For many meal planning adds stress but what if meal planning can reduce your stress when you have the right tools you need to meal plan with ease?

Have you ever found yourself feeling uncomfortable with your food intake or eating practices, and body image after a holiday or other type of gathering with your friends or family members? As mentioned in a previous blog post (see Handling Stress Eating Over the Holidays), conversations about diet and body weight commonly arise during gatherings involving large amounts of food. Here is what to do when other people comment on your food and body.

The food police are anyone who enforces any type of food rule (e.g. what you can eat, how much you can eat, when you can eat, et cetera, et cetera). They take on many forms and may include family, friends, coworkers, workplace wellness programs, the general media, food marketing, and even your healthcare provider. They may also reside within you and emerge via the voices that you hear inside your head.

Holidays are always talked about as the most happiest days of the year. But for some, holidays can provoke a significant amount of stress. For those who struggle with food and their body, navigating holidays can be especially challenging since our society places such a strong emphasis around food.

Say a loud NO to the thoughts that label food “good”, “bad”, “junk”, “garbage”, etc. These thoughts are called the food police and they are keeping you from having a healthy relationship with food and your body. Food is just food. An apple is an apple and a cookie is a cookie. If you didn’t get it out of the garbage it is not garbage. Food has no moral value and your self-worth is not defined by what you eat. You are deserving of all foods and having enjoyment and nourishment with eating.

End your war with food. Call a truce to the food fight. The urgency and excitement that influences those out of control feelings around food go away when you give yourself unconditional permission to eat all foods. How often have you found yourself “giving in” to your forbidden food and then eating with such intensity that it influences an overeating or binge eating episode followed by overwhelming guilt? This is what is known as Last Supper overeating. It is a belief that “I better get as much of this as I can now because after this I am not having it again.” Unfortunately, this doesn't last long and soon enough you find yourself caught in the same vicious cycle. When you tell yourself that you can't or shouldn't have a certain food, it can lead to intense feelings of deprivation that build into uncontrollable cravings and, often, bingeing. You will hear me say this over and over. Overeating and binge eating is not a lack of willpower.

Swore off dieting? Get rid of all the calorie and point tracking apps and journals and start listening to your body! Your body has all the tools it needs to tell you when and how much to eat, we just have to get back to listening to them again.

Let 2021 be the year you vow NOT to go on a diet. Instead, focus on becoming an intuitive eater to finally end your years of weight cycling and yo-yo dieting. This year is the year to relearn how to be the expert of your own body again and break free from the guilt and shame you feel around food and your body.