11 Ways to Avoid Overeating this Holiday Season
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With the holiday season officially here, I am all about educating, encouraging, and empowering you on how to enjoy your favorite holiday treats while still working towards your goals. Because I know for many of us, our number one struggle isn’t getting ourselves to workout, it’s getting ourselves to make better nutrition choices and the holidays only magnify the struggle.
We don’t believe in ourselves and our ability to control ourselves at holiday parties, so we just give in to all the temptations and try to "make it through the holiday season alive.” Ya feel me? Either we give in to the temptation or we restrict ourselves throughout the holidays. Regardless of which one you are, both can lead to anxiety, depression and cycles of under-eating/overeating.
The holidays are supposed to be the happiest time of the year, and none of that sounds happy to me!
I’m excited to tell you it’s possible to enjoy your favorite treats and continue working toward your goals. You don’t have to compromise one for the other–you can have both. You don’t need to feel guilt, regret, anxiety, depression, or straight-up gross anymore because in this episode, I share 11 tips on how to succeed this holiday season!
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Episode 75:
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I dish you a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real, let's get in, let's go.
Hello, hello, and welcome back to the Embrace Your Real podcast. I am so grateful that you are here spending some time with me today wherever you are tuning in. Whether you're walking, you're jogging, you're cooking, you're cleaning, you're working out, you're driving. You are doing the dang thing. You are choosing to show up, to prioritize yourself, to become the best possible version of yourself so that you can go and serve others in your best capacity and in your best self.
Now with the holiday season officially here, I am all about educating, encouraging, and empowering you on how to enjoy your favorite holiday treats while still working towards your goals. For many of us, our number one struggle isn't really getting ourselves to move our bodies or workout. Instead, it's getting ourselves to make better nutrition choices, and the holidays really only magnify the struggle.
We don't believe in ourselves and our ability to control ourselves at holiday parties. So we typically just end in giving into all of the temptations and trying to make it through the holiday season alive. You feel me? Either we give into the temptation or we're on the other end of the spectrum and we restrict ourselves throughout the holidays.
Regardless of which one you are, both can lead to anxiety, depression, and cycles of under and overeating. The holidays are supposed to be the happiest time of the year, and yet none of that sounds happy to me. I am so excited to share with you that it is possible to enjoy your favorite treats and continue working towards your goals. You don't have to compromise one or the other. You can truly have both. You don't need to feel guilt, regret, anxiety, depression, or straight up gross anymore. Because in this episode, I'm going to be sharing with you 11 tips on how you can succeed this holiday season.
If you can, I encourage you to take some time to write down some notes if possible. You can even write it on your phone. You can write it in your journal, but make sure that you have this episode bookmarked so that as you are going into Thanksgiving week and as you're going into really the heart of the holiday season and the upcoming weeks that you can remember these tips so that you can conquer the holiday season in your best self, both mentally, physically, emotionally, and everything else.
Before we dive in, I have to share this super sweet review. It comes from Macy 9012. She said, "Perfect lifestyle and fitness podcast. I've been looking for a podcast that covers fitness, lifestyle, plus mental and physical health, and this one does exactly that. I've listened to it every day since I found out about it and I cannot wait to share it with more people. Thank you for your encouragement and the daily food for thought."
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All right, let's dive into these 11 tips. Number one, break your all or nothing mentality. Now I'm going to be honest with you, this is exactly how every party that I used to go to in the holiday season would begin. I would walk in by saying, "I'm not going to eat anything." And I would hype myself up and I'd tell myself, "I'm not going to have this and I'm not going to have that." And of course my willpower didn't last long. I would eat one or two cookies, which made me feel like a failure, and then in my head, I would tell myself, "Since I already failed, what does it matter if I eat 10 more cookies or if I eat two more pieces of cake?"
It was either that I would eat nothing at all, and I would feel guilty for that because I knew deep down that I wanted to have a stinking cookie, or I would eat everything in sight. There was truly no in between for me and once I quote, "cheated," I didn't think there was a difference between eating two cookies or 10 cookies. Either way, I told myself I cheated and I failed.
You need to realize that it's okay to eat a few treats. In fact, I want you to. That doesn't mean that you failed. That doesn't mean that you binged and that doesn't mean that you cheated. All it means is that you allowed yourself to enjoy a few treats that make you happy. So eat the dang cookie and let it be.
Number two, remind yourself that the hundredth bite will still taste the same as the first. Now, when we have this all or nothing mentality, we can't typically stop at just one cookie, one chip, or whatever the food might be that you're feeling guilty about. After tasting how amazing one bite is of our favorite holiday treat, our brains tell us that we keep needing to have another and another and another. Guess what? Your hundredth bite won't taste any different than the first.
So to avoid overindulging, AKA making yourself feel sick, enjoy a few bites, eat slowly and really take in what you're tasting. And when your brain is telling you to eat more, remind yourself that you've already experienced the taste and having more of it won't make it taste any more delicious. The 10th cookie isn't going to taste any different than the first, and if anything, it will make you feel super full and uncomfortable, which is not an enjoyable feeling to have when you're trying to enjoy the holiday season to its fullest.
Number three, remind yourself it's not the last time you will ever eat this food. Now, something that really helps me to get away from this all or nothing mindset at holiday parties, especially when my brain is kicking in and telling me to eat more and eat more and eat more, is reminding myself, "Hey, this is not going to be the last time that I have the opportunity to eat these holiday treats." Even if it comes once or twice a year, that's okay. I don't have to let that be the reason for me to overindulge to the point where I feel sick.
Now, I freaking love these icebox cookies that Josh's mom made. It was his grandma's recipe, and oh my goodness, are they delicious. So for me, when I started eating one cookie, I told myself, "Oh my gosh, I have to have all of these cookies." And my mind just justified it because it was one of my favorite things and I would only typically eat it around the holiday season. But I had to remind myself if I truly wanted these icebox cookies, I would have them again. I could make them at any time that I wanted.
So me telling myself that it's only going to be available around this time is really just justification and it's our brain trying to trick us that we have to have as much as humanly possible. This will not be the last opportunity that I have to eat the icebox cookies. So if I'm craving something like it, or if I'm craving it tomorrow or the next day or the next month, I can make it myself. I don't need to eat as much as I humanly, possibly can fit in my mouth at this party to satisfy the rest of my life.
The idea of scarcity encourages our brain to eat more and more, and just remember that. And I think when we are not in control of our brain and we're not in control of what is actually happening, we don't have the opportunity to identify it in the moment. But once we have the opportunity to identify it, we can eliminate that scarcity mindset, which will allow us to feel more satisfied in the moment and it will release the need for our brain to keep telling us that we need more and more and more.
Number four, remind yourself not to ruin a good thing. Now, before I started to remind myself this wasn't last time I was going to have the opportunity to enjoy all of these amazing holiday treats, like icebox cookies, I would allow myself to overindulge, and my excuse was that it's the holidays and it's my favorite tree. And when I say overindulge, I mean overindulged to the point where I feel sick, overindulged to the point where I just feel gross. Not even that, it's a mental thing. It's like my body did not physically need 10 icebox cookies in one sitting. You know what I'm saying?
So when I would do that, I would allow myself to eat everything that I possibly could stuff in my face, and I always regretted it after. And the thing is when I wasn't identifying it, in the moment I was so happy and I was so satisfied with my decision to keep eating and eating and eating. But the thing is once the last bite was taken and I finally comprehended how much I was actually eating, I instantly regretted it and felt guilty for my decision.
The guilt and regret would leave me feeling so unhappy every time I would leave a holiday party or a dinner or whatever it was that I was doing. And rather than concentrating on having fun and enjoying the people, the sights, the sounds, the smells that I was surrounded by and I literally became so fixated on how much I ate. And then that led me down this spiral of, "Oh my gosh, I'm going to lose all my progress. Oh my gosh, I'm just going to gain so much weight." And then that would feed into this mentality of going into my workouts with this guilt and this shame and telling myself that I needed to burn X amount of calories. And I am speaking from experience when I say that is not a way to live. That is not a mentality that you are going to thrive in. You are created for so much more than constantly living in this spiral shame and constantly living in this guilt and this anxiety.
So now when I'm at a holiday party, since I have realized this, which I think number one is so important that you identify the feelings that you're having. And that's why I really wanted to get this episode out to you before Thanksgiving week comes, because I know that we're going to have ... A lot of people have multiple different families and with so many state regulations, who knows what our Thanksgiving is going to look like this year. But one thing I know for sure is that the sights, the sounds, and everything in between will most likely stay the same. So I want you to be able to feel good. I want you to be able to have something that you enjoy guilt free.
So whenever I'm at a holiday party and I'm about to dive into a play of some of my favorite things, I first remind myself how do I want to feel afterwards? If I eat all of this, will I ruin a good thing? If the answer is yes, I'll look and be like, "Okay, which ones do I really want right now?" Because of course my eyes are always going to be bigger than my stomach. So which ones am I really, really craving, and allow myself to have that, and then ask myself how I'm feeling afterwards. How I'm feeling 10 minutes after? How am I feeling 20 minutes after? How am I feeling an hour after? After drinking some water, after letting the food settle in my stomach. Because I think it's really important that we do what we need to do so that we don't have to associate the holidays and holiday treats with negative feelings.
Number five, I have loved this tip and this has really helped me in so many different social situations, and that is always eating off of a plate. Now, something I found extremely helpful for preventing myself from overindulging is this concept. Because when you think about it, the party will always gravitate around food, typically any sort of social event does. So when you're standing around a table filled with treats the whole night, you pick at one thing, you pick it another. You lose track of how many things you've actually eaten because you're talking, you're socializing, which is great. Just remember that mindless eating all night long can lead you to eating way more than you even thought that you were eating until you take a step back and then feel how uncomfortable you feel.
So for me, now anything I get out of holiday party is typically always put on my plate. That just helps me to ensure that I am allowing myself foods in moderation and I am aware of what I'm actually eating, rather than just constantly picking off the table all night long. Take it or leave it. This is just a tip that I feel like has helped me so much just to be aware of what is going in and allowing myself to eat and enjoy in moderation.
Number six, which I just kind of slightly talked about, is wait 30 minutes before you grab seconds. Now, when you fill your plate with food and then get everything off, you'll be tempted to instantly go fill it back up again. I know for me, I always am. While there's nothing wrong with that, I do want to challenge you to possibly wait anywhere from 10 to 15 to 30 minutes, just to allow yourself the time to digest it. And again, this is something that I think is important, that we don't want to make all of these holiday parties completely associated with food.
So for me, if I'm constantly like, "Okay, the moment I finish my food, I'm going to go back." That means that I'm focusing more on the food than I'm focusing on the social situation around me, like investing time with my family or friends or loved ones. So really try to allow yourself that time to digest your food because our bodies need that. And a part of honoring our body is listening to our body and allowing that time for us to digest it. So after eating delicious foods, remember that our serotonin levels are high, which will typically make us feel so happy that we want to continue experiencing this happiness. So allow this opportunity for you to take a step back and allow your body to digest it.
Now, I'm not telling you to ignore your hunger signals, but I am telling you just to take a break for a sec, allow yourself the opportunity to feel a little bit more digested and then ask yourself in 30 or so minutes, "How am I feeling? Do I want to get more? Okay, great."
Number seven, drink lots and lots of water. So for me, typically water is always available at any sort of holiday event, but I don't know about you. I'm kind of a water snob. I need a water filter for me to be able to drink a lot of water. I don't know. I just have this thing about water and it's probably because I've trained my taste buds now. After having the water filter for years, I can literally taste the difference in water. So for me, I personally love to just bring my huge water jug. So for you, that could be a gallon jug. It could be a half a gallon jug.
I know it's going to sound silly. I know it might look silly, but hey, at the end of the day, nobody is living inside of your body. And if you typically have a tendency to drink a lot of water throughout the days leading up to Thanksgiving and just on a regular basis, if you stop drinking all that water on the day of Thanksgiving or the day after or whatever day of the holiday party is your body's going to notice. So it's really, really important to drink some water.
So one thing that I typically like to do is while I'm waiting, after I'm digesting and just chatting with people, is I love to drink at least 20 to 30 ounces of water. I know that sounds like a lot, but remember that water is going to help with digestion so much. So between all of the treats and maybe some holiday alcoholic beverages, if you drink, it's really easy to forget to hydrate. But just remember that it's so, so important to prioritize hydrating your body with water as well.
So at parties, I know it's normal for you to feel like you have to have something in your hands. So I found even just holding a glass of water that can help a lot or holding your water bottle can help a lot in those social situations. Staying hydrated, again, super helpful because it's common for our body to confuse the feeling of hunger with thirst, which means sometimes when you feel hungry, you might actually just be thirsty. So if you ever eat a whole plate of food and still feel hungry, it could be a false feeling. It's actually your body telling you to hydrate, not refill your plate. So it's take it or leave it again, but I encourage you to drink that water.
Number eight, don't show up hungry. This is one of the biggest mistakes that I used to make, is I would show up to a party already starving. Before I learned how to properly fuel my body, if I knew that I had a holiday party that night, I would try to eat next to nothing during the day, because I knew that there would be quote, "unhealthy foods," that I might be tempted to eat and it was this horrible mentality that I had. And the thing is, what I've noticed is that this is literally one of the worst mistakes that I could have made because when I arrived to the party, I was always starving. And we all know what happens when you're starving. You want to eat everything in sight, no matter what it is.
Now, what I typically do and what has worked best for me is that I make sure to really prioritize my protein. The reason I do is because protein is going to help you stay fuller longer because it is the most thermogenic of the three macronutrients. So allowing you to feel fuller longer. So I really try to get at least two thirds of my protein intake before. So that could be a protein shake. It could be a chicken sandwich. I try to eat too good nutrient dense meals. So it could be a chicken salad. It could be the chicken sandwich, those types of things before the holiday party. So that when I go to the holiday party, I'm not starving out of my mind to the point of me eating everything in sight. I'm able to enjoy my favorite treats without feeling the need to overeat.
Number nine. So for me, you know if you've been tuning into this podcast for a while, I do personally count my macros. I have been counting my macros for almost eight years now. So for me, do I count macros every single day? No, I pretty much know what is in my foods to the point where I can eat very mindfully and still know about how much I'm eating. So for me, counting my macros though, in the earlier stages of, I mean even up until year six, I would say has been a huge lifesaver when it comes to navigating holiday parties. Because if I know that I'm going to have lots of high carb treats, I'll focus on going a little bit lighter on my carbs during the day.
And so, like I said, eating those nutrient dense foods. So if I can have a big volume of salad, I'll have that with chicken and a bunch of veggies, just to make sure that I'm feeling full, but I'm focusing on lower carb meals, higher nutrient dense. So that when I go to the party, I'll have room to enjoy a few treats while still staying within my carb allotment for the day. This holds me accountable when selecting my portion sizes. Because again, if you've been following me for a while, you know I'm a huge advocate for counting my macros because it's not about eating too much or eating too little, it's about fueling your body enough for what your body needs based on where you're at and what your goals are.
And I know for me, I have fueled my body enough for a long period of time that I know what it feels like when I'm not eating properly, when I'm not eating the amount of protein that I should be having per day or when I'm going way over my carbs or way under my carbs or wherever my fat or way under my fat. I know what it feels like in my body, and I also know what it feels like when I can fuel my body enough.
So this really does hold me accountable when it comes to fitting delicious treats into my macros or an estimated amount of macros, and that's a whole nother thing I could talk about. I don't want you to get obsessive. And the moment that macro tracking becomes obsessive, it's something that you need to ask yourself, "How can I make this sustainable? Is that just looking at my protein intake and my calorie intake? Is that just looking at my protein intake? Is it taking a break and allowing myself to eat mindfully and seeing how I feel?"
You have to remember that we go through ebbs and flows just in anything in life. So that's going to happen with macro tracking as well. And so I want to make sure that around the holiday season, if you are a macro tracker, that you find what is sustainable for you, because I don't want you to go to one end or the other end of the extreme spectrum.
I don't want you to say, "Screw it all," and just go free for all, because then, you know what's going to happen. You're going to feel guilty. You're not going to feel good. And then I don't want you to go to the other end of the spectrum, where you're counting every morsel of food. You got to find that happy medium and it's going to look different for everybody. So I can't tell you a one-size-fits-all recommendation. You just have to know what your triggers are and you have to know how and what way works best for you in the season of life.
Number 10, eat the treats you actually want to eat. Now, usually what happens, and I'm speaking from experience, this was me for many, many years, I would go into these holiday parties and I would immediately categorize food as good or bad. I would try to avoid the bad foods and then I would try to satisfy myself with only eating the good food.
So this, for example, could be like cookies, bad, peppermint bark, bad. All of these things bad, right? All the sweet treats, bad. And then I'd look at the appetizer of the celery and the tomatoes and I'd be like, "Good." And then I would try to tell myself, "Oh, I'm just going to satisfy myself with eating this carrot dipped in ranch dressing."
Okay. Let's be real, after getting all of the quote, "good food," eventually our willpower will run out and we will dive into the bad food. But only this time, because we didn't already eat any of it, we're going to tell ourselves we deserve to have more and more and more. And then you're just going to allow yourself to go straight to the holiday treats and eat however much you can possibly fit into your mouth.
This was me for so, so long. But if you go into your holiday party and you say, "I want to have a balance of both." Really go in telling yourself, "I want to honor my body and I want to allow myself to eat delicious foods in moderation. But I also want to make sure if there's nutrient dense foods or there's delicious foods that I know will nourish my body. I have a good balance of both of those."
And lastly, number 11, do not beat yourself up. Do not beat yourself up. Do not beat yourself up. I'm going to keep drilling that into your head because you have to live your life. The most important tip that I have for you is to never beat yourself up. You're listening to this and you're like, "That's not really a tip when it comes to nutrition." Oh my girl, how mindset and nutrition are so interconnected, it's crazy. And if you don't identify that your mindset affects the way that you eat, affects the way that you show up in your life, affects the way that you show up to your goals. You have missed the point.
It is impossible to be perfect every single day. It is impossible to nourish your body with what it needs, whether that's hitting your macros, whether it's eating the foods that you know your body needs. It is impossible to eat a perfectly clean diet every single day, nor is that enjoyable. It is not a standard that I hold myself to, and it is not a standard that I want you to hold yourself to because it's not realistic. So please, please, please give yourself grace, give yourself grace, give yourself grace. Do not go into this all or nothing mentality.
But if you do, if you find yourself going towards this all or nothing mentality, forgive yourself. Remind yourself that you have the opportunity to change your mindset in that very moment. It doesn't have to be tomorrow or the next week or the next month. You can change your mindset in that very moment. Stop waiting for Monday to start over, stop waiting for the first of the month to start over. You can choose to redo whatever you're thinking in your mind. You can choose to think differently. You can choose to act differently.
So if you find yourself falling off track, if you find yourself going into a holiday party with every good intention, and then you fall off track, remember, just move on. Allow yourself the opportunity to forgive yourself and then say, "It's a new day. It's a new hour. I can do this." And keep telling yourself that until you truly believe it to your core.
All right, I love you and I don't want you to beat yourself up this holiday season because let's be real, our moments on earth are fleeting and the last thing that I want you to do is waste your time around your friends and family and loved ones beating yourself up and fixating on food and telling yourself that you're a failure. I want you to enjoy the moments with these people instead of making it all about you.
All right, let's recap these 11 things. Number one, break your all or nothing mentality. Number two, remember the hundredth bite tastes just the same as the first. Number three, remind yourself it's not the last time you will ever eat this food. Number four, ask yourself how you will feel after eating whatever it is that you want to eat. Number five, grab a plate and eat off of it. Number six, wait 30 minutes to grab seconds. Number seven, stay hydrated. Number eight, don't show up hungry. Number nine, make the holidays fit your macros, or allow yourself to eat in moderation. Number 10, eat the treats you actually want to eat, stop depriving yourself. And number 11, most importantly, please stop beating yourself up.
If you love this episode, I know you will also love episode at 75, three ways I get myself motivated to move over the holidays. I don't know about you, but around the holiday season, my motivation to work out typically goes out the window, or at least it's very up and down. Either it's too cozy, it's too cold outside, I have too many family gatherings, I'll get serious next year, is a mentality that is very easy to creep in. So in this episode, I share three ways that I personally use to get myself motivated to move over the holiday season. So be sure to tune into that. Episode 75, we'll link it in the show notes below.
If you have one or two or three girlfriends in your life, people in your life that you feel like would benefit from this specific episode, 11 ways to avoid overeating this holiday season, I just encourage you that you shared out. Whether it be on your Instagram story, in a text message, whatever way you is best share this message. I would love to hear an aha moment. So be sure to screenshot this, post it up on your story. Tag me, Julie Ledbetter. I love connecting with you guys. I love you so much and I'll talk to you guys in the next episode.
All right, sister. That's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on the Gram, be sure to do so, Julie A. Ledbetter, yes it's with an A in middle, for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check.
The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world, and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and Embrace Your Real, because you're worth it.