Applying Intuitive Eating During the Holiday Season

For the many individuals who are in recovery from an eating disorder, the holiday season can be challenging in multiple ways, including family gatherings, parties, and food. Food seems to often be the focal point of the holidays, and for someone who is recuperating from abnormal eating behaviors, the overload of food can be overwhelming. Learning how to become an intuitive eater is an important part of the recovery process and can be helpful in navigating challenging situations involving food that are difficult.

Applying Intuitive Eating Principles

Intuitive eating is founded on the principles that encourage an individual to eat according to their natural hunger and fullness cues. As simple as this seems, this is something that is typically lost – in both people with and without eating disorders.

Especially for someone who has struggled with an eating disorder, such as anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating disorder, food is chaotic, and behaviors develop that are contrary to what the body would naturally want. For example, restricting food intake to the point of starvation or binge eating to the point of sickness ignore the cues that our bodies give that help us understand how to regulate our food intake.

Becoming an intuitive eater is something that must be relearned, reclaimed from eating disorder behaviors, and this is a process that occurs slowly over the recovery journey. Learning to trust your body again is not an easy feat, especially when an eating disorder has created rules over everything – from what you can eat, when you eat, how much, etc. Intuitive eating means letting go of all the food rules and learning to listen to and honor your body instead.

Intuitive Eating During the Holidays

When you learn to become an intuitive eater, you quickly find that this is a way of life – not something that is practiced for a few days or weeks. This carries into the holiday season as well.

While we might be accustomed to certain behaviors, such as restricting all day only to binge on the holiday meal in the evening, this would be counter to what are body might be needing. So how can you approach this holiday season as an intuitive eater?

Continue to feed your body according to what you are needing and wanting throughout the day. Choose foods based on what seems appetizing to you at that meal time. Taste and enjoy your food as well as the fellowship around you.

When you notice yourself becoming satisfied with what you have eaten (no matter what it might be), make the choice to stop at that point. Food will always be in your future, and practicing intuitive eating skills during the holiday season can make this time of year not only manageable, but enjoyable as well.

Community Discussion – Share Your Thoughts Here!

What do you think are some challenges of being able to eat intuitively during the holidays?

About the Author: Crystal is a Masters-level Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) with a specialty focus in eating disorders, maternal/child health and wellness, and intuitive eating. Combining clinical experience with a love of social media and writing, Crystal serves as the Director of Content and Social Media for Eating Disorder Hope/Addiction Hope, where her passion to help others find recovery and healing is integrated into each part of her work.

As a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, Crystal has dedicated her career to helping others establish a healthy relationship with food and body through her work with EDH/AH and nutrition private practice.

The opinions and views of our guest contributors are shared to provide a broad perspective of eating disorders. These are not necessarily the views of Eating Disorder Hope, but an effort to offer discussion of various issues by different concerned individuals.

We at Eating Disorder Hope understand that eating disorders result from a combination of environmental and genetic factors. If you or a loved one are suffering from an eating disorder, please know that there is hope for you, and seek immediate professional help.

Last Updated & Reviewed By: Jacquelyn Ekern, MS, LPC on November 20, 2016
Published on EatingDisorderHope.com