Episode 28: Tips & Tricks for Guilt-Free Holiday Eating
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Episode Transcription
Participant #1:
Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Upbeat Dietitians podcast. Hello, everyone. Today is going to be a very fun episode because we will be talking about how to deal with holiday eating anything like if you're experiencing any type of guilt or not. If you struggle with eating around the holidays, all those fun things. Hannah and I love holiday themed food. So we're ready to go kind of be talking about the biggest stressors around holiday eating and how we can kind of combat that and then what you can do to set yourself up for success in the long run. So you don't have to kind of it's the word I'm thinking when you're not looking forward to something in the future. Anticipate stress. There's like a word that combines those two, and I can't think of it worry. You know what? You know what I'm talking about. So you don't have to be nervous about holidays. That's not the right phrase. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, we know you're not nervous, but you don't have to feel maybe resentful. I don't think resentful. Well, they usually don't resent it until afterwards. If you're going to go over, I don't have to resent what you want exactly to start us off. We want to kind of talk about why there's really no need to stress about holiday eating in general. I know that there's a lot of emphasis from the side of, like food preparations and gathering with friends and family. And that can be pretty stressful at times, especially if you're hosting. But when it comes and we won't really be talking about that because that's all the issues all about food here. Yeah. The biggest thing we want to bring up or one of the biggest things we want to bring up with. Why we don't want you to stress around holidays is because these are only one day of the year. There's maybe three or four big holidays each year that include a lot of, like eating. Yeah, but it's one day of the entire year, 365 days of the year, 366 days, depending if it's a leap year. Technical. Yes, but this is such a small period of your life that you should not allow it to affect your life more than it really should decide that day. Yeah. Additionally, comedies are a fun time. You should allow yourself to enjoy the day, enjoy the food, the drinks, friends, the family, the love, all those good things. Like we should be celebrating. This is a time of celebration, not being miserable during it. Additionally, we don't want you to feel guilty eating any types of foods, all things as Hannah and I really appreciate any food in moderation is fine. We're not going to tell you to never eat pizza again. We're not going to tell you never to have sweet potato ever again. Like, that's not how we roll in the Shire. And what happens if you do say that is you end up just like craving. It so bad that you'll end up eating way more of it than you would if you just ate the darn mashed potatoes. Exactly. Enjoy those food. Like you're only really harming yourself when you kind of like, hate on yourself later. Yeah, well, our next little reason how to not stress is don't set yourself up for feelings of guilt by setting unrealistic goals. So an example would be like, don't tell yourself I'm not going to have any mashed potatoes this year. I'm not going to eat more than one plate of food because that would mean if you did do any of those things that you likely will in the moment. If you're surrounded by friends and family who are doing those habits or those behaviors. When you do end up doing those things, you end up feeling super guilty for no reason, just because you had that goal in mind of not eating that certain food or a certain amount of food, and then you do it. You feel like crap, and then you restrict some more and then you end up binging on something else later. It's just the whole vicious cycle. So the best thing to do is not set any unrealistic goals or unrealistic expectations for yourself that if broken, would send you into a spiral. No good there. Yeah, I don't want to phrase it as you're setting yourself up for failure, but like you kind of also are if you know, in the past, you tend to enjoy these types of foods, which there's nothing wrong with that. We don't really have a lot of these foods often, so may as well enjoy them and have a great time. But establishing those kind of like boundaries for yourself can be really harmful in the long run. And we want to make sure that that doesn't kind of seep over into your everyday life. The last thing we want to know for how we can decrease stress around the holidays is planning not to diet for your New Year's resolution. I'm sure at some point you've told yourself my New Year's resolution is I'm going to lose £25 or it's like, I'm going to follow this new diet. I'm going to be healthy again. I'm going to go to the gym seven days a week and exercise for like, 3 hours. Anticipating something as drastic of a change, especially around New Year's can lead to binge type eating and kind of the anticipatory standpoint of that where you're like, oh my gosh, January 1. I'm going to get my life together. Until then, I can do whatever I want and then you binge. Then from the other side of the spectrum. You start being really restrictive, and then you kind of drive yourself crazy and it leads to binges later. And then it leads to more guilt, more shame stuff like that, which we do not want to develop that type of relationship with food. Additionally, you don't need a calendar year milestone to change any type of lifestyle habits. Like, you can make changes now. You don't need to wait until January 1 when it comes down to it. It's when we revolve around the sun. That's kind of it. And you can make changes now. You can make them in two weeks. You don't really need to do it when everyone else is kind of doing it. And especially it's like your friends are doing a lot of big changes and they're like, oh, do it for me, for accountability. Do it now. Like, you don't need to wait then. I also like, participating in those. I just don't really do, like, extreme things that would make me miserable. Mine is always flossing. I don't know about you, Hannah. So bad at Flossing. Awful at Flossing. It's been like, my resolution for the past three years. It's not working so hard. I do it. I brush my teeth every single day, twice a day. I hate doing it, though. I like dread brushing my teeth. I don't know what it is brushing and Fausting. And like using mouthwash. I don't know why, but I hate doing those things. I always do it. I have clean teeth, but I hate it. Yeah, I think that goal setting is really great, but it goes back to the last point where we just want to make sure we're setting goals that aren't unrealistic, because then again, if we're breaking those goals or not reaching those goals rather than we just feel like we failed or done something wrong. I'm trying to have a serious talk about goal setting.
Participant #1:
I don't know how to act. I've been a weird movie. This is not an ASMR. Okay, anyway,
Participant #1:
sorry. And I didn't mean to disrupt your thought. That's okay. Actually, no, I was done. It was just funny. Okay, now how you can set yourself up for success in the long run because we are here to provide you with practical advice that you can realistically implement and provide you with kind of what we know all in this wonderful podcast. So the first thing is, don't skip meals on holidays preceding, like, your big meals a day. Typically, people do either late lunch or dinner. Do not skip meals because this will backfire in the sense that when you are restricting yourself throughout the day, you'll show up to a meal starving and you could potentially binge eat and then eat way more than you're used to. And also, your body is going to be exhausted throughout the day from not eating and your body wants food. So eat. Start your day with breakfast like you normally would whenever your first eating occurrences of the day and then kind of like, proceed through the day like a normal day. You don't need to wildly restrict even sometimes what you could do. If you know you have a tendency to binge, you could eat something small before you go to wherever you're going to celebrate, because that will hopefully subside a bit of your hunger so you don't end up binging. We skip meals. The risk of binging is much higher, and then you'll feel guilty. Holidays should be guilt free. Guilt free. Guilt is not an ingredient. No, we should make that our like. We talk about how we always people who demonize certain foods get really popular because they have a very firm stance that they believe in our should be that guilt is a bad thing. Wait, you know how, like, gluten free is GF? What if we did like guilt free?
Participant #1:
Yeah. Even though I know glue and free for celiac is like, essential. I know that. But everything always says guilt free in a bad way, though, like on a food package. That's true. They'll say guilt free, even though guilt is not a part of the equation. Right. You're right. We'll brainstorm. We'll get back to you guys with something better. We know you're dying to know what ours. Yeah. This is our first draft. What our strong, controversial stance is. Yes. Okay. Our next little point here on how to set yourself up for success is to maintain physical activity if you'd normally do so. Biggest thing I want to say here is this does not mean to use exercise as punishment for whatever you ate or don't feel like you have to do a workout to earn whatever meal you're going to eat later. That is never a thing you have to do. You never have to earn your food. You have the right to eat anything and everything that you want all the time. But if you exercise as you normally would, it could just make the holiday seem like any other day and kind of alleviate some stress not only around food, but also if you do have that stress from, like, hosting or just being around friends and family, kind of having it be like a normal day in terms of your exercise can really help with that. Absolutely. I don't really have much to add. Everything Hannah said is spot on. Yeah, just don't punish yourself and don't earn your food. Yeah. Moving with that. Feel good. Exactly. Additionally, what you can kind of do to set up yourself for success is focusing on the company and those around you rather than obsessing over the food that's there. Especially if you know that you are someone that could be prone to, like, eating type habits or even your relationship with food isn't great. Trying to almost distract yourself or focus on more of the positives there not that the foods are negative, but not allowing yourself to be consumed in those negative thoughts around food will help you a lot. Yeah. And then our last little tip here, really, I think, sums it up. Well, that just treat it as a normal day as much as you can in terms of food. Like you don't have to stress yourself out about it in terms of what you're eating. It's just another day. It's just one meal, maybe two if you have a lot of family. But again, don't punish yourself by starving yourself the next day. Treat it as a normal day. The next day. Get back to your normal eating schedule, your normal exercise schedule. Get rid of that mindset. I'll get back on track on Monday. Just get back on track the next day. Just get back to normal. I don't even want to say on track because there isn't a track to fall off of. Just get back to whatever you normally do. And that kind of goes along with this last point here, which is to lose that all or nothing. Mindset so kind of ditching the idea of you have to either be 100% on and like dieting counting calories, restricting whatever it is, or you're all the way off where you are just eating whatever you want. Disregarding nutrition in all senses when I meet in the middle somewhere where you are being cognizant of your nutrition goals, but not allowing some freedom in there too.
Participant #1:
Absolutely. I really don't have anything else to add. You're kind of going over everything I'm thinking of. So. Yeah, kind of. I guess the bottom line of this entire episode, then, is one. There's no need for stress around the holidays, especially with eating, because food is fun. Food plays a huge part in social settings. It plays a huge part. We eat for pleasure often, and this is a great time for you to enjoy that fun food that you might not have very often. And Additionally, we hope that we are able to provide you with some tips. If you do struggle with eating around the holidays, you can combat this so you don't fall back into a cycle of any type of guilt or shame or anything like that. Yeah, I agree. I think I would say the biggest thing for me I would say is just treating it like a normal day as much as you can. Just getting back to normal again. Mindset is often what sets us up for not failure, but just not good feelings and thoughts like a bad cycle. We don't want to fall into a cycle or anything like that. Yeah. Agreed. So bonus question for today. I'm super excited about actually, I might know your answer. I have a guess in my hand, my head. But along with our theme of holiday eating and this will be coming out around Thanksgiving time. Question is, what is your favorite Thanksgiving dish? And I can start. You guys know I can't pick a favorite dish for anything. I just can't I love it all. I like him, the person who puts, like, a little bit of everything on my plate because I like to sample things. I don't know. I'm definitely not a Turkey person. So that's how I don't like Turkey that much. I definitely choose Ham over Turkey. I'll eat it, of course, anything, but I wouldn't choose it. If there's Ham there, I might have to go with, like, a combination of mashed potatoes stuffing and gravy. Like, those three things. Kind of, like in one bite. It's so good. Like that nice savory flavor. And, like, the smoothness and the saltiness is just so good. Yeah. So again, I love it for you. Do you do wet or dry stuffing usually dry, but I honestly don't make it very often. That's not usually like what I make or bring to a party if I was doing that, and I'd never hosted before. So I really only made stuff in, like, once or twice. And it was just, like, casually, like, for my own dinner situation. Okay. Nice. What do you usually do? We always make both.
Participant #1:
I like wet stuffing when it's fresher. I feel like dry stuffing reheats better, though, so I guess I would say dry, then over more periods of time, I like dry. Yeah. Okay. What's your favorite dish? My favorite dish is I already know people that are going to listen to this and be like, Emily, if you say cranberry sauce. No, it's not my signature, just that I make, like, every year for my family is sweet potato casserole. I am with marshmallows, with marshmallows, with Brown sugar, with nuts. Like, the whole thing. I can make our sweet potato recipe without the recipe because I've been doing it every single year for probably the past, like, eight years or so. Oh, my gosh, that is my signature dish. Sounds so good, but I love sweet potatoes, and I used to have a pretty strong sweet tooth. You know this because at Purdue, I'd always want dessert. Yes, but that's kind of died off, like sweet potato casserole. One. My people, pleaser. Inside of me, it always does. Well, so I'm happy. Two. It's really hard to mess up. So it's always good. Yeah. I love the sweet potato Castle. I forgot about that. The marshmallows and the super sweetness, along with the kind of savoriness of the sweet potatoes. Yeah. So good. If you don't want all the sugar or you're, like, diabetic, you could do baked sweet potato. That's another thing I was doing. Then you just sprinkle some on top. True. But I do like the full, like, I make it a mash and then I incorporate nuts into it all, and I put nuts on top and lick the whole thing. That is my jam. I feel like green bean casserole is kind of controversial. Do you like that? I was going to say that my guess was that your favorite one was. Oh, really? I do really like it. I love green bean casserole, too. I love a casserole of any type. Really? Yeah. I also love the fried onions. I can eat those plain. They're so good. So good. I just love a mashed potato. Yeah. Potatoes are great. I love Thanksgiving food. It used to be my favorite holiday just because of the food. It is mine. It's amazing, but I like Christmas. Not that anyone asked. In case you'd like to know my favorite holiday, it's Christmas. I could see the big Christmas fan. Hence why you have to visit so you can see me, like in my element in Chicago during Christmas time. Okay. Anyway, we'll wrap up this episode so we don't just keep talking about food, but we hope you enjoyed this episode. Thank you so much for tuning in. As always, let us know if there's something you want to hear us talk about on here. If there's a guest you'd like to hear from, we have a lot of really awesome guests in season two. Our guest season one, guests are also amazing, but I think we have more guest appearance this season than we did last time. So look forward to that. And thank you so much for supporting us and listening. Yes. Happy Thanksgiving, guys. Happy Thanksgiving. And we'll see you before Christmas. Yes. Absolutely. We're not going anywhere. No, you're stuck with us for a little while. All right. Have a good one, guys. Bye bye.
