November/December 2004 Living Now
Stay On Track During the Holidays!
7 tips to eating healthy, despite the intense social pressure not to!

by Lori Lipinski, C.N.C.

So you’re committed to taking care of your body and providing it with nutritious foods, but what happens when the holiday season approaches and you are bombarded with boxes of specialty chocolates, candy canes, cakes, pies, and holiday cookies? During the holidays it seems nearly impossible to avoid people who are trying to push junk food on you, especially when celebrating the holidays with family! So what do you do?

If you decide to give in to the intense social pressure to eat junk food during the holidays, you may suffer the consequences, especially if you are used to eating healthy. Almost all of my clients who really work hard at eliminating processed junk foods from their diet are amazed at how sensitive they become to it when they haven’t eaten it for a while. You may have experienced this before, especially when it comes to eating sweets that your body is no longer used to. Sure, "a little bit won’t kill you", but that innocent piece of pie or holiday cookie may give you a headache, possibly nausea or indigestion, it could even make you feel anxious, irritable or depressed, or most likely leave you feeling completely wiped out for the rest of the evening.

My clients often wonder why they are now so sensitive to the junk that they got away with eating for so many years without any immediate reaction. Well, it’s kinda like smoking. Let’s say you smoked for 20 years and then after quitting for 6 months, you took a puff of a cigarette. You’d probably cough, and maybe even feel a little light-headed or dizzy. This is your body’s way of reacting to the cigarette, in the same way it reacts to junk food. So for the typical American who’s diet mainly consists of processed foods, pigging out on junk food during the holidays probably won’t make them feel any different than they normally do throughout the rest of the year. But if you usually try to avoid junk food, indulging in it while celebrating the holidays with your family may leave you feeling miserable and ruin your holiday spirit.

So here are 7 Tips to Help You Eat Healthy During the Holidays - Despite the Intense Social Pressure Not To!

  1. Bring a Healthy Dish to Pass - This is one way to ensure you'll have something healthy to eat, while sharing something nutritious with your family. Bring a hearty dish that you can fill up on without having to eat so much of the other stuff. If you're still tempted by desserts or feel the pressure to join others in eating them, bring a healthy dessert as well. Naturally sweetened cookies are perfect for sharing and allow you to satisfy your taste for sweets while still being part of the group. (Check out www.makingthetransition.com for some tasty recipes!)
  2. Have the Party at Your House - This is the best way to ensure that you'll have something healthy to eat while celebrating the holidays with your friends and family. Hosting a party gives you a little more control over what kind of foods will be served. Suggest that your guests bring salads or some of the healthier family favorites. And you can provide the real stuff like homemade salad dressing, real butter, whole grain breads, and even an organic turkey- with real gravy! Now some may be thinking why should I spend the extra time and money to provide better quality foods when most of my guests wouldn't even appreciate it? First of all, you still have to eat. And secondly, this could actually be the first time some of your guests have ever had good nutritious foods. Once they taste what real food is supposed to taste like, you may even get a few converts!
  3. Arrive Later - What do you do when you get invited to the kind of holiday party where there may not be any healthy food choices at all, nor the opportunity to bring any? Packing your own healthy plate of food or skipping the meal and sitting there while everyone else eats may not be such good ideas. You may want to just show up after the meal. Without lying or making up excuses, simply tell the host that you won't be able to make it for dinner, but you'd love to come and visit with everyone afterward.
  4. Eat Before You Go - A common strategy for attacking a holiday meal is to skip breakfast and lunch, this way when the party gets started there is plenty of room to indulge in an abundance of junk food for the rest of the day. This way of thinking doesn't really work for someone who is trying to avoid eating foods that are harmful to the body. Instead, it would make more sense to start off the day with a balanced, hearty breakfast. Make sure that you eat a protein based breakfast balanced with natural carbohydrates and plenty of good fats. Also, to avoid having to eat more compromised foods than you'd like to, eat a good nutritious meal before you leave for the party.
  5. Learn to Say No - All right, so you've made it through dinner doing your best to make the healthiest choices possible, but now here comes Aunt Betty peddling her famous Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake. Even if you're not tempted by the dessert, how do you say no to someone who simply won't take no for an answer? Well, you just say no. If you make up excuses like "Not now, I'm too full"- people will continue trying to push their desserts on you for the rest of the night. Get in the habit of saying "No thanks, I don't eat dessert"- without feeling the need to explain yourself. At first you will be met with some resistance, but eventually people will get the point and stop asking you.
  6. Avoid Preaching - It's hard to watch people you care about knowingly and unknowingly eat foods that are harmful to their health. But, the quickest way to alienate yourself from your family during a holiday meal is to tell them everything wrong with the foods they're eating. You figure if they only knew. But if they really wanted to know, they'd ask you. By now your family has probably figured out that you have an interest or passion for health and nutrition, so if they really want to engage you in that topic of conversation, they will. Then by all means let them know!
  7. Take the Focus Off of Food - Make celebrating the holidays with your family and friends more fun and meaningful than unconsciously grazing on a bunch of nutrient depleted junk food. Bring some games that get everyone involved. Plan activities for the kids, such as making ornaments or their own special stocking. Or get out the old family photo albums and tell stories as you reminisce about the good times you've shared together- that didn't revolve around food!

Have a healthy, happy holiday season!

Lori Lipinski is a Certified Nutritional Consultant, lecturer, and writer whose articles have been published in numerous national and international health journals. Her feature column "Making the Transition" in the Wise Traditions Journal has helped thousands of people all over the world make the transition! Lori has recently moved to the Portland area and is available for nutritional counseling at Common Ground Wellness Center, where she will be offering her popular series of lectures "Making the Transition" to help people transition away from fake food toward REAL food. (503-754-5583 www.makingthetransition.com.