Steps to stop Thanksgiving from turning into a binge

Holidays can be rough if you find yourself struggling with your relationship with food and let’s face it for a lot of people Thanksgiving becomes a scheduled binge from year to year. Many people skip breakfast and lunch to prepare for the feast or start planning their New Year’s diet in the midst of the “all-or-nothing” mentality until the holiday season is over. At the end of the day these strategies usually end in some guilt and not feeling body satisfaction.

But, if you are working on cultivating a better relationship with food and your body, Thanksgiving can be a stressful time. You probably have been trying to combat the guilt from breaking food rules and morality around food and a holiday centered around many common fear foods, many courses and just food in general can be difficult to navigate with this new freedom.

Here are some steps to help prepare and maintain your mindset during Thanksgiving day to feel confident, eat some great food without guilt and not obsess over food ALL day long:

Manage your expectations

You may be confident in how you have been managing food freedom day to day at home, work, wherever. You are probably on a normal schedule and have more structure during those normal days as well. Remember that Thanksgiving is typically a holiday centered around food, for many people starts at a weird time in the afternoon, and has some stressors (aka family members that may have inappropriate comments.) Manage your expectations ahead of time. 

What I mean by this is to remember that there probably are going to be foods that you don’t get the opportunity to have often, multiple courses, maybe stress inducing conversations, pressure to eat as well as many other factors that make this day unique to your day to day life. It can be easy to go into this day with food rules in the back of your mind like: “I’ll only have so much because I want some of that later” or “you should really only have one roll” or “I’ll just skip breakfast because I’ll have plenty of food later.”

Those rules are going to keep food on your mind and make it hard to not only enjoy your day, but might make you feel out of control. Give yourself grace ahead of time. You may eat past fullness (which is fine), you may want a few rolls (which is fine), you may want to try all of the desserts (again fine), and you might be uncomfortable because of all of the food you enjoyed (fine). What is important to remember is you’re allowed to do this. There are no rules in food freedom and every day looks different, one meal does not mean you “fell off the wagon” when there is no wagon in the first place.

Practice being present

It can be easy when you start to stress about food to throw in the towel or zone out, but this year focus on being present when you are eating and really enjoy your food. Make a plate with what you want, sit and chat, but pay attention to what you are eating. How does it taste? How does it feel? Do I want more?

Take a second to regroup

If you start to feel overwhelmed, out of control or guilty, take a step back. Go to the bathroom, take a couple deep breaths and regroup. Take this time to tune in to how you are feeling. Is that guilt creating a mental restriction? How can you reframe those thoughts to something rational that aligns with your goals?

Give yourself permission

I touched on this earlier, but this is a big one. I have clients all of the time who have no problem if they feel like I give them permission to eat. So practice giving yourself permission. Focus on what your goal with food freedom is or set a goal for the week. Do you want to enjoy the holiday without obsessing over food? Great! Now what are the steps that need to be taken to do so? (Ex. give yourself permission to eat the foods you want today and reframe thoughts as they come. This not only gives you a sense of control because you are working towards a goal, but it also gives you motivation to continue working on overcoming those negative thoughts as they come.

This season can be very difficult if you are working on your relationship with food, but not impossible. If you feel yourself start to get overwhelmed remember all of the coping tools you use on your normal days and put those into practice!

If you need help building your tool box and working towards a life of food freedom. My 1:1 coaching would be perfect for you. I work with people every week who just need some support, encouragement and tools to help break free from the diet mindset for good. If this sounds like you reach out! I’d love to chat!