Nutrition Tips for Holiday Season

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Merry Happy Chrismahanukwanzakah!

When we talk about nutrition around the holidays, a lot of the chitter chatter is about “temptations” and a lot of the advice we hear is about “resisting temptations”

And yea, there are a lot of what we think of as “temptations” around this time of year.

What are your favorite holiday treats that get labeled as “temptations”?

(here are some of DHR's favorite treats!)

  • Gingerbread cookies
  • Pie
  • Stuffed mushrooms
  • Chex mix
  • Eggnog
  • Morning sticky buns
  • hot cocoa
  • chocolate peanut butter balls
  • peppermint ANYTHING
  • Latkes

These treats are important for helping us celebrate! They help us feel connected to traditions, feel like the holiday is actually here, connect with family, remember family members who’ve gone before us, etc.!

However, healthy eating doesn’t have to mean that we have to “stay strong” in the face of cookies and eggnog and latkes. In fact, depriving ourselves of these foods that we see as such an important part of the holidays isn’t actually all that healthy!

What happens when you deprive yourself of seasonal treats?

1.                  1. You may miss out on connecting with family, friends, traditions, etc. Sitting out the treats can make you feel like an outsider – which not good for mental health, and mental health is a really important part of our physical health as well.

2.                  2. You create a scarcity mindset

A scarcity mindset happens when you tell yourself you can’t have something, or shouldn’t have something, and often that just leads us to obsessing over the thing we can’t have. It happens with so many things: money, time, social status, …food. With food, it can turn into a “forbidden fruit” that takes over your brainspace, and when you have “just a little” it can easily spiral out of control. If you say “now I’ve blown everything” or “diet starts tomorrow” it's likely that next you'll overeat, and then you might feel:

1.                1.   Overstuffed, icky, and sluggish

2.                2.  Guilty and ashamed that you can’t control yourself

To get yourself out of the scarcity mindset, there are a few things you can do.

1.                 1. Give yourself permission to have treats.

        a. If you take them off the forbidden foods list, you may find that you can enjoy them even more!

        b. And it might surprise you that you’re able to enjoy treats in amounts that allow you to feel good afterwards.

2.                  2. Prioritize nourishing yourself first.

Nourishing ourselves is important to prevent that primal hunger. Primal hunger is when you’re so hungry, it doesn’t matter what you eat: “I'm starving, just give me food, and I’m gonna eat a lot of it.” Ever felt HANGRY? These are not good feelings!

There are 2 big reasons that we don’t always do a great job nourishing ourselves on holidays.

1.                  1. If we are planning ahead for a big feast and plan to “save our calories” because we know there will be big treats around

        a. This can backfire and actually lead to you eating more than you would’ve if you’d just eaten your regular meals during the day

        b. To really effectively plan ahead for a big feast, plan to eat regular meals leading up to it, so you don’t wind up in that primal hunger stage before you’re sitting in front of a giant spread. Nourish regularly so that you feel good all day!

2.                  2. We’re BUSY! Often mealtimes get all scrambled up between traveling, coordinating dinner parties, attending events, seeing friends and family, etc, and we’re just too busy to remember to eat our normal meals!

So, now it’s time for sharing. Leave in the comments your favorite meals or foods on a day when you’re getting ready for a big gathering or a feast.

What do you like to have for breakfast/brunch/lunch on those days?

  • Normal food?
  • Celebration or traditional food?
  • Or just really quick things?
Let us know in the comments!
(My favorite breakfast on Christmas Day is breakfast tacos!)

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