It’s that time of the year again. The time when, instead of focusing on the magic of Christmas and embracing the opportunity to spend time with our loved ones, the media tries to take it away from us by encouraging us to obsess (more than usual) about the food we are eating, the exercise we are (not) doing, and that “dreaded” weight gain that comes with it. We start to see fear mongering articles such as “How Eating Like A Squirrel Can Help You Lose 3 Stone By Christmas” (srsly), “Surviving The Christmas Nibbles” (because if we nibble too much we might just die) and, my all time favourite, “Stay Slim At Christmas: 21 Ways To Stop You Turning Into A Christmas Pudding This Christmas.” I mean WHAT? So if we eat one too many chocolates we’ll turn into this?
Scary stuff right. We are given advice such as eating smaller portions, upping our exercise before the big day, restricting our food intake the weeks before (although it is often wrapped up in a “positive” way), staying away from the Christmas cocktails and avoiding the high calorie parts of the meal, such as the roasties and the pigs in blankets, i.e. the best part of the meal. This is the time of year the diet industry makes its big bucks – they are literally making money off telling us we’re not good enough. It’s basically promoting disordered eating, and it is not okay.
For those of us who are serial dieters, terrified of weight gain and/or have suffered from ED tendencies, Christmas turns from being a magical time to one that is fraught with anxiety. What if I eat too much? What if, God forbid, I gain weight? What if all my hard work is undone? Christmas has been a time of anxiety for me ever since I was around 15 years old and first started to notice my body and go on diets. It’s the time when, especially in later years, all of my coping mechanisms would kick in to the max – I would self-harm more, eat less and drink to excess, so by the time I got to January I was an absolute mess. It was made so much worse by the hungover days eating everything I could get my hands on to feed my deprived body, and the guilt and the shame and the despair that would follow.
How many of us diet and restrict and sell our souls to the diet industry in time for the party season, only to drink 3 bottles of wine, a box of chocolates and 12 mince pies, putting alllll that weight and more back on (and that’s only Christmas eve)? The thing with dieting is that we think we are in control when, in actual fact, we become more out of control than ever: if we don’t listen to our bodies, eventually our bodies will force us to listen to them.
So I’ve compiled a list of my top tips to live by this Christmas. Print them out, stick them by your bed, store them in your brain, I don’t mind – just please remember them over the next few weeks.
- Instead of focusing on your weight or how much you should or shouldn’t be eating, instead shift that focus onto enjoying the time spent with your loved ones.
- Remember that you are allowed to eat Christmas puddings, roast potatoes, chocolate, mince pies etc ANY. DAY. OF. THE. YEAR. Don’t fall into the trap of “I’m not going to be able to eat these for an extra 365 days, so I need to shove it in now!” This is the deprivation mindset, and is the cause for 99% of binge eating.
- On that note, overeating is a normal part of life and it’s totally okay to do. IT DOES NOT MAKE YOU A BAD PERSON. Instead of thinking of it as “over” eating, shift it instead to “maybe I’ve eaten way past my point of comfortable fullness, but it was absolutely delicious and worth every bite”.
- Try your best to ignore other people’s food insecurities. When Aunt Sharon starts commenting on how “naughty” she is reaching for an extra roast spud, grabbing her stomach rolls with a big sigh, and telling the world about her new diet starting in January, tune out. Especially with individuals suffering with ED’s, it can be really difficult and really triggering to hear other people use diet and weight language so negatively, especially when those are the exact things that you’re trying not to focus on, but ignoring it is properly the best option. Either that or a lecture on the fact that 95% of diets fail. But it’s Christmas so maybe lets not bring the mood down …(
(image from me and my ed art) - Don’t try and “repent” for you sins and compensate for what you’ve eaten. Our bodies compensate on their own – if we “over” eat one day, our bodies will reduce their hunger signals on a later date and vice versa. Our bodies are MUCH cleverer than we give them credit for, and we just need to trust the fact that they know what they’re doing – we’ve just got to listen to them.
- Last, but not least, MOVE THE F**K ON! What’s done is done, accept it, give yourself some compassion, be grateful for the good stuff and just move. on.
And remember, if you never get on the wagon, you can’t fall off.
Happy holidays!
Kirsty
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The Kirsty Way 