Christmas 101: Eat what you want, but do it carefully! 11-12-2019
By: María Luisa Teijeiro
In this time of Christmas and New Year's Eve many people feel anxiety and worry about weight, after a year of many physical exercises and diets to maintain the figure, they face the holidays with fear and anguish of throwing everything away.
We gather and eat to be happy, celebrate with joy with our friends and loved ones or fellow students or work. We also eat if we feel lonely and sad. We eat because we are nervous, stressed, anxious. We eat because I saved this food and I must not throw it away, we eat until we are full because I served myself a lot of food and nothing should be left on the plate. We eat because I'm at a party and there's food. We eat because it is Christmas and I am invited to many activities where there is food and tasty food that I only eat at this time of year.
If we eat carefully (mindful eating) we can eat what we want to eat and also keep the figure in this holidays. Mindful eating is not dieting, it is being aware that every food we choose and decide to eat has a consequence on our body, on how we feel and look.
Eating consciously is creating a healthy relationship with food, it is doing a ritual of eating and not an act of impulse. Eating with attention seeks that we have more control of emotions, of when we feel "hungry" but in reality it is not hunger.
To create a healthy relationship with food, you need to change some habits. I leave you with some techniques that can help you.
- Eat slowly
- Chew food well
- Swallow all the food before putting the next bite into your mouth
- Pay attention to all your senses when you eat, focus on how it tastes, smells, the texture and color of your food.
- Try to identify each ingredient
- Eat small bites, helps you taste food better
- Eat at the table, not in the bed or living room of your home
- Avoid intense stimuli like cell phone, computer, TV, books and music at high volume or anything that distracts you.
- Don't eat while working, finish your work and focus only on food.
- Plan your meals in advance
Start the day by exercising or taking a good walk. Doing so can reduce your appetite for all the rest of the day. Don't eat sweets or flours between meals, choose baked dishes, vegetables and grilled meat; take care of what you drink, alcohol and soft drinks have many calories; avoid going hungry for Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve dinner and don't take leftovers to the house so you don't repeat the meal the next day.
Christmas 101: Eat what you want, but do it carefully!
Do you understand that behind your bad relationship with food there is something else, and do you want to find out? Let's talk about it together in therapy. Click here to schedule an appointment.
