Intuitive + Mindful Eating: Tips for Approaching Holiday Meals

Buffets and trays upon trays of desserts can be overwhelming and stressful. When it comes to holiday meals there can be equal parts joy and dread at the amount of yummy food available. For me, having struggled with an eating disorder for many years, Thanksgiving and other festive dinners are intimidating. The large quantities and variety of platters can create anxiety and fear in a lot of people. If you overthink these meals, you are not alone. I am thankful to have discovered and developed intuitive and mindful eating habits that make these gatherings around food much more approachable and enjoyable. In this blog, I’ll explain what intuitive and mindful eating are and offer my 5 top tips for eating through this indulgent season.

intuitive and mindful eating tips for holiday party

Intuitive Eating

Intuitive and mindful eating are different methodologies with the same goal: a healthier relationship with food. And let’s face it, magazines, social media, and pop culture have not always fed us the best information regarding health and dieting. Intuitive eating’s main principle is to reject dieting. That’s right, no dieting- ever! According to WebMD, “Unlike traditional diets that restrict or ban certain foods, intuitive eating requires you to stop looking at food as “good” or “bad.” Instead, you listen to your body and eat what feels right for you.” Another article explains that it is about trusting your body and what it craves, and not judging yourself for what it is you want to eat. Unfortunately, diet culture is incredibly ingrained in our society. I can imagine the rejections to this approach: But what if all you crave is sugar? Won’t you overeat? How will you stay slim if you just eat whatever you want? These are all thoughts directly from the mindset that we must be on a diet to maintain a happy & healthy body. Learning how to tune out the external messages of diet culture is hard. But that is exactly what intuitive eating encourages us to do.

There are 10 main principles to intuitive eating.

Reject dieting
Become aware of hunger
Make peace with food
Challenge the “food police”
Feel your fullness
Discover the satisfaction factor
Offer loving kindness to your emotions
Respect your body
Movement- Feel the difference
Honor your health

There are hundreds of articles explaining these principles in-depth, so I’m not going to expand here. Instead, I want to zoom in on the two that I find the most challenging and are crucial in order for intuitive eating to really serve you. While challenging diet culture and making peace with foods is hard, I think the most difficult aspects of intuitive eating are learning how to become aware of hunger and noticing when you are full.

There is a difference between emotional hunger and physical hunger. As kids we are not really taught how to tap into this difference. Many of us, myself included, developed an unhealthy habit of feeding our emotional hunger with food, rather than with compassion and attention. As a kid I distinctly remember coming home from school one day after being bullied and teased by my peers, grabbing a plate of cookies and scarfing them down before my mom could even asking about my day. With the cookies in my stomach and the feeling of fullness distracting me from my sadness it was easier to tell my mom my day was fine. It would take me years before I had the capacity to recognize that I wasn’t actually hungry for cookies. My sadness was craving love and attention, and probably a hug from my mom, but instead I fed it cookies. I know I am not alone in developing this coping method.

According to a study by the APA 34% of American report using food as a way to deal with stress. Another 67% report avoiding food during stressful and/or emotional times. Intuitive eating aims to rewire this unhealthy relationship with food. Intuitive eating invites people to learn how to engage with food for nourishment and satisfaction rather than using it as a coping mechanism. But in order to do this, we must first recognize the difference between our physical and emotional hunger.

A HealthLine article explains the difference well.

“Physical hunger. This biological urge tells you to replenish nutrients. It builds gradually and has different signals, such as a growling stomach, fatigue, or irritability. It’s satisfied when you eat any food.
Emotional hunger. This is driven by emotional need. Sadness, loneliness, and boredom are some of the feelings that can create cravings for food, often comfort foods. Eating then causes guilt and self-hatred.”

A key difference to the hungers is how you feel after you eat. Sometimes, it takes practice before we learn that eating something didn’t feel good or fill us up the way we thought it would. It takes a little trial and error and time. But it’s worth it. Another article explains, “Emotional hunger isn’t located in the stomach. Rather than a growling belly or a pang in your stomach, you feel your hunger as a craving you can’t get out of your head. You’re focused on specific textures, tastes, and smells.” It may take some practice to begin to notice these details. Cleveland Health Clinic suggests “interviewing your hunger” and giving yourself at least 5 minutes from the time you think you need to eat something until you actually eat it.

When we begin to recognize the difference between our hungers we begin to honor the body and make decisions that leave us feeling physically and emotionally better. By listening to our physical hunger cues we tend to choose foods that are healthy and nutritious for our bodies. And when we pay attention to our emotional cravings, we can give that emotion what it actually needs- love, not food.

The habit of intuitive eating is more than just eating in a way that is good for your body. One of the major benefits of this practice is better psychological health and mental wellbeing. People who eat intuitively are also less likely to develop disordered eating habits. But of course there are very real physical health benefits as well. One study noticed the following benefits in those that practiced intuitive eating.

Improved cholesterol levels
Lower rates of emotional and disordered eating
Better body image
Higher self-esteem
Reduced stress
Improved metabolism
Higher levels of contentment and satisfaction

Medical News Today also reported that participants in an intuitive eating study that focused on following physical hunger cues had a more positive body image. Psychology Today confirmed this claim stating that, “People who regularly engage in intuitive eating were more likely to appreciate their body for what it does, were more mindful, and reported higher self-esteem and overall well-being. They also showed lower levels of depression and anxiety.”

Intuitive eating is a beautiful way to approach all meals, especially extravagant holiday ones. But there are other ways to help us as we eat through the upcoming holidays.

Mindful Eating

As previously stated, mindful eating and intuitive eating have the same goal: a healthy relationship with food. But they are different. One article explains, “Mindful eating is a skill that may be used within the broader framework of intuitive eating, and also outside of intuitive eating. You can think of mindful eating as a skill or practice, while intuitive eating is an entire philosophy.” Personally, I think the philosophy of intuitive eating lends itself to the skills and practices of mindful eating. I combine the ideologies and tools in a way that serves me and my relationship with food.

Mindful eating focuses on paying attention to our food, savoring it, and being present as we eat. It emphasizes connecting to the sensory experience of eating; the smells, sight, and texture of the food. An article in the National Library of Medicine claims, "It has little to do with calories, carbohydrates, fat, or protein.” Instead, people who eat mindfully focus on, “appreciating the experience of food and [are] not concerned with restricting intake. The person eating chooses what and how much to consume. It is not coincidental that, within a mindful approach, the person’s choices often are to eat less, savor eating more, and select foods consistent with desirable health benefits.”

With diet culture so prevalent in our society this type of eating may feel scary. The pushback may include doubt or mistrust in our bodies to choose foods that are actually healthy. However, a Harvard study confirms that by “truly paying attention to the food you eat, you may indulge in these types of foods [sugary/indulgent foods] less often.” When we really check in with ourselves and slow down our eating to experience the food we are eating, we tend to eat less of the foods that don’t serve us, and more of the foods that do. HealthLine also asserts that eating slowly and mindfully helps, “promote weight loss, reduce binge eating, and help you feel better.”

Intuitive eating is the philosophy that asserts that we need to recognize the difference between our hungers. Mindful eating is the way to help us implement this philosophy. The Center for Mindful Eating states that, “Mindful eating helps us become aware of our thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations related to eating, reconnecting us with our innate inner wisdom about hunger and satiety.”

In short, the research is overwhelmingly clear. There are a variety of benefits to eating mindfully and intuitively. Moreover, bringing these practices and ideologies to the holiday dinner table may help to relieve the stress caused by big indulgent meals. As someone who tries to eat intuitively and mindfully daily, I’ve gathered together my five main tips for approaching holiday meals with awareness and ease.

5 Tips for Holiday Meals

Don’t Skip Meals
Just because you know you have a big dinner later in the day, doesn’t mean you should skip breakfast or limit your food throughout the day. In fact doing this slows down your metabolism making it harder for you to digest your food later on. It also makes you feel more full before you are actually full, making it harder for you to enjoy the yummy food you waited all day to eat. Moreover, another Harvard study suggests not waiting until you’re ravished to eat. The study also encourages eating slow small bites. It may be tempting to not want to overeat on those days with a big holiday party, but eating when you are hungry is one of the best intuitive eating suggestions. It sets your metabolism up for success, and makes you less likely to overeat. So, if you wake up on Thanksgiving and are hungry for breakfast-honor that! Don’t wait until noon or 4pm or whenever the big dinner is. When you are hungry-eat!
Ask Yourself These Questions
I think it’s important to ask yourself every time before you eat, “why am I eating?” Asking yourself if it is emotional hunger or physical hunger. But especially before holiday meals, make sure to check in on yourself and see if you are actually hungry. Positive Psychology put out this list of questions to help you check in:
- Why? Why do I eat?
- When? When do I want to eat?
- What? What do I want to eat?
- How? How do I eat?
- How Much? How much do I eat?
- Where? Where do I invest my energy?
When it comes to holiday meals, you may not have a lot of control over when you eat. But you do have control over what you eat. Ask yourself before you plate up: what do I want to eat? What sounds the best to you? And rather than filling your plate with everything, only put on your dish that which you are craving. If you don’t feel like eating the salad, don’t put it on your plate just because you think it’s healthy. Instead, only put on your plate what you want to eat. Try to avoid eating thing that don’t sound good, even if your great Aunt Helen worked all day cooking it. If it doesn’t sound good, don’t eat it. What does sound good? Start there.

Savor the food
Do you ever get done eating and think, “wow, did I even stop to breathe?” One of the best ways to eat mindfully is to pause and really savor the food you are eating. Smell the food before you bite into it. See if you can identify all the flavors within it. Notice all the textures. It’s also helpful to take in your surroundings. Is there music playing? Are you surrounded by people you love? Pretty decorations and/or lighting? As you sit down to eat, stop and pause. Take in the whole moment not just the meal. Allow you body and senses to be entirely present to the ambiance around you. This makes for a more pleasurable eating experience and allows us to really enjoy our food. And maybe even take an extra moment to give thanks that you have a meal to eat. When we are enjoying are food we are less likely to overeat.
Pack up your take away plate first
This one has been a huge hack for me. Sometimes, when I first see the amazing spread of food I want to eat it all and feel like I have to eat it all right then and there. But the fact is, more than likely, there will be leftovers. So, instead of feeling like you need to stock up your plate with everything, make a little to-go plate for later. That way, when you are eating those delicious sweet potatoes and starting to feel full, you can honor that fullness and remind yourself you can have more later.
Permission and Grace
These last two are the most important. Sometimes, even when we are trying to eat mindfully and intuitively, we overeat or choose foods that don’t feel good. This is totally okay! It’s important to give yourself love and grace as you move through these extravagant meals. Intuitive and mindful eating is not about beating yourself up when you eat too quick, or stuff yourself on dessert. It’s about learning to say it’s okay to whatever you eat. There are no bad foods. And eating past full is okay, too. It happens. Give yourself permission to indulge and don’t hang out in guilt. After all, it’s only a short time of year! Eat the extra piece of pie, and enjoy!

Article by Bridget Lavin

Nest Health Connections

Nest Health Connections is a corporate wellness company revolutionizing health and happiness in the workplace. We create holistic customized wellness programs for employers and their employees.

Sources:

https://www.webmd.com/diet/what-is-intuitive-eating

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