If you consider yourself a health conscious individual, the holiday season may fill you with a bit of anxiety and stress. While there is much to celebrate and enjoy, you may worry about some of the uncomfortable food-related situations that you may face at family gatherings, holiday parties or work events. For example:
- Being told that you eat "too healthy."
- Feeling like you are judged for your eating habits or your body image.
- Worry about emotional/stress eating.
- Fear of overeating/overindulging.
- Having to turn down food that you don't like/can't eat.
As an advocate of intuitive eating, consider the following "Intuitive Eating Holiday Bill of Rights" to help you feel more at ease when you are at or around the food table.
The following was taken directly from Intuitiveeating.org.
- You have the right to savor your meal, without cajoling or judgment, and without discussion of calories eaten or the amount of exercise needed to burn off said calories.
- You have the right to enjoy second servings without apology.
- You have the right to honor your fullness, even if that means saying “no thank you” to dessert or a second helping of food.
- It is not your responsibility to make someone happy by overeating, even if it took hours to prepare a specialty holiday dish.
- You have the right to say, “No thank you,” without explanation, when offered more food.
- You have the right to stick to your original answer of “no”, even if you are asked multiple times. Just calmly and politely repeat “No, thank you, really.”
- You have the right to eat pumpkin pie for breakfast.
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