You’ve recently lost weight and look great. Are you looking forward to your family holiday dinner or dreading it?
Family holiday dinners are a time of joy but sometimes anxiety. Along with the yummy food, festive decorations and happy chatter come some unpleasant interactions. If you have been doing fabulously well on your new eating plan, you may still be a little concerned when thrown in amongst your family. Kind of like peer-pressure on steroids.
As they gorge on every morsel of food, drink and sweet and you mindfully choose your favorites and slowly savor each bite, comments may be made about how you eat now. Or other not so nice remarks about you, your weight or your clothes.
I have several clients who have expressed concern over the holiday family dinner and either pressure they assume they will get from family to eat all of the typical holiday fare or pressure not to eat the “bad” food.
Here is some advice to get through the holiday meal as peacefully as possible:
- Don’t call their attention to the weight you lost, the new clothes you have or even how you did it UNLESS someone specifically asks you. At this type of event, weight loss is rarely what they want to discuss.
- Understand that they are jealous and it is their insecurity talking. Don’t take it personally. It really is their issue.
- If they comment on the foods you’re choosing, explain how much better you’ll feel, how much energy you’ll have and THAT’S why you choose those foods.
- Play the broken record technique. If the unkind comments continue, smile and say, “energy!”
- If you choose a piece of pie and hear someone say you’re not allowed dessert, you can calmly remind them all foods are allowed in your healthy lifestyle.
- If well-meaning relatives urge you to eat foods you prefer not to eat, rather than state you can’t eat them, say you choose to eat other foods right now that make your body feel great, but thanks.
Seeing a family member who was previously heavy, return to a family dinner as a thinner, more energetic person is threatening to some, especially the ones who secretly want to look and feel the same way. Don’t make it about you or your weight loss but about the fun, family and friendships.
Happy holidays to all and savor each bite…