Why I won't be modifying any of my holiday recipes to be cleaner, lighter or healthier.

There is one surefire way to reduce the stress of holiday cooking: stick to what you know.
However, in this world of "clean eating" and never-ending hacks on how to lighten recipes, it can be hard to feel comfortable preparing traditional recipes.
Here is the secret: there IS a way to get through the holidays without being fearful of holiday weight gain or overeating even if you eat special holiday foods (hint: it has nothing to do with skipping meals, switching out sugar for agave syrup or passing up your favorite foods and feeling deprived)- it is called mindful or intuitive eating.

Let me be clear- I am not against changing up a recipe to better suit modern tastes and ingredients. I am, however, against cutting calories or using specialty ingredient to the detriment of recipes, your budget and meal satisfaction. So, before you go out and buy expensive or hard to find ingredients that won't even change the healthiness of the recipe; before you lighten-up a recipe and feel compelled to eat too much of it because it just doesn't taste good, hear me out.

You could lighten up your recipes if you really wanted to... or you could eat more according to your hunger levels. I know that "eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full" has been thrown around a lot these days and is usually met with an eye roll and sigh of exasperation. HOWEVER- this is not the full story. There are 3 things you can do to help yourself use your hunger (rather than emotions or appetite) to guide your eating:

1. Allow yourself to make the recipe again, later in the year.
2. Refuse to jump into a crazy diet in January.
3. Listen to your thoughts and emotions before eating.

Let's be realistic, you probably won't all of a sudden learn how to eat mindfully over the holidays. It takes practice and time to understand why you are eating. But starting to see food and eating in a different light and feeling less doomed to over eat can make the holidays a lot more enjoyable.

Make that recipe again and again
A table full of foods that come around only once a year is just begging you to eat too much. How easy is it to stop eating when full if you won't get another chance for another 364 days? Practically impossible. On top of the scarcity of these dishes, if you throw in feeling guilty for eating foods you've labelled as fattening or forbidden then your odds of walking away feeling full but not stuffed is almost zero. Allowing your favorite dishes to be enjoyed more often can take away the glamour of them. The more we eat a food, the less we put it up on a pedestal and the better we can judge it's true flavors. You may be surprised at how less tasty it is the more you allow yourself to eat it slowly without guilt.

Ditch the diet resolutions
Knowing that you are going to pass through January in a daze of hunger in the hopes that your self esteem will miraculously improve when you lose weight (ahem...it doesn't), only fuels cravings and appetite during the holidays. Often people think of it as the "last supper" or "last chance to eat what I want" before starting an ineffective diet.  With this frame of mind how can you NOT eat to bursting with the thought of physical and mental starvation looming ahead. Take dieting, deprivation and hunger out of the equation for January and just see how you eat.

Pause to listen to your body before eating
Before sitting down to a meal or entering a party, take 30 seconds to check into your body and mind. How hungry are you before you see and smell the food? Are there any emotions that may push you to eat more than you want (stress, anxiety, sadness)? Are there any thoughts running through your head that may lead you to eat when you are not hungry ("Get it now while you still can, the diet starts tomorrow!", "there is no point in trying to eat healthy, you always screw it up and stuff your face" or "So-and-so is not here to get on my back about eating this. I better eat it while I can!"). Simply understanding why you are eating when no longer hungry can help you eat less. The goal is not to eat only healthy foods or walk away hungry- the goal is to better understand why you continued to eat when already stuffed so that next time you can eat AND feel comfortable leaving the party.

You could set yourself up for a night of painful over eating by skipping lunch to make room for a feast at supper. You could make food that tastes like cardboard and is disappointing. You could go out and buy a host of expensive or hard to find ingredients that don't improve the nutrition of your dish. Or you could eat a delicious lunch and head into supper hungry (but not starving), eat the foods you really love and leave the table feeling satisfied and full.

Baking is a science and there is only so many changes you can make to a recipe before it becomes something entirely different. Of course, there is no harm in trying to make a dish contain less bad fat or more veggies, but if it leaves you in tears, or worse, encourages you to over eat just because it is healthy, than the point is lost.

Understanding the difference between true hunger and appetite, acknowledging when emotions are dictating what, when and how much you eat and removing guilt and judgement about food are all helpful ways to eat healthier over the holidays. Rather than scouring Pinterest for hacks to make your favorite dishes (so called) healthier and hoping for the best when these hacks are put to the test- try following the traditional recipe and embracing mindful eating.

Download this reminder card and keep it handy over the holidays!

Mindful eating- step two!

I've previously blogged about the general concept of mindful eating along with one way to practice eating more in the moment. The next step you can take involves learning the difference between eating due to hunger versus other influences.

So so so many clients struggle with eating when they are not hungry which can trigger feelings of guilt and shame. Understanding whether you are eating due to hunger or other reasons begins with being mindful before taking the first bite.

Before you take a bite of food, take a minute to listen to your body. Ask yourself- "am I truly hungry?" The task at hand is not to resist the urge to eat or be a "good person" for not eating- but to simply listen or check in with your body. 

It is important that you do this in a non-judgemental way. If you are scared of how you might feel if you are not hungry but want to eat anyways, you may eat out of rebellion or anger. Allowing yourself the option to eat anyways and congratulate yourself on taking the time to listen to your body's hunger and fullness levels will help you avoid feeling guilty.

Step one would be to step away from the food. Go to a quiet place free from the smells and influence of food. This could be in  your car before heading into the house or in the bathroom before eating dinner. You can close your eyes or focus on an object while evaluating your physical signs of hunger. 

Some people find it useful to write down a list of physical signs of hunger- tummy rumbling, gnawing feeling, etc. Refer to that list while you are trying to judge if you are hungry. 

Step two: Once you've determined if you are actually hungry- try to figure out how hungry you are. A lot? a little? Hunger is not all or nothing- there is a scale or progression that will help determine how much food you need. You can use a scale from 1-5 or 1-10 to help you evaluate it. 



Step three: once you know how hungry you really are- decide how much food you need to eat to fill the gap BEFORE starting to eat. You can always decide to eat more or less once you are eating, but letting your hunger decide how much you need versus the food can help you be more mindful. 

If you feel confident in listening to your hunger signals and determining how hungry you are- there is a fourth step. Once you have eaten about half the plate of food- take a mini break. Reconnect with your body to reevaluate your hunger levels. Check in to see how much more you need to eat to feel satisfied. 

Practicing listening to your hunger cues and evaluating your level of hunger or fullness is a big concept to master. It is not that difficult with practice and is INVALUABLE for weight management.

Tackling the triggers that influence you to eat when not actually hungry is another exercise to increase mindfulness. This one is a bit more difficult to do on your own and can stir up some emotions. Triggers can be in your environment (donuts in the breakroom), feelings (like stress or sadness) even old habits (snacking while watching tv). But that's for another post!

Where to turn when extreme dieting (ultimately) fails

Although I help people every day manage their weight, I also work with people with eating disorders. My counseling techniques do change depending on my client but one thing always remains the same: extreme dieting is bad. Understanding the difference between normal, everyday improvements with eating and extreme dieting can be tricky. Explaining this difference to anyone who does not have a skewed relationship with food (and even to those with this problem) can be a challenge.

Extreme dieting is a problem for so many reasons since both physical and mental health is compromised. Unfortunately, a new trend is emerging where dieting is called "lifestyle change" or "healthy eating", but the rigid rules of dieting are the same. Here are a few key points to help you decided if you are following an extreme diet:

Does your diet or "lifestyle change" involve delaying eating? this could mean fasting, delaying eating as long as possible during the day or many hours between meals.

Are you restricting the overall amount you eat? this likely means you are tracking calories and trying to eat under a certain amount. Generally, if you do not have an eating disorder, this can be done safely as long as you aim for a realistic amount- at least 1500 calories per day. Anything under 1200 is considered extreme.

Are you avoiding certain types of food? maybe this is due to their high fat or sugar content, or for some so-called "proven" reason that claims it leads to weight gain. In general this is not an issue if you are cutting down on certain foods and savouring them once a week rather than 7 days a week. However, when these foods become outright banned or forbidden, then the diet becomes extreme. The slippery slope to "yo-yo dieting" or developing an eating disorder may not be far away when this banned food list grows.

So what are the alternatives to extreme dieting? Try a mindful eating or intuitive eating approach. They have been proven to be just as successful (if not more successful) as other traditional weight management techniques. These approaches are more gentle and zen and allow you to develop skills that will help you for many years to come to manage your weight versus a diet plan that tells you what to eat and only works when you follow the strict plan.

Check out my suggested readings for some great books on mindful eating!