6 Tips to Control Emotional Eating During the Holidays

6 Tips to Control Emotional Eating During the Holidays 

How do you view the holiday season?  Is it a joyful time for you, or is it a season that you dread because your eating habits seem out of control?  Here are some tips to help you overcome emotional eating during the holidays. 

1)    Create your Quiet Space!  Take time to be quiet, meditate, and rest your mind and heart. Allow God to take you to the “green pastures” so you will be refreshed and ready for the day.  This one tip alone can help keep you from eating from stress and exhaustion, two common triggers for emotional eating.

2)    Say No!   There are many social opportunities during the holidays.  Be very intentional about the things you choose to do.  Who are the people you really want to spend time with this year?  What about ministry opportunities?  Say yes to your top priorities and don’t allow guilt to cause you to overburden yourself.

3)    Practice Self-Care!  I can’t emphasize this enough.  I define self-care as those habits and practices that help you be the very best you can be. What self-care practices do you have in place now?  Don’t neglect them because you have an overly crowded schedule.

4)    Prepare for a Healthy Holiday!  Accept the fact that there will be a lot of food around you.  People have such good hearts during this season and want to bless you with their favorite homemade goodies.  Keep a good stock of healthy snacks and foods at work and at home so you will have choices.  If you have put these other principles into place, making healthy choices will be so much easier because you’re not exhausted and stressed from doing too much.

5)    Reject Perfectionism!  Does the house really have to be perfectly cleaned, perfectly decorated, all the presents matching with professionally decorated trimmings?  Your family and friends really just want you!  Reject the idea that everything has to be perfect for the season and enjoy just being together.

6)    Don’t go into Debt!  There can be so much pressure during the holidays to buy gifts.  If it’s not in your budget, don’t start charging presents on credit cards.  You’ll enter the New Year with the added stress of having to pay the debt and more than likely the people you bought the gifts for will have already forgotten what you bought them. 

These principles may not seem like they have much to do with overeating.  But if you’re an emotional eater, stress, exhaustion, and depression are just a few of the triggers for overindulgence in food.  Use these principles to begin renewing your mind and creating permanent habits that will change you on the inside first.  Then the outside changes you desire will happen without another diet, without packaged and proportioned food, and without pills!  And you will be truly free!