For many of us, visits with family and friends are the best part of the holiday season. For those of us attempting to maintain a healthy weight or stick to a specific eating plan, traveling or staying in someone else’s home can present challenges. Here are a few tips for coping with temptation while on unfamiliar turf.
First, the key to arriving at your destination feeling healthy and energized, rather than bloated, exhausted, or queasy, is planning ahead. Be sure to pack plenty of healthy snacks and beverages, rather than counting on being able to find what you need along the way. Aim for a good mix of high quality protein, good carbs, and healthy fats. Dried or fresh fruits and veggies, nuts, jerky, cheese sticks, and even vacuum-packed pouches of tuna or salmon are all great choices. Be aware of your surroundings when choosing more aromatic snacks; opening a tuna pouch on a crowded airplane probably won’t win you any awards from either your fellow passengers or the cabin crew. Don’t forget to drink plenty of water, and avoid caffeinated beverages like coffee, tea, and soda. Rather than give you an energy boost, they can leave you feeling jittery and dehydrated.
Once you’ve arrived at your destination, the question becomes how to avoid being “that guest,” the one who needs special foods prepared just for them and won’t partake of family favorites and traditional holiday dishes. An easy way to deal with this is to offer to purchase groceries and cook for your hosts. Presiding over a holiday celebration and housing out-of-town guests involves a tremendous amount of work, and can be exhausting. Your hosts may protest a bit, but having meal preparation chores taken care of by someone else will probably feel like a huge relief. If they insist on preparing some meals, opt to cook dinners, since breakfast and lunch can usually be more easily adapted to different dietary requirements.
So how do you gracefully refuse food that doesn’t agree with you, especially when prepared by loving hands? The best approach is absolute kindness coupled with complete candor. “I really love your toffee bars, and I am so sorry to miss out. I stopped eating sugar/gluten/dairy/nuts a few months ago, and I feel so much better now” really works. People understand eating a special diet for medical reasons, and while they may privately feel like you’re embracing something strange or faddish, it’s hard to argue with results. No need to delve to deeply into details, though; no matter how dear you are, no one wants to hear exactly how your irritable bowel symptoms have resolved themselves on your new plan.
Finally, if and when you indulge, a few cookies aren’t the end of the world. Just be purposeful about gently bringing yourself back to your health goals. It might be a good time to go for a walk, take the kids sledding, or enjoy some other time outside to refocus.
Making the time spent with loved ones the center of the holiday gathering, rather than the over-consumption of certain dishes and desserts, can take the focus off what everyone is or isn’t eating. As an added benefit, you can start the new year feeling energized.
-Sarah Anderson, JETPUBS Inc.