The holidays are nearly here and with holidays comes a lot of food. Some of us cannot wait to chow down on some of our families’ famous recipes and some of us may be dreading these days. Worrying dishes won’t follow the restrictions of our diets and deciding ahead of time that we don’t need to eat.

I can only imagine the burden that comes with the deep concern and potential anxiety, so let’s talk this through. As a reminder, I’m not a doctor, just a girl who loves to talk food and food positivity. As you may have read in the intro post, I too have struggled with dieting restrictions. It can be hard and discouraging. It can also be something we don’t even notice about ourselves.

Let’s sit, connect, and chat about some coping mechanisms for the holidays when you’re living in diet culture. There are some diets that pressure you to “tough through the holiday” or push you to “bring your prepped foods to gatherings”. If this is due to allergy, I get it may be easier to bring some of your own food. However, excluding yourself from celebratory events, like holidays may keep you on the diet, but it won’t benefit your emotions.

Instead of having negative associations with the holiday and your restrictive eating, try to remind yourself that some holidays are only 24 hours. I realize that there are many that are longer than 24 hours. If you celebrate holidays that extend 24 hours, try to break it up into 24 hour increments. We have so many 24-hour increments in our lives, that holidays only account for a very small amount.

Try to allow yourself some grace during these times. Many times, diet culture surrounds our need to control over ourselves. I get it, I really do. This means that you hold the control on what you choose to eat. Try for 1 daily meal to be present with your family. This doesn’t mean you must gorge and over eat. But it means, you can decide that a successful holiday meal is that special meal with your family and partaking in a capacity you feel comfortable with.

We hold the power of how we view success. This means that we can update it to allow for holiday food inclusion.