far this year:

1. Regular portioning: I really struggle with portion size in my everyday life. I have no idea what a "normal" portion looks like, and my dietician is always helping me to navigate these waters. When it comes to portions at holiday time, however, it's important to stick to eating the same amounts of food we usually do, and not use the holidays to justify triple servings. Just because something is delicious doesn't mean we have to consume ten plates of it, even though this can often become the norm at this time of year. This brings me to my next point:

2. Savour everything: Taking your time to eat and really taste all of the delicious foods we get to enjoy once a year helps us to be grateful for them, and to feel full when we are actually full. For those of us recovering from eating disorders, we often have to push ourselves to keep eating when we are full, but as long as we lay out a normal portion, and commit to eating it, savouring the meal can help us to enjoy it more. Also remember to savour every other tradition we get to enjoy during the holidays: spending time with loved ones, decorating indoors and out, and listening to all those songs that give us the warm fuzzies.

3. As soon as we begin savouring all aspects of the holidays, we can begin to gain perspective and realize that this time of year is about so much more than food. It's about so much more than overindulging, or spending every ounce of our energy not overindulging and thinking about what we can and cannot eat. When anxiety around eating seems to be taking over during this time of year, remember this: it's the most wonderful time of the year, and we deserve to enjoy it with the people we love most. The more energy we use obsessing over food, the less energy we have to show how much we love our families and friends – which is really what this time of year is all about.