Holiday Q&A: How can I avoid overeating during the holidays?

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Holiday Q&A: How can I avoid overeating during the holidays?

This is such a common concern. Oftentimes we are confronted with some of our most challenging foods during the holidays. The ones we’ve been trained to believe we cannot trust or control ourselves around. The ones that are labels as “sinful” or “indulgent” or “unhealthy.” This can then set the stage for eating these foods in a what that really doesn’t feel good. Here are some thoughts to consider, I hope you find them useful.

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What is Healthy Eating, Anyway?

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What is Healthy Eating, Anyway?

What do you think of when you hear the words “healthy eating?” Do certain foods come to mind that you associate with being, or define as, healthy? Do you find yourself categorizing foods into 2 groups – those that are healthy and those that are not? Does it spark any particular feelings or emotions? Do you associate these words with pressure to act in a certain way? Or perhaps, guilt if you don’t?

There’s a lot to unpack when it comes to evaluating our perceptions of “healthy eating.”

Here’s my take.

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But What About Health? The Relationship Between Weight & Wellness

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But What About Health? The Relationship Between Weight & Wellness

Diets don’t work. It’s a line you’ve surely heard before. Perhaps it’s a statement that’s even supported by your own lived experience. Maybe you are so burned out on diets that you are ready to consider giving up the pursuit of weight loss for good.

Except that, maybe you’ve also been told that weight loss is important for your health. You’ve been told your joints will feel better, your blood sugar will improve, your risk for X, Y, or Z diagnosis will decrease. Or maybe that you’re “healthy” now but if you don’t get or keep your weight “under control” it’s just a matter of time before you begin to experience those “weight-related” illnesses. Maybe you're fearful that if you do give up trying to control your eating you’re being reckless with your health.

So, what are you supposed to do? How can you get off the diet culture roller coaster and still honor your health?

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Reconnecting with Your Innate Inner Wisdom: 3 Tips to Get Started

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Reconnecting with Your Innate Inner Wisdom: 3 Tips to Get Started

Diet and wellness culture teach us that we cannot trust ourselves to make decisions about food. If left to our own devices we will subsist on only the most sinful and indulgent foods, and we’ll never stop eating, which will spell disaster for our bodies. If we’re hungry – diet culture tries to teach us how to ignore that cue or to prevent ourselves from feeling it to begin with. If we want chips – diet culture tries to convince us that some low-calorie alternative will be just as satisfying (hello air-popped popcorn with no added butter and kale leaves dried out in the oven).

What you need to know is, if these don’t work for you, it’s not because there is something wrong with you. It’s not your body betraying you. It’s actually your body, in its infinite wisdom, trying to protect you.

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Recipe: Roasted Summer Vegetable & Couscous Salad

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Recipe: Roasted Summer Vegetable & Couscous Salad

I’m a big fan of preparing dishes that make for good leftovers all of the time, but this seems to be particularly true in summertime. Summers being so short in VT, I’d much rather spend my free time outside, savoring the season, rather than instead, in my kitchen. This is even more true on those really hot days, when turning on any cooking appliance in my non-air-conditioned home is a non-starter. This roasted summer vegetable and couscous salad is a great make-ahead-and-eat-all-week kind of dish. Plus, the bright colors, seasonal veggies, and freshness of the lemon and parsley, make it a satisfying summer staple to keep on hand. I recommend adding this salad to your rotation and keeping a batch ready to go in your refrigerator at all times.

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