We all overindulge at Christmas. For the vast majority that’s just fine. But, there are large numbers of people who are dreading Christmas because they feel they will not be able to cope with all the food and binge out of control.
How bad is that dreading what should be the best part of the year. But don’t worry here’s my top tips of how to cope with the vast amounts of food around this Christmas and hopefully, have a great time. First of all what NOT to do. It might seem like a good idea, but it’s not.
Event restriction – Don’t do that
Event restriction is the main cause of eating out of control on special occasions, like Christmas. Event restriction is when you cut back on your food, to make up for the extra food you will be eating at Christmas. You can event restrict in two ways, cut back in the weeks before Christmas, cut back on the day or both.
On the weeks before the event
The idea is that if I don’t eat the calories before the event it will make up for the extra calories that I will eat at Christmas.
You know the sort of thing, if I eat 500 calories less each day for a week before Christmas. Then I will be able to eat an extra 3500 calories over the Christmas holidays with no effect.
At first glance it seems like a plan. But unfortunately, the body simply doesn’t work that way. Take another look at the assumptions. It’s assuming that the body has a sort of petrol tank in which it stores energy. So if we run down the tank over the week, we can top it up in one go and all’s well – hmmm. Last time I looked I didn’t have a fuel tank just waiting to be filled.
Whether, this is a good idea or not, ask yourself
‘Have I tried this in the past? Yes’
‘Did it ever work? No I ended up bingeing out of control.’
It sounds like a good idea, but it never works – so don’t do that. Being hungry just sets you up for a binge. A better idea is to just eat normally on the build up to Christmas and enjoy yourself without bingeing.
Christmas Day
What about the actual day itself?
Well the day has arrived and if you are in the UK, you know that you will be faced with a huge meal around 3:00, followed by Christmas pudding, Christmas cake, mince pies, sandwiches and a cheese board throughout the evening. So what do you do?
Have a light breakfast, skip lunch and wait for 3:00. We may tell ourselves that we are simply making room for the meal. Well maybe, or do you really know that you will eat far too much later, so by skipping lunch you are cutting back a bit to ‘make up for it.’ A kind of damage limitation. The problem is that if you get too hungry by the time 3:00 finally rolls around, once you start to eat it is difficult to stop eating – even when full.
So DON’T DO THAT. Get up on Christmas Morning and eat a normal breakfast, have a sandwich for lunch and look forward to you Christmas Dinner. Don’t worry you will be much more in control, when you do start to eat and you will be able to really enjoy the food, the company and the day.
The morning after
The next day make sure you kick-start your metabolism by eating a hearty breakfast. Your body will thank you for it. While you are eating, smile to yourself and remember what a great time you had the night before and how you coped/survived what in the past has felt like a binge-fest.
Follow these simple rules and you will really enjoy Christmas. Now you’ve done it once, you can do it again with the knowledge that nothing bad happened – great or what.