How To Healthily Navigate the Holidays🎊
This guide is dedicated to all the health-conscious individuals who struggle with their relationship with food around the holidays. 🥗
So, how do we navigate the holidays as healthy eaters?
Well, there’s no single or correct way necessarily. Some of you may even disagree with my following tips, and that’s completely fine.
Regardless of the how, I do believe that this is an important topic to discuss. To those of you who struggle with your relationship with food this time of year, you're not alone.
The truth is that many people, vegan or not, tend to experience the struggle. This can be for a variety of reasons, whether that be difficult family memories, being surrounded by a plethora of tempting food, or not wanting your health goals to infringe on family traditions.
After almost 10 years of being a high-raw vegan, I've gained a fair amount of wisdom around how to navigate triggers during the holiday season that I'd like to share with you.
Tip #1: Put a priority on self-care. 💕
As much as we try, avoiding or removing all triggers from our lives is impossible. One thing we can control, however, is how we react to triggers when they do arise.
Putting a priority on self-care is a great way to put yourself into a state where you're less reactive. This means getting enough sleep, staying hydrated, making sure your emotional and mental needs are met, and keeping your stress levels low.
This will allow you to be much more stable and prepared for when triggers do arise.
Tip #2: Express your feelings, intentions, and/or desires for this holiday season with those you'll be spending time with.
Don't be afraid to vocalize your truth! Let your family members know that your new lifestyle is important to you calmly and consciously.
Every family is different, but oftentimes, simply sitting down and having a serious conversation about your lifestyle changes (and the reasons behind them) can go a long way in helping your family understand your decision. It also lets them know that you're serious. This isn't just another fad diet you're going to jump off when they bring out your favorite pie.
Many of us are scared to "make special requests" for holiday meals because we associate that with "rocking the boat" or "complicating the situation". However, this is a situation where I think it's important to choose your battle wisely.
Yes, these initial conversations, as well as the corresponding changes that take place, may cause a bit of an upset, but I promise, you'll thank yourself later.
Personally, with my decision to go vegan, I found it easier to have a couple of difficult conversations upfront rather than spend every holiday dinner with multiple people asking me why I didn't eat any turkey.
Speaking up now will inevitably save you time and effort down the road. Prompt a discussion with your family and brainstorm how you can collaborate to make holiday meals work for everyone.😊
I've seen some families switch over to a completely vegan Thanksgiving, I've seen a half-vegan, half-omnivore style meal, and I've seen special dishes being made for the vegan family members. It's going to look different in every situation, but after a couple of years, everyone will find their flow.
Tip #3: Plan Ahead!
There are a couple of ways you can practice planning.
The first is making sure there are at least a couple of dishes at each holiday meal that you feel comfortable eating. This will not only help you feel involved in the feasts, but it will also keep your temptation for other foods low. The goal is to avoid the situation where you're just watching everyone else eat... because that's typically a recipe for disaster. This may look like having that conversation with your loved ones and working something out together (as we talked about in tip #2) or prepping and bringing your own dishes to the meal.
The second way I like to practice planning ahead is by making sure I'm eating plenty of healthy, whole plant foods throughout my day (even if I have a huge holiday feast later that night).
One of the biggest mistakes I see people making is convincing themselves to "eat light" the week or the morning before a big holiday meal because they believe it will prevent them from overeating.
Oftentimes, this tactic is actually counterproductive. Restricting your caloric intake before a huge meal is only going to put your body in a deprived and binge-prone state, meaning you're much more likely to overeat when the feast finally comes your way.
On the contrary, if you're filling up on fruits and veggies before the big meal, you'll probably find yourself being satiated earlier than you expected at dinnertime. Long story short, make sure you're eating enough of all the good stuff so you don't end up binging out on the less optimal food later.
Tip #4: Understand that not everyone is on the same journey or path as you.
As much as I wish it wasn't true, not everyone is ready to make the switch to veganism, whole foods plant-based, healthier eating habits, etc.
I'm a huge supporter of spreading the vegan message, but unfortunately, one of the realities we have to accept as advocates is that we can't force other people to change. They have to want it for themselves. It's cliché, but like they say, "We can lead a horse to water, but we can't make it drink."
Trust me, I know this can be the hardest to accept when it comes to our beloved friends and family. We only want what's best for them, the planet, and the animals, but we can't force someone to see what we see. They have to decide for themselves.
I've learned that it's important to be discerning with our energy and focus on the people (or the things) that we CAN change v.s. the things we can't.
Tip #5: Let Go of the "All or Nothing” Mindset.
Many of us tend to get caught up in the idea that if we're not sticking to the diet plan 100% of the time, we're failing.
I’ve found that this approach can put a large amount of stress on individuals, especially around this time of year.
Personally, I like to practice a bit of flexibility within my raw vegan diet from time to time because it helps me keep a healthy relationship with food. Instead of labeling a day where I ate something cooked or processed as "a slip up" or a "failure", I just see it as any other day.
This is a lifestyle after all, and there are bound to be days that aren't as "clean" as others. Freaking out or labeling a less-than-perfect day of eating as a "failure" is only going to worsen the negative effect of anything you ate by encouraging the release of stress hormones.
To put things simply: If you have a day that's not as healthy as usual, the best thing you can do for yourself is to stay calm, forgive yourself, and go back to business as usual the next day.
