Restrictive eating and Holiday season
Can you believe it is December already!? I can, mainly because of the increased talk around dieting and restriction coming up to the time of the year where everyone has a lot of events, times to enjoy with friends and family usually accompanied with all the food and somethings alcohol to celebrate coming to the end of the year!
First of all, it is a completely normal time of year to be feeling uneasy with the countless events you may have coming up in conjunction with your diet and progress you have made recently! My biggest word of advice is to not restrict, aim to keep some level of balance without isolating yourself so you can still enjoy your time at these events with loved ones! I hear a lot of people wanting to restrict coming up to an event or this time of year…I can tell you this won’t necessarily aid in keeping you ‘on track’, rather it may trigger unwanted feelings and emotions connected with such events and times to celebrate, not cause yourself restriction, isolation and possible anxiety!
To keep yourself on track, whilst enjoying the holiday period with family and friends, aim to stay as consistent as possible throughout the weeks, and generally aiming to keep your regular routine to your best ability, but, do not guilt yourself for eating and extra piece of cake, or missing a session, as I mentioned before, this will encourage thoughts that we don’t want to create within ourselves and again, during this times meant for memories and celebration!
Say you have 3 Christmas parties over the period of a weekend…
Monday-Friday you should be able to keep to your normal routine, within your food/meals and training! This is 5/7 days of the week you have kept on top of your consistent routine. If you feel you must still train between events over the weekend, then aim to keep it light and low impact so you can still have energy to enjoy socialising! If you are worried about a double or even triple up of eating out at parties/events on one day, aim to keep your plate full of veggies, pick at whole foods on grazing tables so you can fill up on nutritious foods, and still be able to fit in a sweet treat at each event-balance!!
Restriction will only cause you to fall in to an endless loop of guilt, restriction, guilt, restriction etc…enjoy the holiday period and making memories with loved ones, stay consistent where possible and if you can, plan ahead so you know what to expect/what to organise!
Enjoy the holidays!! And remember GMD meals will still be available throughout these times (except for the two weeks over Christmas and New Years), when it is even harder to stay on top of planning and preparing meals! Leave it up to us, so you can enjoy those weekends that little bit more!!
Bec
