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A Healthy Approach to Eating During the Holidays

Today’s blog was going to be about the potential benefits, or risks of coffee.  I almost had the entire thing written when I came across a post,  THINKING ABOUT A HOLIDAY WHOLE30? THINK AGAIN,  about NOT trying to do a Whole30 during the holidays.  With Thanksgiving a scant 3 days away, that seemed like a more pressing topic to address today.

I’m not reinventing the wheel here and neither are Melissa and Dallas Hartwig at Whole9Life.  But it’s a well-timed reminder, and sometimes knowing that you have support in your choices to NOT eat perfectly can be just as important as having support in your choices to follow a regimented diet and nutrition plan.  Like so many other things, they remind us that it’s all about moderation and deliberate choices. They remind us that there are valid reasons, outside of nutritional content, to choose to eat something:

…in this special instance, in the company of those you love, it doesn’t matter that your Mom uses an entire cup of Crisco in the cake batter. Because that cake is full of memories, history and tradition, and makes you feel as warm and safe and loved as you did when you were a kid.

They also make some suggestions for pre-holiday calibration by sticking with a few weeks of Whole30, or whatever clean eating works best for you.  That will help you have a strong baseline to make your decisions against.  It will help you keep in mind how good it feels to keep the nutrition on the rails, and that should help you get back to it after the holidays.

So, head into your holidays with a mindfulness and a general strategy.  Go into them knowing that you are going to make choices based on a variety of valid reasons – nutritional, emotional, and traditional.  Go into it knowing that you will enjoy your indulgences deliberately, and without mindlessly consuming as much of it as you can, but rather, just as much as you need to get the satisfaction and experience that made you choose to eat that food.

Go into your holidays prepared to celebrate life, your loved ones, and all the things that bring you joy.  Then we can get serious about making the tough nutritional decisions for a while to get back on track again.

Image Chocolate Cake with Snowy Meringue courtesy Martha Stewart Holiday Cakes

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