Food Tips for An Enjoyable Holiday Season

The holidays are upon us and so are the barbs, comments, and headlines rooted in diet culture. Any of these sound familiar? Eat this, not that. Too many calories. Have to run XX miles to work that off. How not to gain weight this holiday season. Keto-friendly holiday recipes. You shouldn’t eat that.

It’s exhausting!! More importantly, diet culture comments induce fear (of weight gain usually) and interfere with an importance part of eating—pleasure!! One food tip I have for an enjoyable holiday season is to challenge scare tactics about holiday foods and weight gain. Practice noticing the scare tactic and challenging it with a neutral response.

Magazine Cover- Five Ways to Prevent Weight Gain this Winter!

Scare Tactics: Fatphobia (fear of weight gain). The headline suggests that we should be afraid of weight gain, that we have total control over our ability to prevent weight gain, and that there are five easy ways to do this. This type of headline is fear-mongering in disguise. Our body weight is not entirely in our control. Is it really necessary that we spend our time this winter focusing on not gaining weight?

Neutral responses: I notice the headline for what it is- fatphobic. The size of my body is not a problem. This winter I want to focus on the following activities: reading great books, spending time with family, and learning how to ski. One food item, meal, or day of eating doesn’t have the power to affect my health or weight.

Comments, barbs, headlines, and your own thoughts are just that- thoughts which may or may not be accurate or reflect reality. Practice separating yourself from these comments and challenge diet culture rules you hear. Happy Holidays!!!!

Photo by Element5Digital (@element5digital) via Unsplash.