The best Christmas present you can give yourself
Enjoy the fucking food
Pretty self explanatory, but surprisingly hard to do, thanks to diet culture’s endless messaging around Christmas weight gain. Society treats eating around Christmas time as one big nationwide ‘cheat day’, that we will later have to pay the price for. How can anyone possibly enjoy eating anything at Christmas, when we’re warned that as soon as Boxing Day comes to a close, we’ll be laden with guilt and pressured with various tips and tricks to undo whatever eating we’ve done? It is impossible to be in the present moment whilst your brain whirs with negative, self-punishing thoughts. I’m here to tell you that you have permission to block that shit out. You don’t have to fucking undo anything. Christmas can be weird, complicated and hard to enjoy at the best of times, you deserve to take all the simple pleasures you can. Eat the chocolates, eat the dinner with all the trimmings, eat whatever you want, and not just because it’s Christmas, but because you’re a human being and you need food every single day, regardless of how much you ate the day before or the day after.
Relax, your body is a genius
After you’ve eaten all the joyous festive foods you wish, you do not need to change a thing. It is so normal to eat a bit, or even a lot, more than you would normally during Christmas. Food plays such a big part in the festive celebrations, and despite what diet culture tells us, food doesn’t just have to be solely consumed out of intense physical hunger, it can, and should, also be eaten out of enjoyment. We’ve been taught to feel shame when we eat more than usual. We’ve learnt that eating beyond what is absolutely necessary is gluttonous and wrong. In reality, giving yourself permission to eat seconds, thirds, or desserts because you want to, rather than needing to, is an important component in having a healthy and intuitive relationship with food. Diet culture likes to convince us that our bodies are stupid. It tricks us into thinking that anything we eat beyond the bare minimum will automatically be stored as fat, and result in dreaded weight gain. Whilst weight gain is not inherently bad, this narrative is completely false. Your body is so smart, and can easily handle some extra food every now and again. When we eat more, our metabolism just naturally speeds up (yes, it’s true, there’s no need for a ‘metabolic boosting juice cleanse’, your body usually just needs more fuel), meaning the body uses up a bit more energy for everyday biochemical processes, such as digestion (well done, you will shit with more fervour), and temperature regulation (you’ll feel slightly hotter than normal). It is physically impossible for a few days of increased intake to change your body. Literally impossible. Everybody’s weight fluctuates up and down slightly within their own set ranges from day to day, week to week and month to month. Micro-managing what you eat is a trick handed to you by diet culture, to keep you fixated and distracted by shit that doesn’t matter. Step into Christmas (wink wink) with the full knowledge that you can enjoy all the foodie festivities with gay abandon - and nothing bad will happen!
Beware of “Last Supper” mentality
I genuinely think that the reason a lot of people tend to eat way beyond comfortable fullness at Christmas time, is because diet culture shames them for eating freely during the remaining 364 days of the year, so they treat Christmas like a “last supper”. A ‘save-up’ and ‘make-up’ mentality is often adopted; restricting their food pre-Christmas Day feast, go wild on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and then restricting their diet yet again post-Christmas to compensate. Essentially, wide swathes of the population engage in textbook binge-restrict cycles. What you need to hold in mind, is that Christmas Day is not your last chance to eat satisfying food. You should feel satisfied and nourished every day of your life. Whilst it may feel like your one opportunity to eat freely before the onslaught of New Year diets, remember what a restrictive approach to food and your body actually gives you; increased anxiety, hyper-fixation on appearance and intensified insecurities in the long run.
Toxic comments are NOT your responsibility
Along with the increased freedom around eating habits, comes an increased need to apologise for said eating habits. Family members often seem to think they need to constantly self-deprecate and self-scold in reparation for allowing themselves to enjoy food. “Oh I am being so greedy”, “Take those potatoes away from me!”, and “Oh god, well that’s the diet out the window!”, are common dinner table comments. Before even getting to the criminal act of eating food they like, some have the compulsion to apologise in advance, with an Auntie or Uncle announcing how “good” or “bad” they’ve been in preparation for the festive period, how they’ve artfully “saved themselves” for the big Christmas dinner, or which diets and exercise regimes they have scoped out for the New Year…Now, first and foremost: those who feel the need to justify the shape of their bodies or the food that they eat, are simply fellow victims of diet culture, who have been bombarded with the same toxic messaging as the rest of us. These individuals are clearly insecure. It is key to remind yourself that not only do these insecurities say nothing about you or your body, but more importantly, they are not your fucking problem. Of course it can be triggering, of course it can spark unhelpful negative thoughts, but you have the power to choose not to engage. Does it really make sense to modify your behaviour based on someone else’s lack of self-esteem? Me thinks not. Whilst you can try to change the conversation, or offer a counter argument if you feel inclined to do so, realistically, you shouldn’t have to waste your Christmas navigating and challenging family members who are invested in diet culture. So my advice is to simply say to yourself “Poor them, living under the grip of diet culture sucks” and tuck into your Lindt Santa's and stuffing without a care in the world.
Your body doesn’t care what they’re eating
Eyes on your own plate! The Christmas dinner table can be a rife breeding ground for comparison. It’s all too easy to look across the table and analyse the amount of food on everyone else’s plate, and second-guess your own portion as you do. Just like the diet culture-driven comments are not your problem, neither is the size of your Mum’s, Brother’s or Uncle’s Christmas dinner serving. Different bodies have different needs, and comparing your food intake to someone else’s, is like a dog comparing their food intake to a cat - it doesn’t make sense. Your body doesn’t gain weight as a result of someone next to you eating less. In fact your body doesn’t give a fuck about what anyone is eating, other than you. If you’re trying to better your relationship with food and your body, it can be hard seeing your nearest and dearest allowing themselves pathetic portions, but as I said previously, you can choose to ultimately live the life you want to live, regardless of how those around you decide to live their lives. If you want to restrict yourself to a single helping of stuffing, despite wanting a second, just because your sister did so, then you go ahead, but you cannot whole-heartedly enjoy your Christmas Day, or any other day to be frank, when you’re not fully satiated.
Sending love to all of you this Chrimbo, it’s a weird and pressured time. Please don’t worry if you’re feeling a bit flat and shitty, but remember; denying yourself the simple pleasures of food won’t make you feel any better.
