A "Healthy Holiday" Does Not Include Dieting

It's mid-December, so that means we are well into the holiday season by now.  Both Halloween and Thanksgiving have come and gone; now the countdown to Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa (and don't forget New Year's) begins.   Unless you've found the secret to avoid all the diet messaging out there, chances are you've actually been inundated with "holiday dieting tips" instead.

Back when I worked in a grocery store setting, the fall and winter months were actually a slow time of year [company wide] for dietitians - the assumed rationale by management being "Well, who wants to be HEALTHY over the holidays anyways!?"  As naïve as this sentence sounds (and very one dimensional of what a nutrition expert actually does), it was the narrative we were told.  So instead, we filled our days with food demos, store tours, or holiday-themed cooking classes.  On the off-chance a customer actually did seek me out during that time, they were usually asking for "Healthy holiday recipes;" followed by the question, "Now, how do I avoid holiday weight gain!?" 


The latter question never really sat well with me, because having a history of my own eating disorder, I knew firsthand the downward spiral food preoccupation could lead to.  While I've always preached the 'everything in moderation' standpoint, I also didn't realize I had a lot of my own diet culture unlearning to do.  Truth be told, I'd be lying if I said I marketed myself as a 'non-diet dietitian' when I worked retail.  I regret to say I advertised 'weight management' groups/classes; I promoted events and shared information that most likely wasn't weight inclusive.  I knew I was passionate about working in eating disorders, but the traditional health messaging and marketing dietitians are educated to teach is so steeped in diet culture, that even someone like me who desired to be inclusive was also feeding into the harm. 




While I'm so proud of how far I've come in truly being weight inclusive and a Health at Every Size(TM) practitioner...I know that if it took me 6 1/2 years to truly label and finalize my mission statement as an RD, then for clients it's just that much more challenging.

We all know you don't have to search far for holiday dieting tips.  Even when attempting to search for NON-diet related artwork for this blog, thousands of diet-y things like "Foods to Avoid This Holiday!" or "How to Avoid the Holidays Without Gaining Weight!" were at the top of the search engine.  Of course these sound seductive and alluring if someone is seeking weight loss - but at their core these articles, cookbooks, social media accounts, and other online resources are not only fatphobic, but their main goal is to gain as many 'clicks' or 'followers' as possible. I don't care what their marketing approach is - they don't truly care about a person's health and well-being...they only care about making money.

 

Does this mean you NEVER talk or think about your health over the holidays?  Not necessarily.  However, there is a way for you to truly put your own wellness first, without resulting in dieting, restriction, or other disordered behaviors.

• GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO EAT ALL FOODS

If you don't believe me, go pick up & read the book Intuitive Eating by dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch.  Rejecting the Diet Mentality is the first principle of Intuitive Eating, which is usually the biggest barrier to a true healthy relationship with food.  A common complaint I hear is that people feel "addicted" or "obsessed" with particular foods - but after unpacking this statement it's usually because they believe they are "off limits" - and the allure to 'break the rules' gets to be intriguing. 

It's important to remember that all food provides nutrition, but they do so in varying amounts.  I would never say a diet consisting of solely potato chips is 'healthy,' but neither is a diet strictly of fruits & vegetables.  There needs to be balance in addition to variety & moderation.  In fact, our bodies are so amazing that they will actually TELL us what we need (if we listen closely and are in tune with our internal cues).  Think about it - babies only eat when hungry, and in turn nothing can get them to eat past their fullness.  If we were lucky to grow up in a family or culture without negative core beliefs about our food intake or bodies, we might still be in tune with our cravings.  We would instead be curious, thinking things like "Do I want a sweet piece of fruit or a bowl of ice cream?"  "Do I want a savory, filling meal right now or a salty snack to tide me over?" 

Unfortunately, most of us quit listening to our bodies as we aged - instead we adopted diet rules, wellness beliefs, and other nonsense that didn't take into account our individual likes, preferences or family traditions.  When we want something sweet and think a dessert sounds good, we immediately beat ourselves up over having such a *perceived* shaming thought, and attempt to distract our taste buds with low calorie, light, or 'healthier' foods.  All this does is put us in a shame cycle that may end up in a binge later on. 

• SKIPPING MEALS IS NOT A HEALTHY HABIT

Going too many hours without eating makes your body believe it is in a famine state.  Our biological survival mechanisms kick into gear - increasing salivation, preoccupation with food, and physical hunger cues.  Your body is literally trying to communicate your hunger to you!  But if this is a common dieting technique you've adopted, your body will also start to adapt as well (believing that access to food has dwindled).  In thinking you need saved from starvation, your hunger cues diminish, your metabolism slows to avoid unnecessary weight loss - a pretty incredible survival skill if you think about it! 

While your body CAN do all of these things if necessary, putting unwanted stress on your body is anything but the definition of *healthy.*  My advice to you is: eat regularly.  Your body will thank you by allowing you to keep living.

• YOU DON'T HAVE TO COMPENSATE FOR WHAT YOU ATE

Another cool feature of these meat suits we call bodies (any Good Place fans out there?) is that we're designed to be flexible with eating.  Unless you are counting your total calories to the decimal point every day (which I don't recommend) it is nearly impossible to eat the EXACT amount of calories day in and day out.  Our bodies can handle sporadic fluctuations in energy intake without drastically affecting our health OR weight.  So in reality, the stress people put themselves through to *avoid the holiday weight* is more likely causing the weight gain than any one food itself.  Does the timeline below seem familiar??

Having a fear of certain foods + skipping meals to have more hunger for holiday meals --> overeating due to the body's increased hunger signals --> potential weight gain --> belief that they "failed" their diet --> back to restricting/dieting....

Let's face it: you are better off this holiday season setting a resolution to NOT diet, because DIETS DON'T WORK.  We have to remember that nothing has been proven to permanently change larger bodied people into smaller bodies.  As a society, we need to be open to broadening our definition of 'health' to include more than just weight...because as we know, that's not the whole picture.  And to be honest: if dieting has given us anything at all, it's increased disordered eating, weight fluctuations, and a terrible relationship with food and our bodies...NOT health. 

If you'd like another short article on the topic of non-diet holidays, you can click HERE.  I hope to have another post written before the New Year de-bunking popular myths/beliefs on emotional eating...so stay tuned!