If you are anything like me, you need a plan to get back on track with your healthy eating once the holidays are over. When I was a chronic dieter, I used to overindulge starting mid-December, and I didn’t stop until New Year’s Day. This always caused me to gain weight, feel miserable for not sticking with my diet, and yet again promise myself to get back on track in the New Year.
Today, I am so much better at limiting my holiday indulgences, but I still eat and drink more than I normally do. No matter how long or how much you overindulge, your cravings get activated, so you need more than a New Year’s resolution and willpower to get back on track. You need an actual plan to eat healthier, and less, once the holidays are over.
The Challenge:
Once we start eating all of the delicious holiday treats, it is really challenging to stop and get back on track with our healthy eating. This isn’t because your willpower failed you; there is an actual biological reason that this is true for so many people.
Let’s say you make fudge every year. The first time you eat it, your brain’s reward center gets activated and dopamine, a neurotransmitter that conveys the feeling of pleasure, is released which increases your feeling of reward. However, if you keep on eating the fudge or other foods high in fat, sugar, and salt, the dopamine receptors become less responsive. This means the next time you eat the fudge or another holiday treat, you are going to need to eat more to feel the same level of satisfaction.
If you don’t make a plan to start eating healthier after the holidays, your desire for high fat, sugar and salt foods will continue and the amount needed to satisfy you will continue to increase. If you’re trying to reach and maintain your feel-good weight, you need to give your body a break, so it can reset itself and once again be satisfied with an occasional treat.
Tip #1: Fill Your Tank
If you have been eating a lot of food, replacing the eating with drinking water can be a great hack. Drinking water is amazing for you. It aids with detoxification, supports digestion, boosts your immune system, improves your complexion and can help aid with weight loss.
If you keep yourself hydrated, when you eat, your stomach is already partially filled with water making less room for food. This will help you feel more satisfied with a smaller serving. So, keep a glass of water next to you and drink often throughout the day.
Tip #2: Upgrade Your Water
Adding chia seeds to your water will also help keep you full for longer because they are high in fiber and expand as they absorb the water. The fiber slows digestion and the expanding seeds take up more room in your stomach which keeps you full longer. Plus they are a superfood, so it is always great to get more chia seeds into your diet.
Tip #3 Welcome Hunger
If you have been eating a bit more over the holidays, and you start eating less, you are likely going to feel hungry and that is okay. After so many years of dieting, I was very resistant to the idea of ever being hungry. Then one day it occurred to me that it didn’t make any sense to be okay with overeating and feeling too full but completely unwilling to be just a bit hungry.
I let go of the need to be 100% full and became comfortable with temporarily going to bed a little bit hungry. When I do this, I never wake up hungry, and after a couple of days, my body adjusts to the new normal, and I feel perfectly satisfied with less.
Tip #4 Increase Your Veggies
Plan some healthy meals with tons of vegetables. (Go here for inspiration) Vegetables are high in nutrition and fiber which helps keeps you full while being lower in calories. If you eat 100 calories of broccoli you will be way more satisfied than if you ate a 100 calorie holiday cookie. A good goal is to shoot to have half of your plate filled with vegetables.
While these four tips will definitely be super helpful to get you back on track with your healthy eating, going back to eating mostly nutritious meals can be challenging. The cravings for high fat, sugar and salt food is strong, and it can be hard to resist. If you know that this has been a struggle before, then I encourage you to join the FREE Ditch the Junk Food Challenge.
During this challenge, you’ll get access to my four-step process to ditch junk foods in a way that is sustainable. If it feels stressful, then you’ll quit well before February and your holiday weight gain will become permanent. That’s definitely not how we want to start the New Year, so commit to getting back on track and join the challenge HERE today.
