How to Manage Your Holiday Eating Fears
Written by Isabel Vasquez, RD, LDN
The holiday season can bring up a lot of feelings around food and your body. Food is a central part of holiday celebrations, so if you are recovering from an eating disorder or disordered eating, you may feel nervous or fearful of what the holidays will bring.
You are most certainly not alone in those feelings. In this week’s blog, we’re going to address a few common myths/fears you may have as the holiday season approaches.
We’ll challenge the diet culture voices by approaching these thoughts with a compassionate intuitive eating lens.
“I can’t be around all this food! I’m going to binge again.”
Food is a central part of celebrating, yes. And it may feel very overwhelming to be around it all! If you have a history of binge eating, it can certainly bring up fears of binges happening more over the holidays.
However, it’s important to remember that a very common cause of bingeing is restricting.
Since bingeing is typically caused by restricting, fearing the holiday food could be a sign that you are restricting these foods. Therefore, when they’re around and you let yourself eat them, you worry you’ll feel out of control.
Remember, all foods have value, and no matter what time of year, you don’t have to workout a certain amount or eat a certain way to be worthy. You can focus on honoring your hunger and fullness, showing yourself compassion along the way.
“I’m nervous to be around my family during the holidays because they always comment on my body.”
If you’re trying to build a healthier relationship to food and your body, know that this doesn’t happen overnight. Especially at the start of your journey, you may feel very sensitive to body comments. Regardless, commenting on people’s bodies is unnecessary and often perpetuates weight stigma, even if the commenter doesn’t mean any harm.
Therefore, hearing a family member comment on weight changes might feel triggering or at the very least, annoying. Prepare for this by setting boundaries around weight comments ahead of time.
You can even start having those conversations a few weeks before you’re planning to gather with your family for the holidays.
If the boundaries aren’t respected, you may benefit from implementing a stricter boundary, such as limiting the time you’re willing to participate in the gathering or simply not attending.
“I’ve already gained weight because I don’t workout as much in the winter. I’m scared to gain more weight from being around all the holiday treats.”
In the winter (particularly if you live somewhere where winters are cold and dark), you may not be as active as you are at other times of the year.
There’s less focus on getting that “bikini bod” so the shift goes to shame about the potential for winter weight gain. This is pure diet culture.
A sustainable way to eat while maintaining optimal physical and mental health DOES NOT include periods of strict dieting followed by periods of shame when not committing to diet.
A sustainable way to eat while maintaining optimal physical and mental health DOES include flexibility in eating, recognizing how food serves us outside of the nutrition label, and inviting in the connection fostered by sharing food with loved ones.
Fearing weight gain is a product of our fatphobic society. Weight gain isn’t inherently bad, yet we have most likely been taught to fear it. This demonstrates a societal issue (fatphobia), not an individual failure (weight gain).
Most importantly, you aren’t a bad or less worthy person if you gain weight. Weight changes happen, and showing yourself compassion no matter what your body looks like is so valuable and important.
“I’ve made so much progress in my recovery from disordered eating, but I’m afraid the holidays will throw off my progress.”
This is such a valid feeling. The holidays bring up a bunch of nerve-wracking situations when it comes to breaking free from diet culture and embracing intuitive eating.
What if you looked at it as an opportunity? An opportunity to further hone your skills, an opportunity to show yourself compassion, an opportunity to implement next level self-care strategies, an opportunity to set a new standard for the holidays!
If slip-ups do occur, approach them with curiosity. What sparked them? And show yourself compassion. You are learning and it’s an ever-evolving journey!
Final Thoughts
The holidays can pose a challenge to your recovery from an eating disorder or disordered eating. So as they get closer, validate the feelings that come up for you, check in with your support network, consider framing the challenges as opportunities for growth, and show yourself compassion along the way.
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If you liked this post, you may also like:
Disordered Eating vs. Eating Disorder. How They Differ and Overlap.
