The holiday season is a time of year when people tend to indulge in food. It can be easy to get caught up in celebratory feasts and nostalgic treats and forget about eating regular, balanced meals.
This time of year, people are more likely to mindlessly eat because they are distracted by being in new environments or talking to friends and family, according to Rachel Goldman, PhD. Goldman is a licensed psychologist in New York City and a clinical assistant psychiatry professor at the New York University School of Medicine.
On special occasions like holidays, it's normal to overeat a bit. Rachael Hartley, RD, the owner of Rachael Hartley Nutrition and author of Gentle Nutrition, says it's normal to eat more than you normally would on holidays. What's more important, she says, is enjoying those moments of excess without feeling guilty. Mindful eating is a tool that can help you do that.
You can improve your relationship with food by paying more attention to when you experience hunger and what types of foods make you feel energized. You may also find that you enjoy your food more when you are more mindful of your eating habits.
What Is Mindful Eating?
Christyna Johnson, a Dallas-based registered dietitian, says that mindful eating – paying attention to your food, body, and thoughts while you eat – can help you develop a healthier relationship with food. Mindful eating can help you appreciate the sensory experience of eating, notice when you're hungry or full, and become aware of the emotions you associate with certain foods.
Studies have found that mindfulness can help curb harmful eating habits and promote healthier behavior. A systematic review and meta-analysis published in the September-October 2017 issue of Obesity Research & Clinical Practice found that practicing mindfulness decreased binge and impulsive eating, and increased physical activity among study participants.
Not only does mindful eating help people lose weight, but they are also less likely to gain the weight back. The review suggests a few potential reasons for this, including that practicing mindful eating may help people become more aware of their body’s fullness and hunger cues, and help them avoid eating out of habit or for emotional reasons.
Johnson says that being more aware will lead to enjoying your food more.
We asked experts how you can bring mindfulness into your meals throughout the holiday season.
Mindful Eating Strategies to Improve Your Relationship With Food During the Holidays
1. Recognize Signs of Hunger
If you are feeling tired, sluggish, nauseous, faint, or have a growling stomach, it may be a sign of hunger. Paying attention to these signs can help you eat more mindfully.
The last time you ate, were you physically hungry?
2. Sit to Eat
If you want to be more mindful about what you're eating, try to sit down when you eat, instead of grazing or eating standing up. This will help you connect with the experience and be more aware of how much time is passing, as well as what and why you're eating.
If you're too busy to eat a proper meal, Hartley says it's important to make sure you're still feeding yourself regularly and sufficiently. So pack some snacks to hold you over between errands when you can't sit down to eat.
3. Breathe Deeply
When you take a deep breath, it's like resetting a button in your brain, Hartley says. It can help you achieve some degree of mindfulness throughout your meal.
According to Goldman, deep breathing allows us to become more in tune with our bodies and present surroundings. A simple inhale and exhale gives you a chance to inventory your surroundings and check in with your body and emotions, so you can recognize hunger signals and respond with intention rather than react impulsively by refilling your plate. It’s a tip that literally everyone has time for — even during the busiest day of the craziest holiday season.
4. Focus on Sensory Cues
The holidays can be a hectic time of year, with all of the parties and rich foods. Practicing mindful eating, or paying attention to the scent, taste, texture, and temperature of your food, can help you slow down and enjoy the season.
Hartley suggests checking in with how your food tastes throughout your meal by taking a mindful bite or two to appreciate the flavors. This will help you avoid overeating.
According to Hartley, trying small bites of food as if you are wine tasting can help improve mindfulness.
There are many benefits to meditation, including helping you to stick to healthy habits. Meditation can help you to focus and be more present, which can lead to making better choices about your health. If you are trying to eat healthier or exercise more, meditation can help you to be more successful.
5. Stick to a Schedule
Johnson emphasizes the importance of tradition when it comes to holiday meals, specifically saving up for a big meal. She argues that by skipping meals in anticipation of a holiday meal, one could mindlessly overeat. Johnson believes that being uncomfortably hungry can trigger bad decision making in regards to food.
6. Pack Your To-Go Plate First
Johnson says that we tend to overeat foods we only get once a year because we feel like it is our only chance to have them. To combat this, she suggests packing up all the food you think you'll want more of before you start eating. This way, you can remember that you will have other chances to eat these foods and you won't feel the need to gorge yourself. If you're worried about feeling awkward bringing a to-go box to a hosted meal, she suggests mentally filling it before you make your plate.
7. Indulge Outside of Holidays
You are more likely to be mindful of how much you are eating if you allow yourself to have certain foods all the time, Johnson points out. Just imagine eating latkes every Saturday morning or keeping a fresh batch of Christmas cookies on hand in the freezer as opposed to enjoying them once a year. You'll be less likely to overindulge when it's time to sit down for a holiday meal if you remember that you are always allowed to eat what sounds good to you.
8. Practice Coping Mechanisms
When you spend time with family members you don't see often, it can cause a range of emotions, from sadness to anger. Johnson says that this is normal human behavior, especially when we don't have the skills and tools to deal with our emotions.
You shouldn't focus on your emotions while eating since it'll take away from the experience and you'll still be left with negative emotions afterwards.
Goldman says that it is helpful to have at least three coping mechanisms that you can fall back on to help you calm down. One of these should be something that you can do anywhere at any time, such as deep breathing or meditation. This way, you will always have something to do instead of eat in social situations when it is not realistic to do something else, such as running.
9. Set an Alarm
requesting that you set a reminder a few times a day to pause for thirty seconds and be aware of your body and mind. It is suggested that by doing this you may avoid mindless eating and better take care of your needs. You may also find that you are hungrier than you thought and actually need a snack.
10. Slow Down
Goldman says that it can take time for the stomach to send the message to your brain that you are full. If you eat too quickly, you might not realize you are full until it's too late. Goldman recommends taking a break between bites to help you eat more slowly and enjoy every mouthful. Eating more slowly will also help you feel more satisfied and less likely to overeat.
research has shown that taking your time during meals may prevent obesity and reduce risks associated with type 2 diabetes.
11. Enjoy
Eating mindfully means taking the time to appreciate your favorite dishes. Hartley says that this is important for having a healthy relationship with food. “Eating is more than just getting nutrients,” she says. “We have emotional connections with the food we eat and need to eat foods we love regularly to feel satisfied.” So yes, you can still enjoy Aunt Barbara's mashed potatoes and your cousin's famous pecan pie.
12. Cut Yourself Some Slack
Although we can't be mindful of what we eat all the time, it is still a helpful tool to use. Hartley says it's helpful to think of it as a spectrum, which means that it's better to eat more mindfully when we can. For example, during the holidays.
Hartley believes that people who worry about getting through the holidays are more likely to develop an unhealthy relationship with food. He thinks that it is better to pay attention to your feelings and the food you are eating so that you can have a healthier relationship with food.
