Holidays and Food

Do you ever find it challenging to eat just enough and not too much or too little during the holidays? If you're like many people I know - eating right can be pretty tough during the holidays when all kinds of festivities are going on all around you. I am sure if you pick up almost any magazine in the checkout line at the grocery store you can find tips on how to eat right during the holidays. There are many ideas, techniques, and strategies out there. Here's mine:

It's called conscious eating, and the concept is explained in depth in the book Conscious Eating by Gabriel Cousens, M.D. His idea is that the difficulty in maintaining a healthy diet is not the food, but rather our emotional and mental relationship to food because for many people the act of eating and what you eat is a source of security and comfort, a way to deal with difficult feelings, stress, tension and painful things in their lives. Cousens describes conscious eating as an art, an approach to eating that involves awareness of yourself - your nutritional and emotional needs - and developing ways to meet both.

The art of conscious eating can be cultivated by:

• Paying attention to and trusting your body's messages about hunger and thirst
• Listening to your inner wisdom on how you feel physically, emotionally and mentally and taking the steps to meet those needs.
  
• Knowing when you are hungry and thirsty and only eating and drinking at those times.
• Knowing when you are not hungry or thirsty, and not eating during those times. Instead, figure out what you really need and do that.
  
• Learning how to eat only the right amount of food that energizes and enhances your life by paying attention how to feel as you eat and after you eat.
• Eating regularly, knowing the length of time it takes between meals to become hungry again and spacing your meals accordingly.

So, how can conscious eating help you stay healthy during the holiday season? Well keep in mind that for most of us the holiday brings extra stress0rs - whether it's just a matter of being extra busy and tired from doing so much, traveling, old family patterns that get to us every time, loneliness or any other emotional response we have to this highly charged time of year. There can be a lot of complicated factors that subconsciously lead us to eating and drinking, even when we aren't hungry or thirsty.

So every time you go to eat or drink something, do a quick check in. Am I hungry or thirsty? Yes - great! No? Why am I reaching for this food or drink? What do I need? Rest, relaxation, to say something to someone, a good cry, to celebrate and enjoy the moment? Whatever is going on under the surface - find out what it is and then decide if you really want to eat that food or if something else would satisfy you better.