Snacks #013: fixing your 'silly season' mindset, 5 tips.

I hear you, it is well and truly SILLY SZN!

Work break ups, family xmas, partners xmas, friendsmas, office drinks, everyday feeling like friyay...

If this has got you feeling STRESSED because food feels out of your control, don't worry: I've got you. Here are my top five tips to help you navigate this festive time.

TIP ONE

Your Belief:

"I’m going to be binge-eating and drinking all month because of the events and I won’t be able to eat well"

Your REALITY CHECK:

Xmas and New Years are just one day each.

Not a whole month. 

You may have five events on in a short period which can feel overwhelming, but this is justfive meals out of 150 for the month - you can enjoy them!

You might also like to know that, generally, a natural compensation effect happens when you overeat*.

This means, if you've eaten a large amount at one meal, or not the healthiest of choices, you'll naturally gravitate towards eating less over the rest of the day as your appetite and fullness signals compensate to keep you in balance without even having to think about it.

Relax and enjoy those few festive meals.

Action:

Planning ahead can help you to reduce the overwhelm. I recommend filling in your events ahead of time and keeping context in mind, ie. one event = one meal.

TIP TWO

Your Belief:

"I won’t be able to exercise over the holidays because I'm so busy"

Your REALITY CHECK:

You might have more events on, but you probably have 40 hours more free time each week if you’re on holidays!

Embrace the extra time you have to set yourself up with good habits and prioritise your exercise over December.

Only good things come from putting yourself first.

I recommend:

Getting it done early; waking up and doing it means less likelihood of interruptions, changing your priorities, or putting it off from being too lazy once it's past 9am (speaking for a friend... aka *me*, I am the friend)

Being flexible; having a backup time slot in the day means you have a second chance to do it. For me, it's before breakfast, or if that's not possible, then slot #2 is 11am. This helps me to keep structure in my days without too much uncertainty. If I've missed the morning, I'll just do it after my second coffee at 11 am and eat lunch afterwards. 

TiP THREE

Your Belief:

"I'm going to put on so much weight with all of the socialising"

Your REALITY CHECK:

It takes an excess of about 8000-9000 calories to put on a kilo of fat

Overeating at a few meals will NOT make you gain a significant (or probably even measurable) amount of fat, but the increase in carbs and salt might temporarily make you heavier on the scales. Don't psyche yourself out, save the scales for another time.

Things that make you heavier that have nothing to do with fat:

• fluid
• water retention
• increase in sodium, causing an increase in water
• muscle inflammation from exercise
• muscle
• hormones causing water retention
• increased carbohydrate intake
• increased food volume and larger portions

All of these things need from 24 hours - 1 week for your weight to settle back to normal, so stress less.

I recommend:

Putting the scales away and keeping them out of sight, you have no prizes to win for what you weigh or don't weigh over this period of time.

Eat regularly and focus on food groups; for example, aiming to eat 2 serves of fruit per day, 5 serves of vegetables, and a healthy amount of protein and dairy.

Shift the focus away from calories, and onto food quality. 

TIP FOUR

Your Belief:

"I want to enjoy myself, and to do that I have to eat 6 serves of Christmas dinner and every single dessert" 

Your REALITY CHECK:

You don’t have to push past the point of fullness to enjoy yourself.

More doesn’t equal more, and eating to discomfort can detract from the enjoyment and experience of festivities

It’s also not rude to say no to seconds or thirds if you’ve had enough, no futher explanation needed! 

TIP FIVE

Your Belief:

"I’ll go wild now because I'm going to set some New Years resolutions and THEN I'll be ‘good’'

Your REALITY CHECK:

This is a great example of black-and-white thinking;

Now there’s no harm in relaxing your high health standards for a while but to actively go backwards on purpose with the idea of restricting once Jan 1st ticks over is a painful proposition

Try focusing now on habits that make you feel good, and enjoy embracing the grey area between perfection and going 100% rogue