Stop Overeating During the Holidays by Setting Food Intentions Somatically

When I was stuck in the restrict-binge cycle, Thanksgiving would be one of the times of the year I would allow myself to eat whatever I wanted in whatever quantity with no judgment afterward.

The interesting thing I noticed was that I never ended up eating as much as I thought I would just by giving myself permission ahead of time to eat. The relaxation I felt knowing I was going into a situation allowing myself to do whatever I wanted and needed to do supported me in feeling connected and actually able to hear my hunger and fullness cues, something that is very hard to do when you're feeling stressed and disconnected.

Just the thought of restriction can send your body into a fight or flight response. When you imagine the restriction you're going to do, the body thinks it's already living that reality. The potential famine your body perceives is about to occur will further push you to go eat to make sure you stock up to be able to last through the food scarcity you've told your body is going to happen.

You might already be setting up a plan for yourself with the holiday season coming up very soon.

This might include things like:

• You're only allowed to eat certain mentally approved foods

• You will workout before and after your holiday parties to "make up" for any of the foods you do eat

• You will weigh yourself every morning to make sure your weight isn't changing "too much"

• You will make your own food and bring it with you with the ingredients you've been told are "healthy" for you regardless of bodily feedback

This list could go on and on. And I know it so well because I used to be there too. And, at the time I had no idea I was setting myself up to have a binge later by all the restrictions and rules I was putting on myself.

To change what plays out with food during the holidays, the mind needs to be listened to less and the body needs to be listened to more. Those rules and regulations may still be bopping around in your mind during the holidays and you can use their presence as a reminder to drop into your body.

As this holiday season ramps up, now is a time to reflect somatically on:

How do you want to feel in your body during this time of the year?

Let's say what comes up for you is that you want to feel light in your body this holiday season. With this somatic food intention, you can now check in with yourself every time you have a decision to make. So when you're deciding what to eat at a party you can slow down and check in and ask yourself, would eating this food support me in feeling light? Would not eating this food support me in feeling light? And, if the food wouldn't support you in feeling light, would the experience of not trying a new food feel so heavy in your body that actually having a bite of it would support you in feeling light emotionally?

As you can see, there are a lot of layers you can go through here. You can decide what part of you wants to feel light. In that moment, do you want physical lightness? Emotional lightness? Mental lightness? Spiritual lightness? Some decisions may support you in feeling light in one area and not in another and that is alright. There literally is no right or wrong choice to make. You get to give yourself the experience of choice though, which can be incredibly healing. When you've maybe approached the holidays with a lack of choice where it felt like your rules around your food and body increased, more choice can create the opportunity to deepen into connection with your body to decide for yourself what is going to feel best to you based on the feedback you get from your body. This can be an empowering experience.

Another example of this can be an intention to stay connected to yourself. So when you're at a party worrying about what to eat or how you look, you can take a moment to slow down and notice are these worries pushing you further away from yourself and others or bringing you into closer relationship? Or will pushing yourself to move your body the day after a party where you stayed up late and you're exhausted bring you into closer relationship with yourself or further away?

Only you will know what the answers are to these questions. And these questions can be asked moment by moment. Your body is a constantly shifting and changing thing. What supports you in one circumstance is going to be entirely different in another. So take a minute right now and write down 1-3 intentions for this holiday season focusing on how you want to feel in your body. This can be your guiding light to begin to shift how you show up for you during the holidays being guided by your body instead of your mind.