How to Keep Healthy Over the Festive Season
We Over-indulge every year from Christmas to New years…
The festive season is a time of joy and celebration, but also a time of temptation and indulgence. It can be hard to resist the abundance of delicious food and drink that surrounds us, especially when we are in a festive mood and socialising with friends and family. However, over-indulging in food and drink can have negative consequences for our health, such as weight gain, digestive problems, dehydration, and hangovers. How can we enjoy the festive season without over-indulging in food and drink? Here are some tips and strategies, backed by evidence from scientific research, that can help us moderate our consumption and maintain our health.
Eat Mindfully
One of the keys to avoiding over-indulgence is to eat mindfully. Eating mindfully means paying attention to what, how, when, and why we eat, and being aware of our hunger and fullness cues. Eating mindfully can help us enjoy our food more, eat less, and feel more satisfied. Research has shown that eating mindfully can reduce binge eating, emotional eating, and food cravings, and improve weight management and metabolic health.
To eat mindfully, we can:
Eat before we go to a party. That way we won’t be super hungry and we’ll be less likely to over-indulge. Only eat when we’re hungry or at a designated meal. Mindless eating just because food is there means we’ll easily consume too many calories in a day.
Choose quality over quantity. Instead of filling our plates with everything we see, we can select a few items that we really want to try, and savor them slowly and deliberately. We can also opt for healthier options, such as fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains, and limit our intake of high-fat, high-sugar, and high-salt foods.
Pause and check in with ourselves. We can take a break between bites and ask ourselves if we are still hungry or full. We can also use the hunger scale, which ranges from 1 (starving) to 10 (stuffed), to rate our hunger and fullness levels. Ideally, we should start eating when we are at a 3 or 4, and stop eating when we are at a 7 or 8.
Drink Moderately
Another key to avoiding over-indulgence is to drink moderately. Drinking moderately means limiting our alcohol intake and staying hydrated. Drinking moderately can help us avoid dehydration, hangovers, and alcohol-related health problems, such as liver damage, high blood pressure, and increased risk of cancer.
To drink moderately, we can:
Follow the recommended guidelines. According to the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), to reduce the risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury, healthy adults should drink no more than 10 standard drinks per week and no more than 4 standard drinks on any one day. A standard drink is equivalent to 10 grams of pure alcohol, which is about 100 ml of wine, 285 ml of regular beer, or 30 ml of spirits.
Break up the booze. We can reduce the amount we drink by having a glass of water between each alcoholic drink and opting for lower-sugar mixers such as soda water or mineral water. We can also skip other energy-dense drinks like soft drinks and fruit juice and opt for a sparkling water with fresh lemon or lime instead.
Drink for the right reasons. We can avoid drinking alcohol to cope with stress, boredom, or negative emotions, as this can lead to excessive and unhealthy drinking patterns. Instead, we can drink alcohol for enjoyment and socialization, and find other ways to deal with our feelings, such as talking to someone, exercising, or meditating.
Make Christmas day the only day you over-indulge if you need to!
Having one day throughout the week between Christmas and new years the day you let loose a little bit will help with feeling like you are missing out and you will remind you of why we don’t over-indulge. We need that little reminder as to why we don’t over-indulge all of the time, a reminder of the bloating, gassy, potentially meat-sweats, hangover and lethargy that come with over-eating and drinking.
Simply the body saying we may have over-done it and forcing you to stop and rest, as you need to digest the food and drink that you have just consumed. By having one day where you let loose, you can then feel content, helping you need to make sure that the rest of the week is therefore “back to routine,” where you eat and drink mindfully. Of course, this contradicts the not “over-indulging” part, but sometimes we are not able to stop ourselves and resort back to our base needs and habits, we are only human after all. By making a decision that Christmas day will be the only day you indulge a little bit more, you are setting yourself up to succeed throughout the rest of the week.
The festive season is a wonderful time to celebrate and indulge, but it doesn’t have to come at the expense of our health. By eating mindfully and drinking moderately, we can enjoy the festive season without over-indulging in food and drink all week. We can also remember that the festive season is not only about food and drink, but also about spending quality time with our loved ones, expressing gratitude, and spreading joy. By focusing on these aspects, we can have a happy and healthy festive season.
Until next time,
Take Back Control
