It is normal to experience food shaming comments from our inner food critique, or from others- in the form of words or looks. But how does this impact your experience over the holidays? Is this ultimately a healthy relationship with food and a healthy way to be?
Happy New Year! Every year as we enter dieting month, there always seems to be even more pressure than ever to “lose weight and get healthy.” While I understand the sense that we have a fresh start and the surge of motivation that comes with that, dieting research and peoples’ personal experiences both indicate this is short-lived. If you are struggling with the desire to lose weight despite previous unsuccessful attempts, or even weight gain after previous attempts, then I have a few things I would like to share with you. In this article, you will find information that I wish everyone knew about dieting, weight loss and health.
As we approach 2025, many of us are reflecting on the past year and setting our sights on new resolutions and health goals. It’s that time when we commit to improving our physical and mental well-being, two of the most important aspects of our lives. After all, when we prioritize our health, it leads to better relationships, longer lifespans, and a higher quality of life overall.
Having a challenging time thinking of new snacks or adding snacks that are satisfying or enjoyable to the routine? Dietitian-to-be, Emmye Conway, breaks this process into three categories to help you think through new, creative snack ideas that will leave you feeling your best!
Have you considered where you're getting your nutrition information and if this information is trustworthy? Whether it comes from a gossip column, a viral video, a celebrity, or a physician, there will be no better expert to obtain nutrition advice from than a registered dietitian. Read why and how a dietitian can help you!
Eating while traveling or on vacation can seem like an overwhelming task. Maybe you’re traveling with a group of family or friends, or you have activities planned that span much of the day. Maybe you have a really early or a really late flight, or are traveling during the winter months which can cause delays. I have recently experienced all of these things during traveling. These situations are only some of the reasons why eating while traveling can seem daunting.
If you celebrate the classic American holidays, then perhaps you feel overwhelmed with the amount of food and planning that goes into the months of November and December.
Every year the holidays are kicked off with Halloween then the food builds and builds from there. For many, this can be a very anxious time of year and with so much focus being on food, it creates the perfect storm for binge eating and emotional eating to appear.
If you have struggled with binge eating in the past around the holiday season, you must be reading this out of hopes that this year will be different. It absolutely can be different!
If you have never had support going into the holidays, let this year be different. A support team can be made up of close friends and family, a doctor, dietitian or therapist, or a combination. Professionals and close loved ones are great to have on your support team.
Working with professionals on body image, emotional stressors, and food confidence can all help make this year different. My recommendation is finding a therapist and dietitian who are specialized in eating disorders and intuitive eating. These will be the best professionals to help you work through binge eating around the holidays and into the New Year.
This is one of the biggest culprits of bingeing. Its justified to think that if you are going to have a big meal you can or “should” not eat leading up to that meal to “save your appetite, or make room",” However, this is an old way of thinking. Research shows that irregular intake leads to more grazing/mindless eating and bingeing later.
By not eating, you are only setting yourself up to feel out of control around food later in the day. This year rather than skipping meals, try eating breakfast, lunch and dinner consistently every day.
Deprivation is another big culprit of bingeing. When we tell ourselves that we cannot have something, what typically happens? That something is then all we can think about or desire! In addition, we begin to feel “out of control” around those foods.
Think about children on Halloween. When not presented with candy or fun foods on a normal basis, Halloween candy becomes so exciting that children can have a hard time stopping themselves and may have a “candy binge” if you will. Adults are just as capable of this. Deprivation almost always leads to bingeing.
I am not telling you to eat candy all the time, of course as a dietitian I recognize that candy is not a food that should replace other nutrition. Although, fun foods can be eaten daily and can fit into a healthy lifestyle. Find times to enjoy fun foods without shame or guilt. Plan on having dessert with dinner or bake something to enjoy with others.
Another challenge throughout the holidays is mindfulness. We are always buzzing around, feeling behind or overwhelmed this time of year. Mindfulness is HARD. Food gives us a great opportunity to slow down, pause, and take care of ourselves. During these chaotic periods, try to slow down as much as possible. Take breaks at work, set timers to go for walks or have meals, do some deep breathing exercises periodically.
When we slow down, we become more mindful and connected to our body’s signals. When you feel hungry, honor that. When you notice fullness, honor it. By connecting more to your body’s hunger and fullness signals, you begin to trust yourself more around food, making eating throughout the holidays much easier.
If you’re feeling alone and stuck, let us help! We would love to be on your support team heading into the holidays and New Year.
We can describe body acceptance in three stages:
Body Tolerance:
I may not like my body how it is, there are parts I can say I strongly dislike, but I am working to “tolerate” those parts.
Body Acceptance
I feel neutral about my body. I do not hate or dislike my body, however I do not love my body.
Body Appreciation
I can say there are parts of my body I love. I feel no disgust or hatred towards my body. I appreciate what my body looks like and what it allows me to do.
What stage do you feel you are in?
It is also normal to oscillate between a couple phases, especially when this is new to you.
Consider this to be the neutral stage. There will be hard days and easier days. Sometimes we feel confident and other times we may want to hide. However, the majority of the time we are feeling neutral about our body. Recognizing your body for what it allows you to do is sometimes an easier part of this stage than learning to like how you look. For example, I’m grateful I have two strong calves because I am strong and can jump, leap, and squat.
There are always triggers that make it difficult to stay in the stage of Body Acceptance. At first, you may need to spend more time being mindful of these triggers and go out of your way to make your relationship with your body a more peaceful space.
Here are 5 things you can do to help yourself remain in the space of Body Acceptance, and perhaps work towards Body Appreciation.
Social media plays a big role in how we view and love our own bodies. You may not realize it, so check your social media feed now and see what kind of bodies are represented? Do you see mostly one gender or sex? Mostly one color body? Do you see any self-expression such as tattoos, colorful hair, etc. Do you see mostly fitness influencers or models? Do any of these bodies look like yours?
I am not one to celebrate social media, I do see the harm it does to many of my clients. However, social media has also been an amazing space for positive change and movements. There is a body positive movement going on right now. There are amazing influencers, dietitians, and therapists on social media doing their best to portray positive messages and reduce fat shaming or body stigma. You can diversify your feed by following more fitness influencers in different body sizes, or add to the food accounts you follow with intuitive eating dietitians!
Social media can become a positive place, but it is all in what you make it. If there are things that are too triggering, you may find it more healing to get off of social media all together. You could also delete your page and create a new account, a fresh start! I can say without shame, my Instagram is mostly intuitive eating/body positive, cats and plants!!
How many times do you catch yourself thinking, “I wish my X looked like theirs.” Or even wanting to ask “You are so thin! What do you do?”
These are thoughts are so negative and can cause a lot of hard to your mental health and relationship with your body. Reframing these thoughts, or using distraction can be one way to combat them.
Reframing is the act of changing the first thought that comes to mind when you are comparing your body to someone else’s. For example, the original thought is, “I wish my body looked like theirs.” Reframing this looks like saying to yourself, “They are a beautiful person, but just because my body doesn’t look like theirs doesn’t mean I am not beautiful also.”
It can be hard to not compare or have negative thoughts about your own body. One thing you can do today is write a list of parts of your body you like or are neutral about. Too often we think about the things we don’t like about ourselves. Let’s spend a little bit of time complimenting ourselves!
The clothing you wear is a constant daily reminder of how you feel in your own body. Do you have clothing in your closet that fits you at your current size? What about under garments?
Its not uncommon to hold on to old clothing that fit you while you were a smaller size. Often our clothing has a lot of memories attached to them and it can be hard to get rid of them. However, hanging onto clothing can be harmful to how we perceive the way we “should” look. Donate the clothes, you will always have the memories.
When shopping for clothes, tell yourself that you are going to buy clothes that fit your body today.
Consider what you tell yourself throughout the day, what is your self talk like? I know affirmations sound cheesy, but imagine if we talked to ourselves all day in affirmations?
Changing how we talk to ourselves can help change the way we believe in ourselves and how we view ourselves. Having trouble thinking of affirmations? There are a lot of Apps that create affirmations for you and send you them throughout the day as a little reminder.
All this step is asking you to do is talk to yourself the way you would talk to a friend. You’re worthy of that.
Here are some affirmations to get you started:
“My body is worthy of nourishment.”
“I’m not going to sacrifice my mental health to have the perfect body.”
“I am strong.”
“I am powerful.”
“I am worthy of love.”
“I give my body permission to change.”
“I will allow myself to find pleasure in food without feeling guilt or judgment.”
“I am beautiful no matter how my body changes.”
“I am worthy of the time spent on healing my relationship with food and my body.”
Looking for more ideas? Check out our Instagram for more affirmations.
Believe it or not, health does not equal weight.
Research has shown that it is more important to focus on what makes us feel good and healthy behaviors than changing your weight. If you’re wondering what this could look like, think about things you can ADD to your life such as more whole foods, more walking or stretching, more socializing with friends and laughter.
When you limit or restrict yourself, this typically moves us further from positive changes than not and has more opportunity to hurt our physical and mental health.
Body Appreciation is a journey, no one gets to that place overnight, or even over the course of a year. It is something to work hard at every day but ultimately leads to the most freedom and happiness.
We’re here cheering you on!
