Navigating Food Challenges This Holiday Season if You Binge Eat
The holiday season is a time for celebration, joy, and togetherness. It's when friends and families come together to create cherished memories and share delicious food. However, for many people, especially those struggling with binge eating, the holidays can be a challenging time.
The abundance of food, societal pressure, and the "all or nothing" mindset can lead to unhealthy relationships with food. But fear not, for there is a way to navigate the holidays with self-compassion so you can reduce binge eating and the shame that comes with it.
The Challenges with Food Around the Holiday Season
The Abundance of Food
The holiday season is a time of food indulgence, and it’s easy to find yourself surrounded by food, which is overwhelming. There is surplus food at home and work, then you are meeting with friends and family a lot and it’s all about the food. If you struggle with your relationship with food and binge eating then it’s understandable that this time of year feels stressful and chaotic about food.
What to do instead:
As food is everywhere, an intuitive eating approach might be difficult for you. So try a more structured approach which encourages a regular intake, which might be better for you during this time. Read this blog about how to eat regularly.
Eating regularly will help you to check into your body’s hunger and fullness signs often.
Remember to approach it with self-compassion and no self-judgement, recognising that it's a time to celebrate and enjoy, not to judge yourself.
Diet Culture Messaging During the Holiday Season
Media and marketing during the holiday season tend to fuel a dieting culture. Advertisements labelling certain foods as "bad" or "off-limits" create a challenging environment. This messaging perpetuates the all-or-nothing mentality, trapping individuals in a cycle of dieting and binge eating.
Try this instead:
It's essential to challenge these messages. A good start is to reflect on your experience of how this type of language around food has helped you in the past. Has it made food guilt and shame worse, has it contributed to restricting food and then binge eating?
The Last Supper Mentality
The Last Supper Mentality is the mindset when you say you are eating something for the last time and planning to restrict eating that food ever again. That might be physically starting a diet and reducing calories or mentality telling yourself you will never eat that food again.
During the holiday season, this mentality is rife, with that time between Christmas and new year often feeling like the ultimate "F**k It" time when concerning food. This mentality can make us go crazy around food and contribute to a binge-like pattern. “I better eat it all now, because I won’t be eating this again after the new year”. Do you relate?
This time of year is a glorified example of the dieting and binge eating cycle and continuing to do this every year, will keep you stuck. For those dealing with binge eating year-round, the way people feel around Christmas is similar to the aftermath of every binge.
Try this:
Challenge the narrative that one day/week/month of enjoying food requires drastic measures. Instead, view the holiday season as an opportunity to practise balance so you can come to the new year continuing this.
Understand that the foods enjoyed during Christmas can be embraced in January and throughout the year. Restricting them only heightens the risk of binge eating.
Reject the idea that certain foods need to be gone by the new year so they are avoided and instead embrace a balanced approach to eating.
Allow yourself to enjoy festive foods without the burden of guilt. This will truly help you to break that binge eating cycle as it encompasses a sustainable approach.
The Idea you have to “Earn” Food
We all know what it’s like over December, there are so many plans it's hard to keep up. Then if you struggle with your relationship with food, it can be stressful and overwhelming. Eating out, eating foods you try and avoid often brings up the mentality that you should compensate but restrict running up to the meal or the next day.
So you skip meals/food to “save calories” or push yourself to do extra steps or workouts to compensate for the food you're eating.
The idea you have to earn your food is fuelled by diet culture and restricting food, ignoring your hunger cues can lead to feeling preoccupied about food and feeling chaotic around food. Plus, being “starving” can mean we are more focused on food when we are meeting loved ones, instead of being fully present.
Try this instead:
To be fully present without food stress or preoccupation, avoid saving calories, and skipping meals in the run-up to the event. For example, if you have a meal in the evening, have breakfast, lunch and even some snacks across the day then eat what you truly fancy - without guilt.
Remember food is all about memories and connection. Prioritise and focus on the social aspect of gatherings over the food. A good way to do this is to share starters and desserts so you can make memories with family, and catch up with your friends you hardly see the rest of the year.
Dealing with Diet Conversations
We’ve all been there… When you are about to sit down at your Christmas dinner, your aunt announces how she has been “saving herself all day” for this meal, or you meet with friends and they talk about how they “need to go to the gym after to burn this food off”. This is diet culture talking and dealing with diet chat is pretty difficult to avoid.
Just being around people and talking about their body/diet, hearing comments/judgements about your body/diet or hearing people talk about how full they are and how they'll start dieting in January to make amends can be difficult, can’t it? It then leads to us thinking that we need to start dieting again in January.
Remember this:
Acknowledge that everyone's journey with food is unique.
Try to politely steer conversations away from diet talk by focusing on shared interests, experiences, or positive aspects of the holiday season.
Be kind to yourself, as dealing with this can be hard at times.
Why Self-Compassion is Important if you Binge Eat
As you navigate the challenges of the holiday season, self-compassion is a tool to have and here is why:
Moves away from Perfectionism: the idea that someone can eat a “perfect diet” is pretty unrealistic, especially over the holidays.
Breaks the Shame Cycle: when faced with challenges or setbacks that might send your mind spiralling into a path of self-judgement and self-hate, ask yourself this…“What would I say to my friend if they were in this situation?” I guarantee that the advice you would give to your friend is a more compassionate, understanding and much kinder way to deal with the situation.
Builds Resilience: dealing with challenging situations by providing a supportive inner dialogue is going to build your confidence and resilience to break the dieting and binge eating cycle for good.
Prioritises your Mental Health: Self-compassion encourages mindfulness and self-awareness, allowing you to tune into your emotional needs.
If you struggle with binge eating, the holidays can be a difficult time to navigate. If you find yourself seeking additional support and guidance in navigating your relationship with food during the holidays, I'm here for you. Contact me to explore how we can work together. Your journey towards binge freedom starts with a conversation.
My Mission: Embracing a balanced and sustainable approach
At The Binge Dietitian, my mission is simple yet powerful: to help yo-yo dieters liberate themselves from binge eating and find lasting peace with food. I am passionate about guiding you towards a healthier relationship with both your body and the food you consume. Together, we will set sustainable and realistic goals that support your overall well-being.
