Enjoy Easter & Ditch Guilty Thoughts
Easter Dread
Extended Holiday weekends like Easter can be challenging for those working to manage their weight. Time off work with family and friends, occasions that centre around food and an abundance of treats that come with a falsely enforced time restriction create the fear of missing out. It can be very difficult to navigate which tends to mean we end up falling into one of two categories. 1) F*CK it - I’ll write the whole weekend off or 2) dread it and feel like you can’t or don’t want to take part in any of it.
I’m happy to let you know, you don’t have to be either one of those categories, you can learn to manage it like a boss!
Weekend Warrior
One chocolate Easter egg or a big family dinner certainly isn’t the end of the world when you’re watching your weight. But problems can occur if the one meal turns into a whole day, which turns into a whole extended weekend. This leads to a more prolonged change in habits, frame of mind and may impact your motivation come Tuesday. Having a throw away attitude for the whole weekend is not supportive to your goals in the short or the long term and can play a big part in negative and guilt ridden thoughts.
Fear Of Missing Out… On Mini Eggs
Despite the strange sense of limited availability after they’ve been in the shops since Christmas, most things will still be available next week. Yet we fall into the marketing trap of believing it wont, or we feel it’s a tradition and something that’s an unwritten rule for the occasion.
We feel we’ll miss out if we don’t eat it, even if we are full, even if we don’t fancy it, even if it’s not our favourite. Maybe we don’t want to offend another person, maybe these foods are usually off limits so we use it as a good excuse to binge on them.
This can cause us to eat past full, make a joke out of and celebrate how sick we feel and in general, encourage a dysfunctional relationship with food, that we pass on to younger generations.
Tips for portion control
If it’s in front of you and easy to access, you’ll find yourself mindlessly reaching for more. Try breaking off the amount you’d like and placing the box in another room - If it’s in your eyesight, it’ll be very hard to resist, put treats high up on shelves, in cupboards and in non opaque packaging.
Don’t be the ‘I need to eat it all so it’s out of the house’ person. You could throw it in the bin or give it away, you are choosing to eat it, so own that decision and make it work in your day. Binge eating will encourage the cycle of a poor uncontrolled relationship with that food. Try breaking it down into moderate portion sizes, put it into snack bags, plan to have it over the course of the week or a few days, giving you a bit of what you fancy, more regularly.
Eat it consciously, not in front of a movie, in the car, or anywhere you feel distracted. This means you can pay more attention to enjoying it and notice when you are full.
If you’re full now but really want what’s in front of you, can you take some with you, for later in the day, when you might have more room?
If now isn’t the right time for you to indulge or you feel overwhelmed by the options, instead of saying “I can’t” ask yourself if you would prefer to eat it another day, another week? Then plan it into your diary! knowing you’ll be eating it at a time and in a situation that suits you better #NotNowButLater
Lack Of Routine
A lack of structure and weirdly timed meals can really throw us off, especially if you’re someone that likes routine. Yet every holiday, family occasion and even school holidays we repeat the same patterns of just going with the flow and begrudging how that impacts our usual routine and goals because it feels out of our control and something we have to accept… But do we?
Something I talk through with my clients is how we can sometimes miss opportunities because we have pre decided the situation is fully out of our control, which is very all or nothing and usually not true. I ask them to consider:
What IS in their control ?
What do they value most in the situation ?
What will make them feel good ?
Using these 3 prompts allows room to take back some of the control and make considered decisions that feel great, instead of feeling disempowered, annoyed and unmotivated
Planning
One of the biggest reasons that we feel guilt or annoyance after eating IMO, is a lack of thinking ahead, and checking in with yourself before eating.
We decide in the moment, sometimes heavily influenced by those around us, sometimes the option is pre decided for us. We don’t consider quantity, just eat until full. Don’t consider how the rest of the day looks, what the days either side look like. All of this leaves a lot of room for uncertainty and uncertainty leads to worry and doubt, which can result in a feeling of regret and guilt in your actions.
This is where planning ahead for situations that are unusual from your normal routine can be a really impactful tool. This doesn’t mean tracking all that you eat, but thinking ahead to what each day might entail, what parts mean the most to you to take part in, and which you don’t value and can abstain with confidence.
So, over the course of the bank holiday weekend, allow yourself time to think ahead about what some of your planned meals look like and how you want to approach them, if you’re saving room for easter eggs, if you’re having hot cross buns, if you’re having a much bigger meal than usual. Do you even like the food you’re having?
Tips for planning ahead:
Allow yourself time to think and decide before you’re in the moment. This may be the day before, an hour before or excusing yourself in the moment, to go outside and think about it.
Ensure you have plenty of your usual healthy foods in the house or to hand, so that you don’t end up hangry and so that you have an option, instead of being forced to have something you don’t want.
Plan your chocolate fix so you don’t just pick throughout the day.
Aim to eat easter eggs with or after some protein & fibre to help reduce the sugar hit and impact on your energy levels.
WORK WITH ME
If you know you find Easter and other holiday seasons a challenge and you’d like to change that. If you’d like to improve your relationship with food and stop repeating the same repetitive cycles, for good.
Book a free call with me today, I would love to help you change that for good!
