Going Home for the Holidays? How to Survive Without Gaining!

Hey there it’s Dr. Angela here, and guess where I am this weekend?

I’m home in Kansas, visiting my mother and brother. My sister and her daughter are here too. In a way, we are all having an early Christmas together, and I’m noticing some things are happening that are making it a bit more challenging to stay on track. I wanted let you know how I’m handling it, and hopefully this can help you if you are going to be visiting family over the holidays.

If you don’t know me I’m a medical doctor specializing in weight loss, and I’m the creator of Journey Beyond Weight Loss, an online course and membership site designed to help people lose weight and keep it off.

So when you go home for the holidays, you will be confronted with cues and situations that are associated with food. Holiday traditions, like in my case this weekend, my sister and her daughter are decorating gingerbread cookies. There may be traditions like this that you are used to during the holidays, and it may be very tempting to indulge in a treat.

Another thing that happens: you may notice old patterns of relationships showing up that may cause some emotional distress, and it may be a bit more challenging to use more evolved coping skills than eating refined foods or drinking alcohol.

Here are some tips to help you get through the holidays with family.

1. Be very compassionate with yourself.  You’re not in your normal environment, and even though it’s awesome to see family, it’s difficult too. It’s easy to revert back into old patterns of relating that might not be very evolved. Do your best to name your feelings and give yourself room to feel them without judgment.

2. Try to keep as much of your normal routine as possible. Go to bed and wake up at the same time as usual. If exercise is a normal part of your routine, do your best to get your exercise in.

3. Eat regular meals. I’m noticing that in my family, mealtimes are pretty sporadic, so I’m having to make sure that I’m eating regularly and I’m eating good nutritious food. Yesterday I didn’t do that and I ended up feeling really irritable by the end of the day. Not fun for anyone!!

4. Make a decision ahead of time about what you will and will not eat or drink for the holiday meals.  Have a splurge meal or two if you want, but then go right back to normal eating after that. If you have a brain that’s particularly sensitive to sugar or flour products, be especially careful. Many of my patients decide that triggering their sensitive brain with ‘just a little’ isn’t worth it.

5. Be super careful with alcohol. I talked about alcohol last week, so go watch that video if you haven’t seen it yet.

6. The most important thing is to make sure you are taking care of yourself first. You can’t show up for others if you’re not taking care of yourself. You’ll just be irritable and annoying, as I was last night!

Let me know in the comments what your plans are for the holiday season, and how you plan to handle any holiday land mines… and know that I’m rooting for your success!

And if you haven’t already, be sure to sign up for my FREE guide, Five Dirty Little Secrets of the Food Industry. It will help you know what the food industry is up to so you can avoid their little tricks.

I’ll see you next week!

To Your Health, Dr. Angela