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Christmas is a time of celebration, parties, and festive foods. Finding the balance between enjoying the holidays and staying fit and healthy can be tricky.
If you want to more easily navigate through the Christmas season, here are my top ten tips I suggest to be merry, mindful, and healthy this time of year.
1. Ditch the all-or-nothing Christmas mindset
Many people fall into the ‘all-or-nothing’ mindset trap, overeating throughout the Christmas period with the unrealistic expectation of quickly losing weight and getting fit in January. The problem is that stepping on the scales on January 1 to see that you’ve gained five pounds can be extremely demotivating. Research indicates that 92% of people fail to achieve their New Year’s resolutions. Rather than taking extreme measures by letting loose over Christmas and going on a restrictive diet in the New Year, try the middle road. Try to eat healthy most of the time but then give yourself permission to enjoy the special Christmas occasions without feeling guilty afterward.
2. Mindfully eat your mince pie.
It’s easy to fall into the habits of playing with your phone while you eat or sitting in front of the TV with a box of Quality Street. A scientific review of 24 studies recently found that eating when distracted leads to people eating approximately 10% more at the time and nearly 25% more at their next meal.
Distractions divert your attention and the brain is unable to accurately register the amount of food you’ve consumed. If you’re not paying attention to what you’re eating, this information is less likely to be stored in your memory bank. With fewer memories of what you’ve had that day, when you sit down for your next meal you’re likely to eat significantly more. So if you’re about to eat your mince pie, sit down at the kitchen table, put away your phone, take your time, and mindfully enjoy every bite.
3. Choose the foods you love.
We often feel obliged to eat festive foods at Christmas parties or events. However, unless you really enjoy mince pies, brandy butter, mulled wine, eggnog or Christmas cake, you’ll be unnecessarily consuming extra calories. Only eat the foods that you really enjoy! If you are a fan of mince pies, arrange to meet up with a friend at a café that makes delicious, fresh mince pies. You’ll gain more pleasure from this than mindlessly scoffing a free one while buying your Christmas tree.
4. Remember that food is not the enemy.
Research shows that banning foods actually backfires, leading to people liking, wanting, and eating more of the ‘forbidden’ items. A research study published in the scientific journal Appetite found that participants with a tendency to overeat consumed approximately 133% more chocolate when prohibited from eating it for 24 hours.
Psychologically banning a food or going on a diet that demonizes a specific food group, such as carbs or fats, is the perfect recipe for inducing overeating and weight gain. Rather than viewing certain foods as ‘bad’, a more helpful way to think about nutrition from a mindset point of view is ‘everyday foods’ and ‘sometimes foods.’ As long as you don’t eat like this every day, you can enjoy a couple of big, delicious Christmas dinners with your friends and family without impacting your health in the long run.
5. Plan your social diary wisely.
Christmas can be one of the busiest times of the year. We can cram in so many work and social events that our sleep is disrupted. A study published in The International Journal of Obesity found that people who reported less than six hours of sleep and the highest stress levels were around half as likely to reach their weight loss goals than those with six to eight hours of sleep and lower stress.
There’s a consistent body of scientific evidence showing that less sleep is associated with bigger waistlines. Sleep loss results in changes in our hormonal levels, leading to higher levels of ghrelin and decreased levels of leptin, which is linked to increased hunger and appetite.
Aim to spread your social events out over the festive break–you may even want to decline one or two invitations. When you do have a big night coming up, try to have enough sleep, eat well, and exercise a few days before and after the occasion so that you give your body the best chance to rest and rejuvenate.
6. Don’t be tricked into making impulse Christmas food purchases.
Psychological research indicates that we make over 200 food-related decisions every day, with 90% happening without our awareness. Grocery industry studies suggest that 60-70% of purchases are unplanned. Retailers expend considerable resources on changing the in-store layout, display arrangements, shelf configurations, store ambiance, and time-limited promotions to subconsciously influence consumer spending and induce impulse buys.
Impulse buying because an item is reduced in price or you’re waiting in the queue may boost the store’s profits, but over time can supersize your waistline. Marketing studies show that impulse buying increases without a shopping list, with the amount of time you spend in-store, the number of aisles shopped, and in unfamiliar store layouts.
To stay on track with healthy eating when supermarket shopping, write a shopping list and go straight for these items rather than walking up and down each supermarket aisle. Remember, if an item is reduced in price but it isn’t on your shopping list, you’re not saving money by buying it.
7. Give yourself permission.
Christmas can be a stressful time of year with work, family, and social commitments. When we’re stressed, our bodies release the stress hormone cortisol. Consistently high levels of cortisol may increase the ability of fat cells to store fat and promote the accumulation of fat around the waist.
Stress-related eating is also linked to weight gain. The more stressed you feel, the more important it is to look after yourself by still making time to eat a nourishing lunch, running a hot bath at the end of the day, or attending your favorite yoga class in order to stay well.
Self-care isn’t selfish. This Christmas give yourself permission to look after yourself and prioritize your health. The irony is that when you’re feeling at your best, you have more energy and headspace to give to others.
8. Buy your Christmas food just in time for Christmas.
Supermarkets stock festive foods weeks before Christmas. Promotions and offers can lead to kitchen cupboards being filled with tempting foods. Ask yourself: "if I buy these boxes of biscuits or mince pies now, will they last until Christmas Day? Or is it far more likely I’ll open them up after a long day to have with a cup of tea?"
Studies show that stockpiling–storing large quantities of food at home–leads to significantly increased consumption. People who buy cookies for an upcoming party end up eating 155% more on a daily basis. You might want to buy your turkey in advance, but for all those other foods that you’ll find tempting, see if you can buy them as close to Christmas Day as possible.
9. Box up the tempting leftovers on Boxing Day (December 26).
Sugary, fatty and salty foods change the chemistry in the brain, triggering reward circuits and stimulating the release of dopamine, which gives us a pleasurable feeling. Research shows that even seeing foods high in sugar and fat triggers the reward circuitry in the brain. Certain foods exert such a powerful effect on the brain’s reward network and biochemistry that willpower alone is often insufficient to resist eating these foods. Different foods, whether chocolate, crisps, or cheese, invoke different responses in different people.
To stay on track with your health goals and feel more in control this Christmas, it’s important to know which foods you find most difficult to resist. On Boxing Day, pack up these foods and give them away to work, friends, or a food shelter. You’ll go into the New Year feeling healthier and more in control.
10. Forgive yourself when things go wrong.
Christmas can be a banquet of indulgent foods and drinks at work buffets, friends’ parties and family lunches. There will be times when you eat less healthily than you intended. That’s okay! Be aware of the unhealthy cycle of overeating, feeling awful, and then over-eating more.
The secret to long-lasting health and sustainable weight loss is to develop the skill of getting on track as soon as possible. You might think that you need to be hard on yourself to ensure you don’t make the same mistake again. However, when we internally criticise ourselves we tend to feel ashamed and want to hide from the situation. Research shows that being self-compassionate promotes resilience and accountability. When you’re kind to yourself and accept that everyone makes mistakes, you’re less likely to feel overwhelmed by the situation and more likely to take responsibility and bounce back.
