Holiday Nutrition Insights: Prioritizing Self-Care and Mindful Eating Over Dieting Myths

Are you ready to embrace the holiday season without the weight of extreme dieting dragging you down? Join host Heather Carey in this enlightening episode of Real Food Stories, where she shares invaluable nutritionist insights on how to navigate the festive season with self-compassion and kindness. As Thanksgiving approaches, Heather recognizes the unique pressures women face, often placing the needs of others above their own. Her personal journey through the maze of holiday dieting reveals the emotional toll of restrictive eating, filled with feelings of shame and loneliness.

Throughout this episode, Heather provides practical tips for enjoying holiday meals without guilt. She emphasizes the importance of arriving at gatherings nourished and ready to savor the flavors of the season. By making healthier food choices and preparing mentally for social interactions, listeners can create a more enjoyable experience. Heather encourages setting specific, achievable goals rather than vague resolutions, fostering a mindset of progress over perfection—a crucial lesson for anyone looking to embrace a healthy lifestyle.

As a culinary nutritionist, Heather introduces her upcoming program, Pound Zero, a free 21-day guide designed to help you navigate the holidays with ease and confidence. This program is a treasure trove of nutritionist insights advice and healthy eating tips, specifically crafted for women experiencing the unique challenges of midlife and menopause. By focusing on mindful eating practices, listeners can cultivate a balanced approach to food and self-care, ensuring that their well-being takes center stage during the festive season.

Join Heather as she advocates using nutritionist insights for a holistic view of women’s health and nutrition, emphasizing the importance of understanding our personal food journeys and the impact of family food traditions. This episode is not just about avoiding diet fads; it’s about embracing the rich tapestry of food culture and making healthy lifestyle choices that resonate with your individual needs. Tune in to discover how to overcome food confusion and navigate the complexities of holiday eating with grace and ease.

Whether you’re seeking to dispel weight loss myths or explore Mediterranean diet insights, Heather’s friendly and empathetic approach will inspire you to prioritize your health during this festive time. Don’t miss this opportunity to transform your relationship with food and cultivate a mindset of abundance and joy this holiday season. Listen now to Real Food Stories and take the first step toward a healthier, happier you!

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Transcript:

Speaker #0
Well, hello, everybody, and welcome back. And if you are just tuning in with me for the very first time, it’s so nice to meet you. And I am very glad you are here with me. I am your host, Heather Carey, nutritionist, chef, mom, and a woman who has been around the block with food. I want to open up about real food in relationship to health, weight, and our bodies so you can make peace with what you eat. I’m recording this podcast a few days before Thanksgiving because, like I said last week, I wanted to give you some tips and suggestions for the holidays so you do not feel the pressure to fall back onto some crazy go-nowhere diet that leaves you feeling desperate and even worse about yourself. I know firsthand how this feels. Growing up, the holidays gave me full permission to eat and drink. really whatever. Now, I know, and hopefully you know too, that giving yourself full permission to eat whatever and whenever you want is perfectly fine. We have free will and tuning into our bodies and knowing what we need at any given moment is essential for making peace with ourselves and our bodies. So when you are on and off diets, and when you are dictated by somebody else’s rules and ways of eating, life gets confusing. You start to depend on outsiders and someone else’s beliefs and rules for what to do. That can feel very out of control and stressful. Now, I’ve shared in prior podcasts, and I am very transparent about this on my website and really with anybody who will listen to me. That when I was younger, spending life in the dieting fast lane never served me, but I didn’t know any better. And back then, it felt as if I was always on and off some sort of a diet, or spending my precious time even contemplating a diet. And for most of the year, I would stick it out on this diet or that, really whatever the newest diet was. Now, since I was so under the thumb of somebody else’s beliefs and ways of eating. As Thanksgiving rolled around, diet thinking would slowly become a wisp of a memory because I needed a break from pressuring myself to be on or off a diet. I was going to be rebellious right around Thanksgiving because this now was party time. that collective permission just to let go. go. And the holidays would give me all the right reasons to say yes to every gooey dessert, sparkling pink champagne cocktail, and every luscious bite of warm brie. I adored the holidays back then. Not so much because I was spending time with family or resting or tuning into the darker, colder season. Not at all. This was celebratory season. And this was all about the overabundance of food and drink that I was never allowed to eat. I gave full permission to myself to eat and drink anything and everything I wanted and attend as many parties as I chose and just let loose. I would think about the consequences in January. I was so restrictive with eating and under so many house rules that I was like a kid in a candy store. All those foods that were not allowed and were off limits to me. And of course, I had camaraderie. Most of my friends were right there with me. Who wasn’t worrying about their weight all year round? I believe we all felt the same way. We would just deal with the consequences in January. When January 1st rang in, there I was, typically a few pounds heavier, piled high with deep exhaustion and full of regret. Wasn’t I doing this all year long anyway, though? But suddenly, come January 1st, when the party’s over, it just all felt so lonely. My friends scattered back to their corners like mice in… the early morning and we’re just long gone and I felt so alone. The short, dark days were just swallowing me. I just remember feeling filled with a whole bunch of shame. What was the matter with me? Why couldn’t I just keep on the straight and narrow? And why couldn’t I just be like one of those other women who seems to breeze through party season unscathed and their energy intact? I longed to be one of them. So the relentless questioning would just continue. But now I know. that I was simply going from just one extreme to another, unrealistic diet to giving myself this get out of jail free pass for the month. It felt bleak in January. I would literally just hand myself back the virtual jailer’s keys and walk back into the cold, dark cell, having learned nothing except how to beat myself up. And I was very used to that. It was punishment, and it was unforgiving and relentless. But nonetheless, the diet battle would begin with the thoughts of detoxing or cleansing to kickstart me and force me back on track. Now, the diets ensued with specials, promotions, and grueling 30-day challenges. I’m sure you’re already seeing those come out. I would set my very vague resolutions lose weight, and no sugar or alcohol, and maybe it’s forever. Hard to resist when you’re weary, vulnerable, and ashamed. The resolutions in January will be here before we know it, and I know you are so familiar with resolutions too. They start out with a shot out of the gate, another big promise that this time will be it, and you might berate yourself. or talk down to yourself to get yourself into action. And it works, but only for a while. So I will be with you on this podcast during this whole month to help you to not go down that punishing road and make a different choice. But let’s start getting prepared now, before Thanksgiving even starts, and well before we have to start worrying in January. I’m going to give you some very specific tips for Thanksgiving tomorrow, which can work though with any holiday or party coming up. But first, let’s just take a look at the bigger picture here to get you to start thinking about what’s going to come up ahead, all the parties and all the holidays, and that fateful day of January 2nd. I have to back up a bit to remind you. of the most important part of any holiday season, or really any time of the year for that matter, and that is the self-compassion and kindness that you are going to cultivate for yourself. I have talked about self-kindness and self-compassion many times on this podcast, and I’m just going to remind you again what it is. Self-kindness is like a best-kept secret, and nothing… that is ever talked about in diet books or cleanses. Listen, we women, we know how to do kindness. We will go above and beyond for our friends. We would definitely walk to the ends of the earth for one of our children. Even our dog gets a great deal of attention in a daily belly rub. But when it comes to us, not so much. Most of us have been raised to be selfless in giving. And it’s time to turn the attention on to yourself. If you don’t start out of the gate this season with kindness and forgiveness for yourself, and a knowing that the diet mentality you have been clinging to will actually hold you back from feeling great and losing weight for good, then let’s revisit this talk in January. I certainly don’t mean to be stern here, but I am telling you that go down the same road as me, as I’ve done in the past, and you will fail your next diet, and you will keep coming back for even more, hoping the next diet is the one that will be the change. You will continue to look for solutions outside of yourself, then from within you. Your next January detox is not a goal. It’s a jail sentence. Kindness is the first you critical step to shifting a goal from I better lose this weight fast to my goal is to feel energized and great about myself. So I’m wondering if you are already thinking about those resolutions and already pondering 2023 and how you are going to not eat sugar or drink alcohol for a month to clean out. Or maybe you will finally start intermittent fasting or try the keto diet. On the same hand, I imagine there is something deep inside of you that is burnt out on resolutions because you finally get it just like I do. You know they don’t work. Resolutions are vague and impossible to sustain. Now, I’ll be talking about this so much more this month. But for right now, I want you to consider that setting a specific goal rather than a resolution Thank you. can be a very different way of looking at weight loss and health. Goal setting is not the same as another failed and forgotten resolution. Let me tell you about goal setting. Setting goals in a very specific way, which is entirely different than vague resolutions or the I’ll think about it later mindset, is what made me super successful with my own weight loss and health goals and what has worked with… every one of my successful clients who also sets goals for themselves. The challenge and the secret really is to get your goal setting done right. And when it comes to our health, goal setting is vital because it helps you decide and focus on what’s really, really important to you. Now, I don’t want you to get confused with goal setting right now because these days it can feel you Almost a little like dieting and the dieting books that are out there. Every few months or so, there seems to be a new book or secret to hammering out your dreams and visions. There are literally hundreds of books on effective goal setting, such as creating bite-sized habits or crafting your vision or planning out your life. Social media is so full of these experts discussing the most effective way to plan your year for success. along with millions of tips, tricks, anecdotes on how to be a goal-setting rock star. All of this information can lead to so much more confusion and misinformation. What I do know is that goal-setting is vital, though, to keeping yourself accountable. It does not have to be intimidating, nor does it have to be complicated. Back when I laid down goals to lose weight and to keep it off, I had no single specific goal-setting plan in mind. But writing and journaling, as I have mentioned in the past, has always been very near and dear to my heart. And so I naturally turned to pen and paper to begin. My writing led me to write a contract of sorts, explaining my most honest, deep-seated, darkest, and most heartfelt feelings about But. how it felt to carry extra weight, and the frustrations I felt with being on diets and failing at diets. Now back then, I’m not sure I could have even shared my emotions around it with anyone but myself. And I made a commitment to not be judgmental or hard on myself, and to sticking with the goal, which was a pledge of kindness and knowing that this was about progress and not perfection. When I say that I lost 20 something pounds and kept it off to this day, it is the goal that keeps me staying with it. Goal setting is like a contract. I feel like I just don’t want to break with myself. It’s that important. So when you are ready, goal setting is a very powerful way to get really honest with yourself in a kind and loving way. And I will definitely be getting into the more specifics of goal setting in. future episode. Let’s go back to resolutions for a second. What happens when you jump into some elusive resolutions that seem to go nowhere? I’m sure you have been here, as I have been dozens of times. Now, before you know it, February trudges through and you are likely left wondering, where did my willpower and motivation go? Where did those resolutions go? How come they just seem to leave your memory after about… two weeks of saying you’re going to stop drinking or stop eating sugar. Then you might beat yourself up and start to get overpowered with shame like I used to. The shaming yourself is never a good motivator for anything. And it’s a really, really poor way to get yourself into action. I love the shame researcher, Brene Brown, who I’ve mentioned on this podcast before, who says that shame is the most powerful master emotion. It’s the fear that we’re not good enough that corrodes the very part of us that believes we are actually capable of change. So if you’re stuck in the cycle of shame, it will feel nearly impossible to break the chain. So you can set goals that are meaningful, heartfelt, and honest. I imagine that deep down, if you are listening to this around the holidays, and I hope you are, you envision a life that can feel freeing of the burden of diet punishment. That goal is a good one. It’s right there. And you just need to relearn how to. Weak your goals and vision of yourself so that it will lead to success in a positive, loving way. So I’m already talking about the long game we just sort of covered the next month, and I’ll definitely return to that as the weeks go on and we get closer into 2023. But what I also want to talk about right now is what to do when you wake up tomorrow morning and Thanksgiving is finally here. If you feel like you want to have an experience where you get up on Friday actually feeling really good about the holiday, then let’s jump in to some specifics. These mini goals for tomorrow are, like I said, specific, doable, and actionable. Exactly how I like my goals. Okay, so for the first, so our goal this year is to wake up the day after Thanksgiving and feel great. Here are three things that we can do to do that. Number one, never go to a party or holiday dinner hungry. Now, this may feel totally counterintuitive, but trust me, this is a secret of many, many successful women who know how to enjoy themselves and not gain weight. When you go to a holiday dinner ravenous, you are more likely to drink more, eat more, and make poor food choices. Your brain. loves the feeling of starvation because it will latch on to any food in sight and the worst offenders to boot. Now think about it. When is the last time you were starving and you actually craved celery sticks? Your brain wants sugar, the quickest source of energy for that precious brain of yours. So wine, overeating desserts, crackers, let’s add some cheese on there. This may seem totally counterintuitive, like I said, to eat a snack or, yikes, actually eat breakfast that morning. But trust me, do this. If you don’t, you will more than make up in calories what you didn’t have during the day. So tip number one, do not walk into a party hungry. Tip number two, to get through Thanksgiving with success and feeling great the next day. I want you to think about how you can make over some of your traditional holiday foods. Now, I know sweet potatoes with marshmallows is a crowd pleaser, I think. Actually, who even thought of putting marshmallows on sweet potatoes? Consider the fact that Thanksgiving is full of a lot of super healthy side dish choices. There’s Brussels sprouts, kale, green beans, just to name a few. It’s when we throw in the odd add-ins like fried onions out of a can, that this perfectly delicious food you are eating and good for you, like vegetables, takes a turn. So find ways to keep these side dishes simple. Roast the vegetables, bake them, saute them with some healthy olive oil. Now you can check out my link in the show notes. I am adding in as a bonus a sweet potato pecan casserole, which is definitely the healthiest version of a sweet potato casserole that you will get and a much healthier way to use this nutritious vegetable. So my point here in the takeaway is that with any holiday, it does not have to be a gut bomb of the worst offenders inside dishes. You can really find enjoyment out of simplifying some of your meals. tip number three to make it through Thanksgiving and walk into Friday feeling great is to get a mental game plan. You now already know to not go to an event hungry, but none of that can happen if you don’t have your head in the game. Without some planning, your plan, well, could easily go out the window as soon as you arrive. Give yourself some time to rehearse. rehearse the dishes that will be at the dinner. And if you’re even going out to a restaurant, you can go online and look up the menu. Take a few minutes to just mentally walk through the day and the night. Decide what you will say no to and what will be your yes foods. And if you can’t stop at one or two bites of the baked brie or those holiday cookies that are just sitting on the counter, then consider that these simply might be a no for you. There’s just no negotiation with them. They’re just a no. So Tip number three, go in like a warrior with a plan of action for your eating. When you walk into this holiday tomorrow, what do you want to get out of it? What are your goals for yourself? You may be feeling a lot like I used to, the I’ll think about that later mindset. But if you are tiring of beating yourself up come January, you may better be served giving some thought to that now. So we’ve talked about goal setting. it can feel intimidating if you don’t know how to do it right. And most of us, and I used to do this too, create goals something like this. I just want to lose weight, or I need to lose 25 pounds before my vacation, or else. You can come up with all sorts of lofty, big goals, but research has shown that the more specific you get with a goal, the better the chance you have at success. As we’re going into the holidays, a reasonable goal right now could just be to not gain any weight. Losing weight right now may feel daunting, but staying even, that’s a reasonable goal. But it can get even more specific. And that is where the tips I gave you about just going through Thanksgiving can really help. Follow these tips, make it through your very first holiday, and feel like a success. And then… keep going. Holidays can be hard, but they do not have to be. Be aware, prepare for what is ahead of you, bring the best, most filling foods with you, and be sure to enjoy your family and friends, which is really what the holidays are all about. So happy Thanksgiving. I hope it is a lovely day for you, and I can’t wait to hear how it all turns out. And before I sign off, I want to tell you about my upcoming guided holiday helper called Pound Zero. Pound Zero is a 21-day guide to help you navigate the holidays with total ease. We start the first week in December. Please be sure to find the link in the show notes, and you don’t want to miss out on this. Best of all, it’s entirely free. It’s as easy as opening up your inbox every single day for three weeks and getting my tip or my note or my recipe. This is my gift to you for the holidays. And on that note, thank you so much for being here today and listening. And if you have any thoughts at all on today’s episode, please do not hesitate to leave a comment. And if you loved this podcast, leave me a review. It helps me to get the word out. Have a great day, everybody, and bye for now.