When it comes to holiday food and eating all bets are off. We diet; we starve ourselves in advance of this the biggest food season of the year so we can stuff ourselves to the point of nearly bursting from our skin. When it’s all over after New Year’s Eve, we create a list of resolutions to go on a diet and vow to never do it again. Losing weight is one of the most popular resolutions every year.

I know this because I used to be the queen of holiday eating and dieting afterward. I would make all of the traditional holiday recipes every year. It would start when I prepared the huge old-style Thanksgiving meal; it would move on to making holiday cookies and an abundance of treats for parties, friends and relatives every year and end with a huge Christmas dinner.

I would nibble while I was baking and then at every chance, eat until I was so stuffed that moving away from the table was an effort. Sound familiar? Afterward, I was miserable and frustrated with myself and made a promise that I would never do that again. Of course, that was a lie! After it was all over, I would make a resolution to lose all of the weight I had spent a month gaining.

How did I get off the merry–go-round of starvation and stuffing during the holiday season? It wasn’t easy, but I finally figured it out. Because the whole idea of modern day Thanksgiving and Christmas has been and is an over-abundance of food, parties and celebrations, I had to be creative.

I didn’t go off the deep end like Marie Baron did in Everybody Loves Raymond and make a soy turkey with dry vegetables. What I've done is very practical and enjoyable for my family and me.

I started the change with holiday parties. I enjoyed myself, but I took smaller portions and ate fewer sweets. At home, I revamped my Thanksgiving and holiday recipes. Next, I decided to pare down the holiday menu. Because I’ve been cooking since I was about 10, that wasn’t hard for me to do.

Making a smaller menu made cooking for the holidays easier on me and I wasn’t left with weeks of leftovers. I modified the recipes to include only wholesome ingredients, the food tasted the same but it had better, healthier ingredients. Because I changed the way I ate, my desire for sweets was less so making fewer then eventually small, individual desserts wasn’t a problem at all.

Another great way to stop the madness is to eat smaller portions of everything. Don’t deprive yourself, that always backfires. You’ll end up binging and feel miserable again. I found that if I put appetizer-sized portions of everything on my plate, I enjoy the meal much more. The next step is to use a smaller sized plate so it appears filled (a little mind trick I learned years ago). The third is a bit tricky and that is to pay attention to how you feel. What I mean is notice when you are no longer hungry, be aware of when your stomach is satisfied.

One of the biggest problems that people who overeat have (I know I did and was this) is to be otherwise involved while you are eating. You’re either watching television, talking through the entire meal, thinking about what you have to do when you’re finished eating, or going over all of the things that you did during the day. We never notice that we’re eating and when we are satisfied. We eat unconsciously and that is how we end up overeating, overweight and unhappy.
Another problem you have to overcome is the “clean your plate” syndrome. My mother used the old adage; “there are kids starving in some foreign country” so clean your plate. Even though I didn’t want any more to eat, I was made to eat it all. The rest is history.

I spent all of my young and mid-adult years overweight and attempting every diet imaginable. My attitude, especially around the holidays, was that I would make an internal promise to watch what I ate. I associated fun during the holidays as all of the great food I would have. Then when the first holiday party came, it was all downhill after that. I would think, “well I messed up my plan, why bother, I’ll just have fun til the holiday season is over and then I will go on a diet”, what a bad idea!

The key for a change this big is to be gentle with yourself, be practical and begin to enjoy the real meaning of the holidays. Be thankful for your blessings, create holiday memories that surround the love of being with your family and friends. Start to retrain your mind to put emphasis on the fun and memorable times during the holidays, and take the emphasis off of food.

Putting less importance on eating and more significance on your happiness is the best way to make the holidays a joyful and enjoyable time in your life instead of the dreaded “fat” time of the year. Rather than diet, create a new lifestyle so that the holidays are something that you look forward to, not because of the food, but because of the feelings of joy.

The holiday season that we know and love wasn’t originally created around food. It was created to be thankful for family and friends and to give from our heart. That all sounds great, but that doesn’t change the situation we are all faced with when it comes to the tons of food around every corner and the many parties that we’re invited to.

Being positive that you can overcome the programming in your mind means that the holidays are not about eating until it hurts, gaining weight, being miserable and feeling out of control. You can change your thoughts and lifelong self-defeating thinking habits to enjoy the true meaning of this time of the year.

Author's Bio: 

Laura owns a business You're The Best which is focused on her expertise professional and creative writing. She is a mom and grandmother who has faced innumerable weight issues that over time she has managed to overcome and enjoys sharing the secrets of losing weight naturally and to help those who are faced with lifelong weight issues who want to lose weight a lifestyle change focused on whole, healthy food and fun activities.