Holiday Overeating Is Not Inevitable

Before you read the main points of this post, I need to tell you: you must not shame yourself or judge yourself for holiday overeating!

In this post I want to explain why and how holiday overeating doesn't have to happen, but that does not mean you should get down on yourself if it does.

Self-judgment and “I should be able to not do it”-shaming does not help!

With that being said, what I want to talk about here is the fact that overeating is not as simple as the fact that junk food looks good or tastes good.

When the holidays would come around, I used to feel like I was on a roller coaster I had no control over. I felt like I just had to ride it out and hope for the best, but I went into it fully expecting I'd binge and have heaps of junk food. I expected the crappy feeling after it was all over.

Many of us think that if junk food is in our environment, that it is inevitable we'll eat it because it's just right there and so accessible. We think that we overdo it because the food looks good and tastes good.

What creates compulsive eating is the desire to avoid emotions and to attempt to gain artificial versions of emotions that we don't already feel.

It’s all about your soul and your emotions, and that means that it is something that, over time, can be healed.

Here are some questions you can ask to help you connect with the real reasons you want to overeat:

1) Are you connected to how you are feeling emotionally?

2) What positive feelings would you feel like you're getting if you do go overboard with eating?

3) What uncomfortable emotions would you feel like you'd feel if you ate in a way that was loving towards your body's health?

4) How do you feel about the emotional dynamics between you and the people you will be spending the holidays with?

Holiday overeating is not inevitable.

Photo by Luc Van Loon via Unsplash