12 Ways to Avoid Overeating this Holiday Season

In preparation for the holiday season, I am all about educating, encouraging, and empowering you on how to enjoy your favorite holiday treats while still working towards your goals.

For many of us our number one struggle isn’t getting ourselves to the gym, it’s getting ourselves to make better nutrition choices and the holidays only magnify the struggle. We don’t believe in ourselves and our ability to control ourselves at holiday parties, so we just give in to all the temptations and try to "make it through the holiday season alive.”

Either we give in to the temptation or we restrict ourselves throughout the holidays. Regardless of which one you are, both can lead to anxiety, depression and cycles of under-eating/overeating.

The holidays are supposed to be the most jolly (yes, jolly) time of the year, and none of that sounds jolly to me!

I’m excited to tell you it’s possible to enjoy your favorite treats and continue working toward your goals. You don’t have to compromise one for the other–you can have both. You don’t need to feel guilt, regret, anxiety, depression or straight-up gross anymore!

I’m giving you all the tools you need to not only get by but succeed with confidence this holiday season. Here are my top 12 tips on how to succeed this holiday:

1. Break your all-or-nothing mentality

I’m going to be honest with you, this is how every holiday party began for me: I would walk in saying I’m not going to eat anything. And of course, my willpower didn’t last long, so I would eat one or two cookies, which then made me feel like a failure. In my head I would think, “Since I already failed, what does it matter if I eat ten more cookies?”

It was either I would eat nothing at all or everything in sight. There was no in between.

Once I “cheated,” I didn’t think there was a difference between eating two cookies or ten cookies. Either way, I “cheated.”

You need to realize it’s okay to eat a few treats. That doesn’t mean you failed, or binged or “cheated.” All it means is you allowed yourself to enjoy a few treats you love that make you happy.

2. Remind yourself the 100th bite will still taste the same as the first

When we have an all-or-nothing mentality, we can’t just stop at one cookie, or one chip, or whatever that one “bad” food might be for us. After tasting how amazing one bite is of our favorite holiday treat, our brains tell us we need to take another, and another, and another.

Well guess what? Your 100th bite won't taste any different than the first.

To avoid overindulging, enjoy a few bites, eat slowly and really take in the taste. And when your brain is telling you to eat more, remind yourself you already experienced the taste and having more of it won’t make it taste any more delicious.

3. Remind yourself it’s not the last time you will ever eat this food

Something that really helps me get away from my all-or-nothing mindset at holiday parties–especially when my brain is kicking in and tell me to eat more and more–is reminding myself it’s not the last time I will have the opportunity to eat these holiday treats.

My personal favorite is pumpkin pie, and before, when I started eating one, I had to eat 10. My mind justified it because it was my favorite and I could only eat it around the holidays.

But in reality this holiday treat would most likely be available at the holiday party I go to tomorrow, and the next weekend, and the weekend after that. This won’t be the last opportunity I would have to eat my favorite holiday treat. And, if I’m craving more tomorrow or the next day, I can go make it myself. I don’t need to eat as many as I can right now at this party to satisfy me for the rest of my life.

4. Remind yourself not to ruin a good thing

Before I started to remind myself this wasn’t the last time I would have the opportunity to enjoy all the amazing holiday treats, I would allow myself to overindulge. Again, my excuse was it’s the holidays and it’s my favorite treat. But when I would allow myself to do this, I always regretted it after.

In the moment, I was so happy and satisfied with my decision. I was allowing myself to dive into my favorite treats, so why wouldn’t I be happy? But once the last bite was taken and I finally comprehended how much I had eaten, I instantly regretted it and felt guilty for my decision.

The guilt and regret would leave me feeling unhappy at the end of every holiday party. Rather than concentrating on having fun and enjoying the people I was surrounded by, I became so focused on how much I ate, how fat it was going to make me, and how much I needed to work out the next day.

Not only did seeing my favorite holiday treats give me a jolt of anxiety, going to a holiday party made my anxiety go into hyper drive. I realized it just wasn’t worth it. The holidays are a time to be happy and holiday parties are meant to be enjoyed. I no longer wanted to associate my favorite holiday treats and holiday parties with anxiety, guilt and regret. I wanted them to be associated with enjoyment and love.

Now, when I’m at a holiday party and I’m about to dive into a big plate of all my favorite treats, I first remind myself how I feel afterwards. If I eat all of this, will I ruin a good thing? If the answer is yes, I scale back my plate because I no longer want the holiday season to be associated with negative feelings.

5. Always eat off a plate

Something I have found extremely helpful for preventing myself from overindulging is eating off a plate.

When you think about it, the party always gravitates around food. You are standing around a table filled with treats the whole night. You pick at one thing and pick at another. You lose track of how many things you have actually eaten. Mindlessly eating all night long can lead you to eating way more than you can even imagine.

Now, anything I eat at a holiday party is always off a plate. That helps me choose my portion sizes, making more aware of how much I am actually eating. Rather than picking off the plates on the table all night, I spend the night picking off my own plate.

6. Wait 30 minutes before you grab seconds

When you fill up your plate with food and then eat everything off it you’ll be tempted to instantly go fill it back up again. I always am. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, I challenge myself to wait at least 30 minutes before allowing myself to go back for seconds.

After eating delicious foods, our serotonin levels are high, we feel so happy and want to continue experiencing this happiness. Many times we allow this to take over and we instantly go back for more food, whether we are actually hungry or not.

I’m not telling you to ignore your hunger signals, but I am telling you to just take a break from eating. Allow yourself to come down from your food high, and allow your body time to register and digest the food you’ve just eaten. Generally, it takes our “fullness” hormone about 20 minutes to kick-in.

So, if you wait 30 minutes before you grab seconds, you’ll be able to think more clearly about whether or not you actually want seconds, rather than thinking impulsively and diving right back into the food.

7. Drink lots of water

Something I do while I’m waiting 30 minutes before I go for seconds is grab a glass of water. Between all the treats and maybe some holiday alcoholic beverages, I often forget to hydrate. This is the perfect reminder for me to go grab a glass of water.

At parties, it’s normal to feel like you need to have something in your hands. I’ve found even just holding a glass of water can be all I need to stop feeling like I need to continue munching.

Staying hydrated is also super helpful because it’s common for our body to confuse the feeling of hunger with thirst. Which means sometimes when you feel hungry, you may actually just be thirsty. So if you ever eat a whole plate of food and still feel hungry, this could be a false feeling. It’s not your body telling you to refill your plate, it’s your body trying to tell you to go drink a glass of water.

8. Bring a healthy dish to pass

If you are someone who struggles to avoid overindulging at holiday parties, make sure there are healthier options for you to “overindulge” in. Again, while there is nothing wrong with allowing yourself to enjoy the less-healthy options at your holiday party, if you are going to party after party, these foods just don’t make you feel like your best self.

I always like to bring at least one or two more nutrient-dense dishes to pass. These dishes are always things that still taste delicious and are super satisfying, but I know will fit into my macros a little easier than other dishes on the table.

This allows me to feel like I am treating myself more than I actually am. I’m happy and my body is happy. It’s a win-win!

9. Don’t show up hungry

For me, one of the biggest mistakes I can make is showing up to the party already hungry. Before counting macros, when I knew I had a holiday party that night, I would try to eat next to nothing during the day because I would be eating “unhealthy” foods that night. I thought if I didn’t eat anything during the day, it would make up for the foods I was going to eat that night.

But this was the worst mistake I could have made. When I arrived to the party, I was always starving. And we all know what happens you are starving: you want to eat everything in sight, no matter what it is.

Now, I always make sure I have at least one or two good, nutrient-dense meals before going to a holiday party. When I do this, I’m not starving and am able to enjoy my favorite treats without feeling the need to overeat.

10. Make it fit your macros

Counting my macros has been a huge life saver for me when it comes to successfully navigating holiday parties.

If I know I’m going to a party that will have lots of high-carb treats, I’ll focus on going a little lighter on my carbs during the day. That way, when I get to the party, I know I have room to enjoy a few treats without going over.

It also holds me accountable when selecting my portion sizes. I know I can eat two or three cookies and still be within my macros. I know if I eat five, I’ll go over.

I still get to eat the foods I love and still stay within my macros. You can’t ask for anything better than that, can you?!

Don’t know how to count your macros? I got you! Sign up for my ‘Macro Counting Made Simple’ online academy and I’ll give you all the ins and outs to macro counting (you can learn more here). You’ll know the exact number of calories, carbs, protein and fat you need to be consuming each day, helping you become more aware of the food choices you are making at your holiday parties and in your day-to-day life!

11. Eat the treats you actually want to eat

Usually what happens at these holiday parties is we categorize food as “good” or “bad”. We avoid the “bad” food and try to satisfy ourselves with eating the “good” food. But, this only causes our cravings to build and build.

After eating all the “good” food, eventually our willpower runs out and we dive into the “bad” food. So not only did we already eat a large amount of food, we then go on to eat even more food. Instead of going a little bit over our macros, we end up going way over.

Instead, just allow yourself to go straight for the holiday treats you actually want to eat. If you just allowed yourself to eat the food you wanted in the first place, you wouldn’t have been so much closer to staying within our macros.

On the other hand, when we have an all-or-nothing mentality and dive into the holiday treats, we tend to eat everything that is available to us. When you enjoy holiday treats, ask yourself if you are really enjoying the treat or not. If it’s just okay and not really worth it, don’t eat it. If it is worth it, enjoy it!

12. Don’t beat yourself up. Live your life!

The most important tip I have for you is to never beat yourself up. It’s impossible to be perfect every day, it’s impossible to perfectly hit your macros and it’s impossible to eat a perfectly clean diet. It’s not a standard I hold myself to and I want you to know it’s not a standard you need to hold yourself to either.

If you do happen to go way over your macros, it’s not the end of the word and doesn’t mean you undid all the hard work you’ve put in. When you do go over, don’t beat yourself up!

Instead forgive yourself. If you don’t, you’ll most likely revert back to your all-or-nothing mentality. You already ate “bad” one day, so why not continue to eat “bad?" Why not wait for the Monday to start over? Or even better, why not just wait until the new year to start over?

I’ll be brutally honest with you, this type of mentality will undo all the hard work you’ve put in.

If you “mess-up,” acknowledge it, forgive yourself, and just move on. Tomorrow just get right back to it and never look back. Just as one “good” meal isn’t going to make you skinny, one “bad” meal isn’t going to make you fat.

Want to learn more?

If counting your macros sounds like the best tip for you, but you don’t know anything about macro counting, check out this post where I share everything you need to know. And if you are ready to start counting your macros but have no idea what your macros should be, join my Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy and I’ll give you all the tools you need.

There you have it, my top 12 tips to help stop you from overeating this holiday season. I hope they help you navigate your holiday parties with greater confidence and success!

Which tip do you think will help you the most? Or do you have another tip? Let me know below!