Mindful Eating During the Holidays, Gratitude for YOU & Cancer Dietitian Memories!
Gratitude First!
Wow, that’s a lot of pictures of me haha! But anyway, I am so grateful for all of you Cancer Dietitian followers, near and far! Cancer Services treated me to a fun and delicious “Birthday Party” in our parking lot with The Grinder coffee truck and several friends came by.
Sorry to the first few, the early birds, who I forgot to get a picture with! And to Janie, who my dietitian friends and I scared off with “poop talk” – I didn’t get a picture with her either. Picture or not, local followers or those a distance away, I am grateful for your presence, your reading, your feedback and your stories that inspire me each day.
I would love to hear from you as to your connection to Cancer Dietitian! If you don’t mind humoring me, please fill out this google form, which is short and sweet, and just asks you 2 questions:
- Your first memory about cancerdietitian.com (i.e. how did you first hear about it, or which program/topic drew you in).
- Your favorite memory of cancerdietitian.com, or favorite recipe from cancerdietitian.com.
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Mindful Eating During the Holidays
A few weeks ago I gave a talk to a survivor group regarding mindful eating during the holidays. I’m not an expert in mindful eating, but have hosted some experts before! If you missed our January 2022 webinar on mindful eating, you’ll want to check it out:
Getting Started With Mindful Eating
I thought I would give you the “keep it simple, stupid” version of my talk from the other night. First of all, you’ll want to be reminded of my take on holiday eating in general, which is that YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO OVER EAT SOMETIMES! Here’s my blog post from a few years ago:
Permission to Overeat on Thanksgiving! Plus 5 Holiday Eating Tips
As a background, the practice of mindfulness is simply being aware and in the moment. Noticing what’s going on at that moment in time.
As it applies to eating, you will pay attention to things that maybe you typically don’t notice. It might be the variety of foods in the grocery store, or considering how the food got to the shelf.
It might be slowing down and noticing the taste and texture of your food before you swallow. It might be adding some gratitude for the food, who grew it, processed it and carried it to the store for you. Or maybe who prepared the food, if you’re eating out.
The tips I shared with the group to add some mindful eating into your holidays include:
- Reflecting on any feelings, including how hungry or full you are before and after you eat.
- Sitting down to eat, and without distractions like TV, phone or radio talking.
- Serve yourself your food onto a plate, or in a bowl, rather than eating from the package.
- Spend some time being grateful for all the ways the food had been prepared for you. Where were the ingredients grown, and how many people were involved with planting, cultivating, harvesting, processing and transporting the food?
- Taste and chew your food and notice the texture and flavor.
- At holiday meals, parties, etc, choose the foods you really like, and don’t force yourself to eat the foods you aren’t interested in.
- You have permission to exit your membership of the “Clean Plate Club!” If you put something on your plate and you don’t like the taste, you don’t have to eat it! If you put something on your plate and you get full before you finish, you don’t have to eat it!
Notice that none of these tips have anything to do with WHAT foods you eat. Mindful eating is not about food choice, it is about HOW you eat. You can mindfully eat pumpkin pie and nanaimo bars (MY FAVORITE COOKIE!!) just as well as you can mindfully eat turkey and green beans.
The comments that participants made after hearing me drone on for an hour about this is simply to “slow down,” that “it’s ok to leave food,” and “eat what you want.”
With that, I will send you on your way to your Thanksgiving celebrations. May you find moments of calm, joy and laughter as you spend time with friends, family, pets, or simply with yourself.
For your entertainment, I leave you with The Holderness Family:
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
-Julie
PS My WINTER EDITION of Eat the Rainbow starts on Monday, Nov 28th. It’s not too late to sign up! Find more information and registration links at the Eat the Rainbow page!
