How do I stay healthy over the holidays?

Posted on 5 December, 2018

How do I eat well and stay on track with my goals over the silly season?

It’s a great question and one that I get asked regularly at this time of the year. Unfortunately, there isn’t a simple answer, because how you plan to eat over the next few weeks depends highly on your goals, your current health, your priorities, and your food preferences.

If you’d like to:

• maintain a healthy weight
• minimise overeating
• increase diet quality
• feel good with maximum energy

…then the following tips are written for you!

Set some baseline expectations

Don’t try to stick to a restrictive, highly complicated, rigid meal plan or diet. This will not work out well. I’ve talked before about why it’s not a good idea to diet over Christmas. Long story short, it’ll leave you feeling frustrated and sad.

However, just because you’re not on a diet, doesn’t mean you have to throw the baby out with the bathwater. You can still maintain a level of diet quality by setting yourself some realistic, non-negotiable behaviours. Here are some good ideas:

• Hit 5 different types of vegetables per day – no matter what else you eat, get in these nutritional powerhouses and keep your nutrient density high!
• Include a whole food source of protein at all meals – this will help you feel fuller and more in control of your appetite.
• Stop when you’re full – set yourself the goal of eating everything (healthy or not) mindfully. Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full.

Remove social pressure

Social pressure to eat or judgment over one’s food choices is rampant in our society, and sometimes you just can’t win. Say ‘yes’ to a bowl of ice cream and you’re asked, “do you really need that?”. Say ‘no’ and you’re scolded, “oh come on, everything in moderation, it won’t hurt you”.

In the end, it’s no one’s business what or how much you eat, it’s only yours. You and only you are responsible for your food choices and what goes in your mouth. Make a commitment to yourself this silly season that you will make food choices based on what you want to do, not on the opinions of others.

Create a healthy home environment 

A module in The Hub Membership program is dedicated to helping our members create a home environment that makes healthy eating easy. Why is there a whole module on the topic? Because your environment greatly influences your food choices. You also cannot rely on willpower all the time, so creating an environment that promotes healthy choices is a key to eating well consistently long term. Here are some handy tips for creating a healthy food environment:

• throw out unhelpful food – don’t keep it in the house
• have healthy foods chopped up and ready to go and kept at eye level in the fridge in clear containers
• keep your pantry stocked with healthy staples
• keep your freezer stocked with vegetables, whole meats and fruit

Be wise with your drinks

Be mindful of the trap of drinking your calories. Coffee, milkshakes, soft drink, alcohol, juice, cordial can all quickly add up and lead to an excess energy intake both directly by consuming them, and indirectly by leading us to reach for high-calorie snacks while we consume them! Here are a few tips for managing your drinks:

• alternate your alcoholic drinks with water
• swap some of your milky coffees per day for black coffee or tea
• try some non-caloric drinks for your next party

Be a food snob

How many Christmas parties and functions do you find yourself at and you’re eating something that you’re not even enjoying. You’re just eating it purely because it’s there. Being surrounded by food is challenging but being picky about what you choose to eat based on what you’ll truly enjoy is a great way to curb the mindset of just eating something out of impulse. Then when you do eat it, remove the guilt and enjoy every single mouthful.

One of The Healthy Eating Hub’s members said:

“I’m going to be mindful of the delicious options available and only chose the ones that really appeal to me. There’s so much and I don’t want all of it, but I’m going to really enjoy the ones I do. I’ll also remember that it’s only for a little while, and I’ll go back to normal patterns soon.”

Slow down your eating

With so many of us feeling like crazy people, running around trying to do a million things at once, it’s easy to get into the habit of hoovering your food down in fuve minutes flat. Eating too fast can lead to overeating and also make you feel bloated and yuck as it increases the amount of air you take in as you wolf it all down!

Slow down when you eat. Take a bite. Put your fork down. Chew it ten times. Savour it. Enjoy it. You might surprise yourself with how readily you’re able to recognise when you’re full. At that point, it’s time to stop.

Redefine convenience food

Nutrition research tells us that a high consumption of food prepared away from home is a major contributor to an excess energy intake. Convenient food is typically high in energy (fat, sugar, etc) and low in nutrients (vitamins, minerals).

What if we redefined convenience food? At my practice, The Healthy Eating Hub, we’re on a mission to make healthy eating easy and part of how we do that is by showing our clients, quick, easy, fast, yet healthy meal ideas that they can grab and go from the supermarket and just ‘throw’ together at home or work.

Our team recently put together a list of 47+ convenient supermarket meals and you can download the 35 page eBook for FREE here. You’re welcome.