My 4 favourite intuitive eating tips for optimal enjoyment this Christmas

Are you feeling any guilt or stress around food during the festive period? Or are you totally relaxed about what you eat and feeling at peace in your body?

At a time when food is a big part of our celebrations - whether it be at parties, the office, or Christmas day feasting - feeling stress around food can, for some people, suck away some of the joy of the season, and send some into an anxious state about holiday weight gain and un-doing any ‘good work’ they’ve put into their diet to this point.

What’s more, articles in the media about avoiding weight gain are rife at the moment – which also sets up what we call a ‘dieting mentality’ of restricting food before and after Christmas, as if this is an absolutely ‘normal’ thing for people to do. But is it really? And is it helpful?

Psychologists believe that dieting puts our eating under conscious cognitive control — meaning dieters exert mental effort to control their intake. Whilst it’s great to be health conscious, the irony is that when a person’s way of thinking about food is so caught up in “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts”, they are at risk of suppressing their natural desires to eat and may be more vulnerable to erratic eating patterns and emotional eating. People who eat intuitively, on the other hand, take cues about when and what to eat from their bodies, first and foremost.

If thinking about food is causing you any stress at the moment – or you simply want to get the most enjoyment from eating over the festive period - then here are my four favourite tips for eating intuitively and putting the fun back into food this Christmas:

1. Choose foods that will truly satisfy your body, belly and your taste buds. I’m all for making informed decisions around food, but I also know that if a plethora of delicious choices are available to us and we skirt around the edges too much and feel like we’re depriving ourselves or we aren’t eating to satisfactory level of fullness, this can back-fire and lead to overeating at a later point. So, when you’re ordering from a Christmas menu or picking from the party buffet, choose mindfully and keep your satisfaction in mind.

2. Know you can have a brilliant time with or without booze. We all know that drinking too much can leave us feeling in a bad way, and it can overcloud our natural intuition to make the best decisions for us – whether they be decisions about food or other!
   If a few drinks are a part of the celebrations that you look forward to, then of course, enjoy a festive tipple. But if alcoholic drinks don’t work for you, hold course with your natural inclinations and don’t succumb to any social pressure to have a glass in your hand.

3. Are you eating slowly and mindfully? I believe that slowing down when we eat is so important all the time, but particularly around Christmas. When you create a mindful pause before you tuck in it really gives you the opportunity to get in tune with your body - and to make food choices that work for you at that time.
   And, if you can physically take a breath as well - I actually encourage you to take between 2 and 5 deep breaths right into your belly area – this helps reduce cortisol levels, gives your gut a healthy dose of oxygen (what I call Vitamin O!) and  prepares you to eat by switching on the body’s natural ability to produce enzymes and digest food too.
   What’s more, paying attention to eat slowly and mindfully improves your overall experience and enjoyment of the food you eat and it helps recognise when both your brain and belly are truly satisfied so you know when to stop.

4. If you end-up overeating, do not waste any time beating yourself up over it. It’s important to recognise that overeating at Christmas is not the same as binge-eating. And, whilst society might have led us to believe if we eat more than our body needs it will instantly lead to weight gain or bad health, the reality is a few days of over-indulgence over the festive period will not break your body.
   
   Your body is always trying to keep you in balance – it will be ok. Any guilt just makes things stressful, so instead, focus on celebrating all the great things in your life with the important people in your life around you.

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Next Steps

If you need suport creating an intuitive, sustainable relationship with food, please do get in touch - I’d love to help show you the way.